by Amy Briggs
I tried to prevent any tears from falling as I entered the house, way earlier than Flynn and Jacinda were expecting me.
“What are you doing home already? Is everything okay?” Jacinda asked kindly.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I just wanted to come home, that’s all,” I lied.
“That doesn’t sound like you,” Flynn interjected.
“Why does everyone suddenly think they know me so well? I’ve been here for a summer. That’s it,” I snapped at him.
“Whoa, what’s really going on here? Did you two have a fight?” he asked.
“No, we didn’t have a fight. He’s not my boyfriend. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Maybe just one more, and you can convince yourself that’s true,” he said matter-of-factly.
Exasperated, and stunned by the truth in his statement, I stormed off to my room. Even though I wasn’t leaving for another two weeks, I started to pack my things. I’d gotten way too comfortable in a life that wasn’t really mine. I was going to have to go back to my shitty life back in Denver soon, and I wasn’t sure what was bothering me more. Realizing what I had here, and admitting how much it was going to hurt leaving it behind, or falling in love with someone who would never love me the same way. I heard a soft knock at my door, interrupting my thoughts.
“Fallon, it’s me, Jacinda. Can I come in?”
I wanted to say no, but I didn’t. “Yeah, come on in.” I sighed and sat down on my bed.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. But summer is almost over, so it’s time to start getting ready.”
“Do you want to go back to Denver?” Her voice was so sweet, almost soothing. It calmed me, and I hesitated to answer.
“Of course I do,” I lied, yet again.
“Is that really the truth, Fallon? You can tell me. It can be our secret.”
I dropped my face into my hands and started to cry. I felt so stupid for the things I said to Everett, for forgetting that this wasn’t real life; it was just a vacation from mine.
“No. No, I don’t want to go back,” I finally admitted through the tears.
She pulled me into a hug, and I let it all out. I cried for all the stupid decisions that I’d made in my life. For the laziness and lack of motivation that led me to even need a summer away, and I cried for the fact that I was going to lose it all in a matter of days.
“Fallon, listen to me.” She held me out so she could look me in the face. “You don’t have to go. This can be your new life, if you want it to be. Even if it’s not forever, it can be for as long as you want. You don’t have to decide that anything is final, do you understand that?”
It hadn’t really occurred to me, honestly, that I could just stay a little bit longer. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing has to be final. If you want to stay and work for Wyatt, the job is yours. If you want to stay and live with us, or get your own place, you can do that too. You can even stay and be with Everett, if that’s what you want.”
Oh Everett. I hurt him so badly, he’d never forgive me for turning on him like I did.
“But what if I just fuck it up like I did back home? Then what?” I asked.
“What if you don’t?”
Her question gave me pause. Not fucking things up hadn’t occurred to me either. I was so used to ruining everything good, that the possibility that it wouldn’t happen never even crossed my mind.
“Do you think I’d just disappoint my mom even more if I didn’t come home?”
“You mean, do I think that your mom would be upset that you got a job, and found a lovely young man with his shit together?” She rephrased my question, making me smile.
“Oh, Jacinda. I don’t think that Everett will ever forgive how cold I was to him tonight.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she replied.
“What makes you say that?”
“He’s downstairs, waiting to see you.”
Chapter 12 - Everett
I left, then pulled over to the side of the road and punched my steering wheel until my hand hurt, before I turned my truck around went back. I wasn’t going to lose her. Not without a fight. Fuck that. She was everything I needed in my life. She was funny and beautiful, and smart. So much fucking smarter than she ever gave herself credit for. When I knocked on the door, Flynn answered.
“Hey brother, how’s it going?” he asked, obviously knowing it was going shitty.
“I’ve had better nights. Can I talk to her?”
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure what happened, Flynn. We were having a picnic down at the lake, and she was like, ‘I’m going back to Denver, so we can’t see each other anymore.’ It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“You guys are way more than friends, aren’t you?”
I felt like I was talking to her dad, and not my friend. But honesty was going to be the only thing that worked here. “I’m in love with her, Flynn. She’s the one. She can’t go back to Denver.”
A grin spread across his face, and he opened the door wider for me to enter.
“Come on in.”
“I’ll go talk to her.” Jacinda got up and went upstairs to Fallon’s room.
“So, you’re in love with my cousin,” Flynn said, in a fatherly voice now.
“Uh, yeah. I am. I didn’t mean for it to happen, we just…”
“I’m just giving you shit, Everett,” he interrupted me. “I figured this would happen, once you two started spending so much time together. Does she know how you feel?”
“I didn’t get a chance to tell her. She broke things off before I could ask her not to go.”
“I think she’s just scared, man. She’s taken the hard road, somewhat her own doing, but also, sometimes people just get lost along the way. She’s tasted the good life, and I think she’s afraid she doesn’t deserve it. You can convince her she does,” he assured me.
Jacinda came down the stairs, and behind her, walking slowly, was Fallon. She looked like she’d been crying, her eyes had a reddish hue, and her cheeks were swollen. I had to resist the urge to sweep her into my arms.
“Hi, Everett,” she said quietly when she reached the bottom step.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure.” She walked past me and opened the front door for us to go outside.
We sat down on the front stoop side by side, silently, when she let out a sigh.
I turned toward her, taking her hand in mine. “Fallon, I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t really want to go either, Everett, but I’m afraid. You’re going to be going off to law school anyway, and then I’ll just be here, working as a secretary, by myself. I don’t want to hold you back, that’s not fair to you.”
“Oh my God, is that what you think? That I want to keep you here until I leave?” I was mortified that’s what she was thinking, and what may have led to the events from earlier tonight.
“Well, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not like we really have a future,” she replied.
“That’s not it at all, Fallon. I’m not going to law school,” I admitted.
“What? What do you mean?”
“I made a promise to my parents that I would get into law school, but I have no intention of leaving. I don’t want to be a lawyer. I want to stay here, and work with Flynn. Eventually become partners with him, help the business grow even more. I’m not going anywhere.”
Her demeanor changed, and a hopeful expression appeared. “So, you’re not leaving? But all that studying?” She sounded confused.
“Look, I have issues too. It was important to my parents I make something of myself. They wanted me to have options. So I promised them that I would. But my life is here. With you.”
“With me?”
“Yes! Fallon, I’m in love with with you. Can’t you see that? From the minute I laid eyes on you in the coffee shop, I knew you were the one for me. I’ve never been so sure
of anything in my life.”
“What?”
“I know you’re scared, but stay. Let me show you what kind of beautiful life we could have together. I won’t disappoint you, I promise.”
“But what if I disappoint you?” she asked.
“That’s impossible. It couldn’t happen. I love you. All of you. Your past, your present, your future. The past is just memories, and the future is our imagination. Live in the present, with me.”
She threw her arms around me, and I felt my entire body relax around her.
“I love you too, Everett. I was so scared of ruining things.”
“You couldn’t possibly ruin anything for me, Fallon. You’ve opened me up to love, and I don’t ever want to let you go.”
She let go of me and examined my face. “I was offered to stay on with Wyatt past the summer. Do you really want to see if this works?”
“I already know it’ll work. But I’m ready to spend my life showing you.”
She kissed me. A soft, welcoming kiss. The ‘beginning of our life together’ kiss, I’d like to call it, and it was better than any Nebraska sunset I could’ve imagined
The End
