by Rye Hart
As if a psychic connection existed between us, Jenn looked over, saw me staring at her, and waved me over to her booth with a big smile on her face. When I walked over, her blonde bob bounced all around her face as she excitedly rushed from behind a table filled with cupcakes.
“Hailey, I'm so glad you could make it,” she cooed, her southern accent still strong as ever.
Her big, brown eyes were wide and full of joy as she hugged me tightly. Not much had changed in this podunk little town, but my best friend Jennifer – Jenn – Staples sure had. She'd grown up nicely and was no longer the awkward, chubby girl with the frizzy dishwater blonde hair and braces.
She still had a few extra pounds, but she'd grown taller and learned to dress for her shape. Now, her clothes were flattering, and she looked like a curvy little vixen, rather than the frumpy, shy loner she used to be.
After being away for as long as I had been, I almost didn't recognize her at first. Looking for the girl I'd left behind, I almost passed her table in the restaurant right up. I was looking for the chubby, awkward girl – not the blonde bombshell in designer heels she'd become.
She, of course, had recognized me right away. Even though I thought I'd changed a lot over the years too, her ability to recognize me made me question my newfound confidence in myself. I made me think that maybe, I was still the awkward, gangly girl everyone tended to overlook that I'd been when I left Black Oak – minus the glasses and acne, of course. My mousy brown hair was now darker with caramel highlights, and my skin was bronzed from living life in the California sun. I thought I looked like a whole new person, but the fact that Jenn had spotted me straight away made me wonder if maybe, I didn't actually look that different after all.
“I want you to meet someone,” Jenn said, yanking me back behind a cupcake booth that was festooned with ribbons, glitter, balloons, and a large sign that read, Jenn Drake's Cups and Cakes.
“I already know your husband, Jenn,” I laughed. “I went to school with him, remember?”
“Not him, but yes, you should say hi to him too,” she laughed. “Martin would like that and I'm sure he'd love to see you again.”
“Martin never liked me in high school, so I don't see why –” I stopped speaking though, when I saw where she was taking me.
Sitting in a chair directly behind her booth was her mother, whom I knew well, cradling a baby. Jenn's baby. Her mother looked up at me and gave me a warm smile. Sitting next to them though, was a toddler with blonde curls and brown eyes. She was staring back at me, trying to figure out who I was.
“I know you've seen them on Facebook, but I wanted you to meet my kids in real life, Hailey,” she said, holding my hand like she might not ever let go.
Her smile was stretched across her face and the light of pride in her eyes was brighter than the sun as we approached her mom and kids. It was hard not to feel happy for her – but I couldn't deny that pang of hurt and regret blossoming in my chest.
“I'm so happy you're here, Hailey,” she beamed “This is my daughter, Sophie, and my son, Martin Jr. We just call him Marty.”
I hoped the grin on my face looked a lot more real than it felt, the effort of maintaining it was hurting my face though. It wasn't because I disliked kids, but as I looked at Jenn's kids, so bright and beautiful, it felt like another part of my life had been torn away from me. Seeing the happy family together brought tears to my eyes, but not for the right reasons. “They're beautiful,” I said, squeezing my best friend's hand. “I'm so glad I finally got to meet them. And I'm so happy for you, hon.”
“Me too, Hailey,” Jenn said, pulling me into a tight bear hug.
And while she hugged me, I let myself revel in it, let myself forget about everything – forget about Leo, who was back in California, forget about moving back home and living with my parents, and forget about every horrible thing I'd endured over the last few years.
For the briefest of moments, it felt like no time had passed at all. Jenn and I were young again. We were best friends, by each other’s side, and celebrating in our shared awkwardness. The wave of nostalgia that washed over me was powerful. Almost overwhelming. And for that wonderful moment, all that existed was our love and friendship.
“I'm so glad you're back, sis,” she said to me, invoking the nicknames we once called each other, adding to the nostalgia enveloping me. “I know you always wanted to get away, but I'm so glad you came back. I have missed you so much.”
If only she knew the real reason I'd come back to Black Oak, maybe she wouldn't be saying that. But that wasn't something I wanted to share just yet. I needed to find a way to deal with it on my own, and to put it behind me. It was my pain, and in that moment, I couldn't share it with anybody.
Not even with my best friend.
***
“I can't believe you married Martin,” I said, taking a bite from a mocha cupcake topped with an amazing frosting and with Oreo crumbles. “Not that I dislike him, it's just so –”
“Strange?” Jenn laughed. “Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know. It's not like we got along back in high school either. But, people change, Hailey. We grow up, realize that the cliques in high school are bullshit and learn to just hang out with people we like, people that makes us feel good and happy.”
I shrugged. “I guess so,” I muttered, taking another bite from the heavenly cupcake, my eyes rolling back in my head, and making a sound probably best suited to an adult film. “I missed out on a lot, apparently. So what else has changed around here?”
“Not much, really. You know Black Oak – people are born, get old, and die,” Jenn shrugged, her laugh a little wry. She picked at a pink lemonade cupcake while nursing Marty. “Most everything you knew stayed the same. It's not all that exciting here. I mean, compared to your glamorous life in Cali and all.”
I scoffed. “Please, it wasn't so glamorous,” I said. “Far from it, actually.”
Jenn cocked an eyebrow as she licked the neon pink frosting from her lips. She looked at me evenly for a long moment and even after all these years, it was strange to me to know that she could still see right through me. She could see that there was something I was holding back from her – I could see it in her eyes.
“You still don't want to talk about why you came back?” she finally asked.
“Nope. Sure don't,” I said, leaning back in my chair.
I turned and let my gaze wander around the crowd and the festival going on around me. Jenn's booth was getting a lot of attention and I'd had to hide a few times, to avoid seeing or talking to people I remembered from back in the day. Jenn had no problem selling her sweet confections to them though, and they talked about school board meetings and field trips as if they'd always been the best of friends since the beginning of time.
I know her business depended on being friendly with anybody and everybody, but it made me sicker than the overly sweet cupcake I'd devoured in three seconds flat.
There was a BBQ food truck parked across the way from us, and the unbelievable aromas drifting from it made my mouth water. I hadn't had breakfast that day – I really hadn't felt like eating and wasn't sure I could actually keep anything down if I'd tried. I was sick with fear and dread at the idea of making an appearance publicly for the first time since I'd moved back. I worried what people would say or think. There was a line of people lined up and waiting at the truck, backed up almost all the way to Jenn's booth. I noticed that the people walking away had big smiles on their faces as well as racks of ribs and massive pulled pork sandwiches oozing with delicious, red sauce in their hands. It made my stomach growl so loud, I was surprised nobody commented on it.
“Good to see Driftwood is still in business,” I said.
My mouth watered as I remembered the famous cocoa infused barbeque sauce that you couldn't get anywhere else. Everything was made in house, and had been passed down from generation to generation of the Dierks family.
“Last I'd heard, Paul was the last of his family,” I said. “Who too
k over the business? He sell to somebody before he passed?”
Paul Dierks, the locally famous BBQ man, had died about two years ago, leaving his business without an owner. After hearing of his passing, I'd assumed I was never going to taste the sweet barbeque chicken I loved so much as a child ever again. He'd never married or had kids – after him, there was no one to pass down the family recipe to.
“Oh, didn't you hear? The McCormick brothers took it over after old man Dierks passed,” she said casually. “Yeah, Cason used to work there as a cook, and apparently Paul took him under his wing. Treated him like the son he never had.”
“The McCormick brothers are still around?” I asked.
That was an interesting piece of news and I strained my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of who might be working the grill. All I could see were flashes of a white apron. The crowd milling about, as well as the small windows of the food truck were obscuring my view of the person inside.
“Uh yeah,” Jenn said. “Where would they go? Black Oak is their home.”
“I dunno,” I said. “Figured they'd get football scholarships somewhere and get out of Black Oak. At least Quinn.”
“Yeah, he did,” Jenn said with a shrug. “Notre Dame. But he blew out his knee and ended up coming back home.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling sad for the guy – he deserved better than that. “Quinn was actually nice to me.”
“Hell, all of them are still good guys,” Jenn said, removing Marty from her breast and straightening her shirt. “I went on a date with Ben before Martin and I got back together. We had a good time, but it didn't end up going anywhere. Obviously.”
I looked over at Jenn and tried to imagine her with Bennett McCormick – the oldest of the brothers. He'd been a senior when we were freshman, and the last time I saw him, he'd been dating one of the cheerleaders. Typical jock move. Back then, he'd never given us the time of day. “You went on a date with Bennett McCormick?” I asked. “And you never told me about it?”
Jenn shrugged. “Like I said, it didn't go anywhere. He was nice, but I was already interested in Martin by then.”
Back in high school, there was no way Jenn or I would have chosen Martin Drake over any of the McCormick brothers. No girl of sound mind would have. The McCormick brothers were the most gorgeous men in school. They were practically royalty in Black Oak and had their pick of the girls. And for the most part, they'd been cocky assholes. But like I'd learned, a lot had obviously changed since those days. And Jenn was happy, so that was all that mattered.
A mischievous little grin spread across my best friend's face. “Why don't you go over there, Hailey?” she said. “I'm sure they'll just die when they see you!”
My cheeks burned and flushed with color as I looked down at my hands. “They wouldn't even know who I am,” I said. “They never did back then.”
“You'd be surprised, sis,” Jenn said. “Seriously, go say hello.”
“Maybe later,” I said, no longer straining to see if the brothers were in the truck.
I didn't want to look too desperate. Besides, I may have been single, but I was far from ready to start dating again. Just the idea of entering into a relationship so soon after getting back to town made my stomach roil and a wave of nausea rise up within me.
Not that I stood a chance with any of the brothers in reality, anyway. Even if I looked a lot different than I had back then, my transformation was nowhere near as dramatic as Jenn's. She was like an entirely new person.
And me? Well, I was apparently still very much me.
CHAPTER TWO - CASON
Preparing for the Bonfire
“Think I could get some help here?” I asked.
I pushed the door to my brother's bedroom open. Bennett – the oldest of the three of us – was already up and at the restaurant. But Quinn, the middle brother, was sleeping in.
Quinn rolled over in bed and grumbled something that vaguely sounded like English at me, the girl next to him still snoring away. The girl – Shelly Stewart – was an on-again, off-again fixture around the house, so that wasn't surprising to me that she was snuggled up with him in bed.
What was surprising though, was that both of them were fully clothed. Usually, I got an eyeful when I opened the door to Quinn's room in the morning. Typically, I either got a glimpse of my brother's bare ass or Shelly's boobs – which she didn't seem to care about hiding.
But today, they were both in pajamas, which was different.
Ever since I'd graduated from high school, I'd slacked on the workouts and wasn't nearly as in shape as I used to be, especially compared to Quinn and Ben, who still worked out hard every day – and it showed.
Sometimes, I envied my brothers’ muscular physiques. Having a leaner build, when I saw either of my brothers with their shirts off, was another reminder to me that I needed to hit the gym.
Except for the fact that he was more muscular and in better shape than me though, Quinn and I were spitting images of one another – right down to the reddish-brown hair. Quinn was desperately in need of a haircut though, with his shaggy locks spilling down to his shoulders. I kept mine trimmed neatly – mostly because I needed to keep it out of the way when I was working in the kitchen.
“Quinn, seriously, we need to get moving, bro,” I said. “We need to get the grills set up by ten.”
Sometimes, going into business with my brothers seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth. There were times I felt more like a babysitter than a partner. And other times, I enjoyed the hell out of it. The camaraderie we shared sometimes made the workdays fun and entertaining.
This though, wasn't one of those times.
Quinn peeked out from under his squinted eyes and he groaned when he saw me. But instead of fighting me, like he used to do in high school, he instead, immediately swung his legs over the side of his bed. Running a hand through his long hair, he sat there, certainly not in any hurry to actually get out of bed.
“Come on, Shells,” he said, not turning to the girl in his bed. “I have to get to work.”
His voice sounded more detached than usual; distant and there was a tension in the air I hadn't noticed before. Groaning, Shelly got up, and quickly threw on her shoes. I looked at Quinn with a question in my eyes, but he merely shrugged. The silence in the room was as awkward as it was painful to witness.
“I'm going to be outside,” I said, excusing myself from an obviously awkward situation.
Quinn and Shelly had been together on and off since high school. Everyone always assumed they were soul mates, but living under the same roof as my brother, I knew the pain Shelly brought to him. I knew the way she turned his heart and mind upside down and inside out. But he kept going back, like a loyal lap dog to its owner. Every single time. Whenever Shelly called, Quinn was right there, wagging his tail, begging for a little love and attention.
With a sigh and a shake of my head, I left them to work out their latest issues in peace.
Walking out front, I moved my pickup truck to the garage where we stored everything for the business that wasn't in the restaurant itself. As I opened the garage door, Shelly slammed the front door behind her, and walked down the steps, huffing and puffing her way to her car, parked on the street in front of the house.
“Mornin'” I said to her as she passed.
She didn't say a word to me. Typical. But, what wasn't typical was how she slammed the door of her car and sped off, like a bat out of hell. Or the red, puffy eyes she'd had.
Quinn peeked out the front door, a nervous look on his face.
“Don't worry,” I said, glancing into the garage as I took inventory of everything we'd have to move. “She's gone.”
Dressed in jeans and a Notre Dame t-shirt, my middle brother was by far, the largest of the three of us. Not that any of us were small. We came from strong, Irish stock as my mama used to say. But Quinn took his workouts very seriously and was bulkier than either Bennett or me.
When he stepped o
utside and joined me at the garage, Quinn didn't say anything about Shelly's grand exit, so I took it upon myself to play counselor.
“So what was that all about?” I asked.
“With Shelly?” he asked.
“No, with the other girl who stormed out of here,” I teased.
Quinn helped me lift one of our larger grills into the back of the truck, not answering my question. I wasn't going to grill the guy – no pun intended – but I could tell that whatever had gone down between them was bothering him. He wouldn't make eye contact, at all.
“I dunno, man,” he said with a sigh. “She's been offered a job in New York City.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You're not –”
“No,” he scoffed, shaking his head. “No fucking way I'd move to New York. Besides, she doesn't want me to anyway.”
“Good,” I said. “Because she's not worth it.”
Quinn flinched like I'd slapped him in the face when I said it, and I could see that what I'd said bothered him. But I wasn't one to coddle my brother. Sugarcoating things wasn't going to help him, he needed to hear the truth.
“Seriously,” I said, loading a few smaller items into the truck bed. “She's not. She twists you all up and makes you feel like shit half the time, man.”
“I know,” he sighed.
“Man, you can do so much better than her,” I said, leaning against the truck. “She's done nothing but play you since the beginning. And you just keep going back for more and more abuse. Do you even love her?”
Quinn shrugged. “I don't know. Which I guess should tell me a lot. I mean hell, if I loved her, I'd know it, right?”
“Yeah, I think you would.”
It was a relief to know Quinn wasn't in love with Shelly and wasn't planning on moving away to New York City on a whim. We might have our differences, but the three of us owned a business together now, and we needed him.
“Come on, let's get this stuff over to the park,” I said, shutting the truck bed. “Ben should be meeting us over there soon.”
