Page 2 of You're the Reason

Seth followed them and the now-gathering crowd through the living room, then to the driveway. He nearly collided with Jon when the guy came to an abrupt halt.

“We’re blocked in.” Jon scanned the driveway of more than fifty cars all packed in bumper to bumper. Then he pointed to Seth’s at the end. “Seth, is that your white Lumina?”

Seth eyed his beater, with its rusted doors and the half-dislodged bumper. It was painfully out of place next to all the respectable sedans, EVs, and fifty-thousand-dollar pickups. It had served him well over the past four years, but it wouldn’t win any prizes for style.

“Should I move it?”

“No, I need to borrow it.” Jon pulled his keys from his pocket, then held them out in his right hand with his left hand waiting for Seth’s keys. “I am not waiting for all these people to move. Take my Mustang, and you bring it to the hospital later to trade me back.”

Jon was ready to hand over the keys to his Mustang in exchange for the ’94 Chevy? The guy had really lost his mind. “We can get everyone?—”

“Seth, please.” Jon thrust his keys toward him again as Leah leaned forward on one of the cars and released a moan. “We don’t have time.”

"Jon, relax.” Leah’s voice came out strained. “That was the first big contraction.”

“First big contraction?” Jon’s attention snapped to his wife. “How long have you been having contractions?”

“Since I woke up. But they weren’t too bad, and they were far apart.” She offered a little shrug as she bit her lip. “I was going to tell you after the party.”

When she bent over with another moan, Seth took the keys to the Mustang, then jogged toward his car. “The door is tricky.”

By tricky, he meant the passenger’s side didn’t open from the outside. He hurried ahead and leaned over the driver’s seat to pop it open so Jon could help Leah in. It had become second nature, but usually he didn’t have an audience. He climbed out and held the keys to Jon. But his cousin was staring into his back seat.

Right. That.

This just wasn’t his day.

Jon finally turned and looked at him. “Are you living in your car?”

“You need to go.” Seth pointed to Leah and took a step back as he pocketed the keys to the Mustang.

Jon nodded once before he climbed into the car. “We will talk about this.”

No doubt they would.

By the time Seth made his way back to the room of never-ending pink, half the guests had left with the other half making their way to their cars. He found a trash bag in the kitchen and began gathering discarded plates and cups that seemed to litter most surfaces. An hour later, the pink decorations remained but the main areas were clean once more. He switched off the lights, then carried the two large bags of garbage out to the can on his way to the three-car garage.

He hit the garage door and stood next to the black 2008 Shelby Cobra GT500. Was he really going to do this? Jon had gotten it as a graduation present from his parents, and he’d been tempted more than once to take this baby joyriding in his teen years. He’d even gone so far as to take the keys and sit in the driver’s seat one time. But he’d had too much respect for his cousin even back then.

He clicked the fob and slid into the driver’s seat. The leather welcomed him like a glove as he adjusted the seat and mirrors. Jon always downplayed it by simply calling it a Mustang, which it technically was, but it was so much more. With the way this hugged him, he could see why Derek—Jon’s cousin from the other side—had added all those extra miles on it when Jon had been in Europe. This could get addictive. His Lumina would never be the same, not that it had been that great to begin with.

He ran his thumb across the silver cobra logo in the center of the steering wheel. When he’d started college, he thought if he studied hard enough, worked hard enough, he could own a car like this. Seth rested his head back as he released a humorless laugh. Four years had knocked that notion out of his head. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he gave, he was always one step behind. But not tonight, he lifted his head, started the car up, and revved the engine. Tonight, the road was his.

Seth shifted it into drive and eased out of the circular driveway, finding he had to consciously hold the car back like an unruly horse that just wanted to take off at full speed. He could take the long way to US 31 or the most direct route through the heart of Heritage. He had no desire to rouse old memories, but if he was going to work for Jon, he’d have to face them sooner or later.

At just under three thousand people, Heritage was more of a smudge on the map than a real town, but there was something different about Heritage. Something that he found harder to let go of than he’d once imagined. As he got closer to town, the fields and farmhouses gave way to vintage Victorians and old businesses. Some open, some boarded up.

The entire town centered around one square that was home to a gazebo, playground, and library that once had been a one-room schoolhouse. Years ago, it had held a stately Victorian mansion next to a row of run-down houses. They’d all been condemned, and probably rightly so, but he’d had a love-hate relationship with them, and their absence still sent a shock through him.

Otis sat at the corner of Richard and Henderson, as if guarding over the square. The old hippo statue had been an icon of the town for generations. But the shine on his brass back and nose meant that kids still loved to climb all over him on a regular basis.

The statue’s soft smile was still in place as if he held a secret no one else knew. He did. Lots of them. Everyone assumed the statue’s only secret was how he mysteriously moved about town. But the hippo also knew better than anyone how often Seth had snuck into those abandoned houses for a place to sleep as a child.

He turned left on Henderson and parked along the curb in front of the two-story, cottage-style house that had been his childhood home. Same peeling white paint. Same bricked-in porch. Had it looked this bad when he’d lived there? Probably close.

With the dark windows and overgrown grass that half covered the sidewalk, he guessed it wasn’t occupied.

He climbed out of the Shelby and walked up on the porch, taking care with each step. The weathered wood had seen better days. A quick peek in the window revealed not a single piece of furniture in sight. Maybe no one had lived there since he and his mom. He squatted down to a familiar brick on the porch and wiggled it free. His mom hadn’t known about this hidden spot.

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