Page 10 of Oops, I Fell For The Town Bad Boy!

That was what lay at the heart of things. That was what tormented Taylor and the reason she hadn’t been able to bring herself to help him when he had asked. She couldn’t know what was going on in his head. And she had meant what she’d said. She didn’t believe that he would change. Not really. He might mean it right now, in the wake of everything that had just happened, but in six months, when he wasn’t standing in front of the damage he had caused, when he was being invited to parties… when the world conspired to let him forget about everything…

He didn’t want to change before the fire. He didn’t take me up on my offer then. That means he doesn’t really want it. He was acting out of guilt when he said that.

And guilt wasn’t a good enough reason to do anything, because guilt would fade. He wouldn’t continue to torment himself about this forever. Taylor wouldn’t have wanted him to. That was too cruel a punishment for anyone. But when the guilt faded, he would forget that this change was ever anything he had wanted, and he would go back to being who he was.

Taylor hated that Kane had run away over this. She would have wanted him to stay — to prove her wrong. But by running away, hadn’t he really proved her right? Hadn’t he shown that he wasn’t really making an effort to become someone new at all? He was just running away from the guilt of what he had done.

That was all he had ever wanted to do. She saw that now. He had wanted her to help him, but of course that would have been a mistake, and she was glad she hadn’t done it. Even if it meant he ran away.

He was eighteen years old, after all. He was an adult. He could take care of himself.

Maybe being forced to rely on himself, for the first time in his life, was the thing that would turn things around for him. Much more than going to college ever could, at any rate. Taylor was sure of that. What changed people was hardship, not Intro to Philosophy classes.

This was the right thing for him.

And separating herself from him was the right thing for her. She couldn’t be tied to the person who had betrayed the trust of the entire town. That was too high a price to pay — even for the guy she had always liked.

Taylor forced herself to focus her attention on what Maddie was saying. Kane just wasn’t going to be a part of their lives anymore, and at the end of the day, he was the one who had made that choice.

CHAPTER 6

KANE

TEN YEARS LATER

“Coming out tonight?” John asked Kane.

Kane wiped his greasy palms on his blue work pants. “Not tonight,” he said. “Got to get home to Toby.”

“You say that every night.”

“Well, Toby’s important.”

“I could understand if you had a girlfriend. Toby is a Labrador.”

Kane shrugged. “If you’ve never had a Labrador, it’s not something I’d expect you to understand.” Toby was his best friend in the world. Not that Kane had a surplus of friends. He had always had people he could rely on — first his buddies in the military, and then the guys at the auto shop. But those relationships had all been more professional than personal. John asking Kane to come out for drinks after hours was something that always happened, but it wasn’t something Kane had ever agreed to. He came here to work, not to make friends.

Friends only let you down. He’d been around the block enough times by now to understand how that worked.

Labradors, though — them, you could count on.

Kane clocked out as his shift drew to a close and jogged home. It was the best way to get exercise, jogging the mile and a half between the shop and his little apartment in the south of Detroit, even though he always arrived home feeling gross and covered with grease.

He stripped off his clothes and stepped right into the shower, calling out a greeting to Toby, who knew enough to expect to wait until the shower had stopped running to bark for his dinner. That was the way things went every evening. Kane showered as quickly as he could, then came out and poured a dish of dog food. He placed it on the kitchen floor next to the water bowl, and Toby set to work devouring it quickly. Kane scratched him behind the ears then went over to the mail, which he had dropped on the kitchen counter when he had come in.

It was the usual pile of junk. Requests to subscribe to streaming services he didn’t want. Catalogs from furniture retailers and window replacement vendors that he wasn’t going to use. Applications for credit cards that he didn’t need and probably wouldn’t qualify for if he bothered to apply. He dropped them all in his recycling bin.

But he held on to one item. It had been hand-addressed in tidy penmanship. A business envelope. And the return address was from Miller Creek, Iowa.

His stomach dropped.

He didn’t recognize the name on the envelope — Thomas Greely. But he knew Miller Creek, all right. You couldn’t forget the place you’d grown up, even if it had been years. Even if you had allowed yourself to believe you would never see it again. It was supposed to be behind him now. He hadn’t even spoken to his father since the day he’d lit out of there. Miller Creek had made it clear to Kane that it was done with him, so he had decided that he was done with it. There was no reason to go back.

But now here it was, reaching out from the past to lay claim on him once more.

Kane opened the envelope slowly and scanned the letter inside.

It took him three times through it before he understood what he was reading.

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