Page 43 of Oops, I Fell For The Town Bad Boy!

He started in the kitchen. He thought back to childhood, to mealtimes with his parents. After his mom passed, neither Kane nor his father had wanted to spend much time in there, and meals had more often been eaten in front of the TV.

But Taylor had cooked for the two of them almost every night. She was great in the kitchen. With a pang, he thought of the stir fry she’d made that he had rejected. It had been his last opportunity to eat something she had cooked for him, and he had passed it up. He wished now that he hadn’t.

It was the right thing to do, Kane told himself firmly, turning his back on the kitchen. You were honest with her. She deserved honesty. There’s no point in drawing this out now that the decision is made.

He went out to the backyard, where he’d first found Taylor and realized what his father had done by putting them both in this house. Toby was outside running around with a stick in his mouth — his favorite pastime — but when he saw Kane, he dropped the stick and came trotting over obediently.

“Sorry, bud,” Kane said, patting his faithful dog on the head. “We’re going back to the city. I think you like it better here, don’t you?”

Toby panted.

“You gonna miss it here?” Kane asked softly. He scratched his dog behind the ears, reflecting that Toby was probably the one person — well, the one creature — in the world who was better off for having Kane in his life. At least there was someone he could say that about, even if it was only his dog.

“We’ll do something nice when we get back,” Kane pledged. “Maybe I’ll build a dog run so you can still play outside.”

Toby whined a little. And even though Kane knew the dog had no idea what he was talking about, he felt as if they understood each other — no dog run could possibly make things the same in Detroit as they were here. There would never be the same wide-open spaces that Toby had started to get used to. The air wasn’t as fresh, and the sky wasn’t as clear.

And there would be no Taylor.

“Shouldn’t have let you get close to her either, pal, should I?” Kane murmured. “I know you’re going to miss her too. I know you guys got to be friends. At least you won’t have to worry about it for very long. Dogs’ memories are pretty short.”

But he wondered how true that was. Toby was a pretty smart dog, after all, and Kane wouldn’t have been surprised if the memory of Taylor stayed with him after they left town. He hoped it wouldn’t, but at the same time, he hoped it would. He didn’t want Taylor erased from their lives. He only wanted to erase himself from hers.

“Come on, boy,” he said. “Let’s go inside.”

Toby looked at him plaintively, almost as if he understood what was happening. It gave Kane a sick, guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach. But that feeling was coming for him either way now. He wouldn’t be able to stay here without feeling like crap about it. He had made up his mind, and he knew he was doing the right thing. He needed to go.

They went into the house. Kane started toward the room he had been staying in to collect his things — there was no point in putting this off any longer.

But on his way, he passed the door of his bedroom — his old bedroom, the one that had been his in his youth.

He paused outside the door.

This was Taylor’s room now, and he probably shouldn’t go in — but this would be the last chance he’d ever have to see this room. He couldn’t leave, he realized, without going in one more time. He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Kane opened the door and went inside.

It looked so different now, with all Taylor’s things scattered everywhere, and yet he could still see the room he had grown up in. He’d smoked cigarettes leaning out that window when he hadn’t wanted to get caught — thank goodness he’d kicked that habit when he had, he thought ruefully. At least something good had come out of the Chesterfield fire — he hadn’t touched a cigarette since it had happened.

The dresser was the same one he had used as a kid. Kane ran his fingers over the wood. He had never known this dresser when it was new — they’d purchased it used. Still, he remembered every crack and line in the wood. He ought to. He had spent ten years of his life staring at it.

There had been a loose floorboard in the closet, he recalled. He’d hidden things there — things he wasn’t supposed to have, and now he thought he would go and check to see if he’d left anything before running away the last time. It’d probably be a bad idea to leave something like that under the floorboards in Taylor’s home, since he was leaving and never coming back now.

He knelt on the floor in the closet, pried up the floorboard, and reached in.

At first he didn’t feel anything. He was about to put it back in place and move on when his hand bumped against something. The thing, whatever it was, moved, and Kane had to track it down before he could fish it out.

It was an envelope.

And it had his name on it.

He stared at it for a long moment. That was his father’s handwriting. His father had left him a note of some kind — but why would he leave it here, of all places? Kane crawled out of the closet and sat with his back to the wall. Whatever was in here was the last thing his father would ever say to him.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to read it.

But at the same time — how could he possibly not?

He tore open the envelope and pulled out the paper inside. His hands shaking, he began to read.

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