Page 144 of The Hometown Legend

She had watched him. She had watched him come up against the edge of his strength.

And not be able to push past.

She was asking him to get over all his trauma very quickly.

And even though she thought he could, she really did, she knew he wasn’t doing this to hurt her. He thought he was doing it to help her.

And he was probably protecting himself.

When she had talked to Fia and Quinn, Fia had been in a rage.

“I told him not to hurt you.”

“Yes. You did. But in fairness, I think he has convinced himself that this is better.”

“Well, he’s an idiot.”

“Yeah. But it comes from somewhere...good.”

Fia grumbled, but didn’t argue. She supposed that was because she looked so sad, and even Fia, who had a propensity toward being a hard-ass, couldn’t be mean to her when she was that devastated. If she had to be pitiable to get softness from her older sister, she supposed that would do.

For her part, she was grappling with this very adult heartbreak.

And trying to figure out what it meant for her.

It was her third walk through Boston Common today. And she would be wandering from there to the north end to get some pizza. She’d had the cash-only Italian food last night, and it had been amazing, but she had a feeling her appetite was going to be compromised for a while.

Which she felt wasn’t fair.

She went into the bustling pizzeria after waiting in line for a while, and looked at all the eclectic photos lining the wall.

There was a celebratory atmosphere, and she tried to absorb it.

One thing she thought was so amazing about Boston was the way it felt familiar, even though she had never been there before.

There were so many iconic places she’d seen in movies a hundred times. This pizzeria was like that. Ingrained in her as a sense that this was what a pizzeria should look like. And so it felt as if she had walked into this place numerous times before. Like she was a regular, and just maybe everybody might know her name.

Even though she was a stranger. Just passing through.

She hadn’t thought a city could feel like this, but this one did.

But not even that fully soothed her. Not when everything was so precarious inside her. The pizza was delicious, though.

She could have been starting her new life here. Instead, she’d fallen in love.

Not just with Gideon, but with the possibility of what she could do in Pyrite Falls.

With her own list of accomplishments.

She’d needed to escape when she had felt inferior to the people around her.

She didn’t feel that way anymore.

Something in her had changed. And she knew that was because of Gideon.

She knew that it was.

And she could be thankful for it, even though it hurt.

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