Page 42 of The Hometown Legend

A year ago, that would have felt exhausting.

Right now, it almost felt like hope.

Rory stood up and started to head toward the door. “Rory,” he said.

She turned to face him, and he felt the impact of her like a punch to the gut. Because when she looked at him, she really looked at him.

Not who he’d been.

Who he was now.

“Thank you,” he rasped.

“You’re welcome,” she said, and then she walked out. And while she left him alone, he didn’t feel quite as alone as he had before.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THENEXTDAY, Rory wandered into the woods, clutching her list. Her chest was still sore from her conversation with Gideon last night.

His issues felt...big. They made her own seem so insignificant.

It was beautiful and dark beneath the trees, a shield from the summer heat. She walked down toward the creek, where there was water rushing fast and strong. It was always cooler down by the water. She kicked her shoes off, pulled her dress up past her knees and sat down on the bank. Then she propped her notebook up on her knees and stared at it.

I guess that’s the consequence of living a really big life.

Gideon had lost a lot. But he’d been a lot. It was almost embarrassing to sit across from him. To listen to his story. His pain. To only have leaving college as her example of something she’d failed at.

She sat down beneath a tree and pulled out her list.Climb the damn mountain. Get a makeover. Get a kiss. Throw a tantrum.

She closed her eyes. What did any of that even mean? He had lost so much. He had lost more than she’d ever had.

And she hadn’t wanted to tell him Lydia had made comments about being upset with his current state.

But she knew that Lydia just didn’t understand, and he had asked Rory not to tell, so she couldn’t make Lydia understand.

Of course, he had also said she wasn’t his friend.

But she felt like maybe shecouldbe.

That same familiar feeling that had been dogging her for months now, that sense of needing to break out of her own skin, was so intense she couldn’t breathe now. He needed somebody who could actually offer him something real. She had tried. But she felt like she didn’t deserve to be telling him those things. She felt like her own issues and complaints were so small compared to his.

She was just awkward. That was hardly the same as a traumatic brain injury.

Well, awkward and had once had beer poured on her when she was expecting a kiss.

That kind of stuff got in your head.

Get a kiss.

Rory stared down at her notebook and felt her heartbeat pick up.

She’d been thinking—way too hard—about the things that held her back. From the humiliation over her Gideon crush to her dad’s abandonment to that horrible frat-boy experience.

She was bruised by those things. She had very good reasons for being gun-shy about a lot of things. At the heart of all of it was the truth that the people around her had given her no reason to trust.

If your classmates were happy to invade your privacy to make you the butt of a joke, how could you trust anyone at school?

If your dad could carry on a secret affair and then leave without a backward glance, how could you really trust anyone?

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