Page 95 of Claws and Feathers

“I don’t want your money, Abby.”

Abby glanced down at her shoes and began to step away. “I don’t want it either,” she whispered. Abby offered Kate a final, poignant look before walking back to her car. “Thank you for everything.”

As Abby pulled out of Kate’s driveway and made her way out of town, she noticed the old, wooden sign offering its goodbyes.

“We Hope You Enjoyed Your Stay In Crow’s Peak – Come Back Soon”

Abby began to cry. She cried so hard she couldn’t see and had to pull over.

Then she regrouped. She refocused. She reminded herself that this was the right thing to do. Abby needed to heal, and she couldn’t heal in the same place that had broken her.

Regaining her strength and wiping away her tears, Abby continued forward.

Always forward. Always moving. It was the only way.

An hour later, she turned off into a gas station to refill her tank and grab some water. Abby glanced at her purse, tempted to text him, tempted to call him. Craving his voice, his words –him. It had only been a few hours and she was already missing him like crazy.Dammit.

Abby sifted around through her purse for her cell phone. A simple text wouldn’t hurt. She just wanted to check on him, to make sure he was okay. She searched the pockets and inside the zippers, then frowned when she came up empty. Abby rummaged her hands between the seats and looked on the floor by her feet. She groaned in frustration when she couldn’t find it.

Then she remembered. Her phone had died, so she’d plugged it in at Daphne’s to charge while they had said their goodbyes.

Crap.

Abby had forgotten her phone.

Cooper set his keys down on the entry table as he stepped through his front door. He had left work early that day as his mind was too preoccupied. He wasn’t able to focus. Cooper was supposed to be training a new officer in the field, but he’d passed the reins over to Johnny, unable to perform at his desired level. Abby had been gone for hours now, and it was only getting harder as the minutes ticked on. Cooper had always prided himself on his strength – his resilience. His ability to compartmentalize. He had learned to separate his emotions from his work over the years and it had served him well. People often asked him how he managed to always stay so calm and assured. Cooper figured it was because he was an expert at keeping things he cared about at arm’s length. He didn’t let anyone, or anything, get too close to his heart.

Cooper was realizing that after thirty years of life, he had finally found his weakness. He had found the one thing that made him doubt and crack and bleed, and question everything.

It was her. It would always be her.

Cooper let out a worn sigh as he sauntered through his living room and collapsed onto the couch, digging into the cushions for the remote. He stared at the blank screen, lost in the day’s events, lost in a life he thought might be. Before he flipped the television on, a car pulling into his driveway reflected in the television screen, prompting him to turn around on the couch and face the window. He wondered if it was Kate who had strict orders not to drive yet. He wouldn’t be surprised if it were her – his sister always had a rebel soul.

Cooper stood up and made his way over to the front window, pulling open the curtains all the way. He recognized the car, and he definitely recognized the figure that stepped out of it, but it wasn’t Kate.

His heart skipped a beat.

His mouth went dry.

Abby.

Cooper blinked, certain he was mistaken. Something had frayed his vision. Maybe he was tired. Perhaps the water bottle he had chugged on the way home had been laced with a hallucinogen and this was a mirage. Anything seemed more plausible than what he saw. Abby wasn’t standing in his driveway, her knees wobbling, her bottom lip caught between her teeth, her fingers playing with the fringes of her blue blouse as she stared at her feet.

It wasn’t possible.

He watched as she collected herself, seemingly taking in a deep breath and fluffing out the hem of her shirt. She gathered her wits and began to walk towards his front door.

Abby came to an abrupt stop when she spotted him in the window. Violet eyes peered back at him. Haunted eyes.

The most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen.

Cooper stared back at her entranced, bewitched, befuddled. In a daze, in a dream – lost in a life he thought might be.

In a life thatcouldbe.

She was here. She’d come back for him.

Abby stood frozen on his front lawn only a few feet away, her eyes glued to his through the window. She stood like that for what seemed like a lifetime. But then she held up her cell phone in her palm, shrugging her shoulders with an air of playful defeat, and she smiled. Abby smiled so bright, Cooper thought his heart might shatter at the sheer beauty of it. She smiled like a grand epiphany had swept right through her, andhell, maybe it had. He hoped it had.

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