Page 10 of The Life We Left Behind

My stomach loudly complained as my back screamed about the hours I’d spent driving. It was enough for me to push the ignition button and turn the car around. The house could wait.Everything could wait. It had been a long night. I was exhausted and hungry, and if I was going to step foot inside town, I might as well do it now when there wouldn’t be as many people around. If I showed my face in the right place, I could use the town gossip to my advantage. Get word spreading about my return, and then hopefully, there would be less chance of those awkward reunions later down the line. And, of course, I meant a certain someone. The sooner Trace knew I was back in town, the sooner he could start avoiding me, and I wouldn’t have to deal with looking at his face. Because there was no way he’d want to reminisce about the time he dumped me when I was pregnant, and I didn’t have the willpower to deal with him today.

Trace had come out of this with everything in his life exactly how he wanted it. I’d been the one to run and hide, leaving everything behind. If he was anywhere near a decent human being, he’d be the one to hide his face for the next few days. Then I was gone. There was nothing left here for me, anyway.

Driving into town, it felt strange to see everything looking the same. This place never changed. Well, not that much. That was part of its charm, along with the clean streets and the cute business fronts looking out to the grass square with the gazebo in the center.

The streets were virtually empty at this point of the day. Most people would only just be waking up to start their day. Soon, the streets would be filled with people heading to work and kids making their way to school. And I didn’t want to be around when that started.

I pulled the car into a space outside the bakery and took a breath to steady myself before climbing out. It was strange seeing the medical practice closed up. Apparently, some things did change.

The bakery was a community hub in Willowbrook. Most people stopped by throughout the week and Marie, who had runthe place since I was a kid, was always on hand for a comforting hug and a word of advice whenever you needed one. She also knew absolutely everything that was happening in town, and while she was a vault of secrets if you needed her to be, she was also the easiest way to spread information that you wanted to reach the rest of town.

The bell chimed as I opened the door, and I was hit with the smell of pastry and chocolate. This place was honestly the best in the mornings when it was quiet and filled with the smell of what was baking for the day.

The white tile floor was the same as it had always been, but the cute café style tables and chairs had been updated some time while I’d been away.

“I’ll be right with you,” Marie shouted from the back as I made my way to the glass cases to drool over what she had on offer.

All the breakfast pastries were lined up in golden rows of deliciousness, and my stomach groaned at the sight. There was nothing like one of Marie’s croissants, and my mouth was already watering at the thought of them.

She bustled into the shop front carrying a tray loaded with cookies and the same smile on her face that I’d seen there every day of my childhood. As soon as her eyes locked with mine, her feet tripped and she staggered forward, balancing the tray carefully before she gently placed it on top of the counter.

Neither of us spoke. She looked just the same as she always had, with her flour-dusted apron tied over her bakery uniform and her hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. It was nearly completely gray now rather than the pepper-dusted black it had been when I’d last seen her. A stark reminder that too many years had passed and a strange sense of guilt whelmed at the thought.

I’d turned my back on so much when I’d run from Willowbrook. So many people who had been a fixture in my everyday life. And I didn’t look back. Thinking about it now, I was beginning to think that I’d made a mistake, and as Marie rushed around the counter and wrapped me in her arms, I knew it for a certainty.

These people might have whispered and gossiped, but they never would have turned their backs on me. It was me that had turned away, and with the loss of my father sitting so heavily on my shoulders right now, I was starting to feel ashamed of what I’d done.

“Delaney.” She released me from her embrace, only to hold me at arm’s length as her gaze raked across my face. “You always were beautiful, and you’ve only grown more so with time. I’ve missed you, sweet girl.”

She hugged me again, and I held her back just as tightly. The tears pricked in my eyes for so many reasons, and they finally started to fall as she bustled me into one of the chairs and took a seat across the table from me, holding my hands on the tabletop as if she was afraid to let me go.

“It’s good to see you again, Marie.”

I meant it. There was a reason why I came here first, and it wasn’t just because I wanted the news of my temporary return to spread as quickly as possible. I’d missed this place, missed Marie.

Then that motherly frown crossed her face as she lightly scowled at me. “Ten years, young lady! Not one phone call in the whole time. If it wasn’t for your father assuring me he hadn’t buried you out behind the barn, I’d have been convinced you were dead.”

I winced at her words because she was right. I hadn’t told anyone anything. I was so heartbroken by Trace’s rejection that I hadn’t wanted to step foot in town. All I could think aboutwas running as far as I could as fast as I could. I might have only made it four hundred miles or so into the city, but it was far enough to feel like I could start again. And the only way I’d ever have the strength to do that was to make Cade my complete world and forget about the life I’d left behind.

Marie sighed in resignation when I didn’t respond immediately. “Let me get you some coffee and something to eat, and we can chat while I wait for the muffin timer.”

I knew she was busy, and I equally knew that meant she didn’t have time to sit here with me, catching up on what she’d missed and telling me everything that was going on in town. But I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. I needed this small sliver of the old normalcy before facing my childhood home again.

“That would be really nice. Thanks, Marie.”

She nodded and smiled before bustling away back behind the counter and starting up the coffee machine.

I watched her for a moment, but it didn’t take long for my eyes to be drawn to the windows and Willowbrook starting to come to life for another morning. A few cars passed by, none that I recognized, but I guessed that was one more thing that would have changed while I was away.

Was Trace even still here anymore? I knew his parents had plans for him to take the reins of the family business, but we’d always daydreamed about leaving for college and never coming back. Instead, we’d find a tiny apartment in the city and strike out on our own, living off ramen and forging our own paths.

All the memories I’d had of Trace were tainted now by my last day in Willowbrook. It had felt so real at the time, but we were just two kids surviving the small-town existence. Now that I was an adult, I could see it for what it was: nothing but a lie that we told ourselves until we were ready to move on to the next step in our journey.

He’d been so convincing back then of his dreams of our future together. Had it always been a lie? Did he ever think we’d actually do it, or was he just going along with my dreams while killing his time with me?

The bell at the door rang as someone came into the shop, but my mind was too stuck in the past to really be concerned about the next customer talking to Marie.

It took me a moment to realize that someone was standing next me and a split second longer for it to register that they were talking to me.

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