Page 1 of True Fate

chapterone

Black Hole Sun–Soundgarden

A Small Southern Town, the ’90s

LAINEY

Thirteen years,and Promise still looked the same.

Lainey Prescott took a cheerless sip, wishing a good cabernet could turn her hometown into somewhere,anywhere, else. Bathed in the neon glow of the town’s lone bar, the weight of past nights—hauling her father into the back of their Country Squire after yet another drunken escapade—pressed in, dull and familiar.

All she’d wanted then was to be a normal teenager.

But after her mother left, the burden of caregiving had fallen to her, right up until the day her father died. Now she was back. Only this time, she wasn’t walking away from the love of her life without a second glance, because there was no one to leave.

She forced a smile because that’s what she’d been taught to do, but it arrived rough around the edges. One of her father’s scraps of wisdom floated along with it.

A smile can win a thousand bets, darling girl, even if it’s phony.

Once the daughter of a bookie, always the daughter of a bookie, she guessed.

The crowd at Promise’s Azalea Festival swirled around Lainey as she glanced down Main Street, where floral flags fluttered from lampposts in the gentle spring breeze. A pulse of bluegrass from the trio in the square drifted past. Muted, indistinct, like her emotions. If she could take in the town without the weight of bad memories, it might actually be…cute. Quaint, even. Charming in that small-town Southern way that made outsiders sigh—and insiders plot their escape.

“Lainey, are you in there?”

She shook her head and turned, keeping her shaky smile in place. Fontana Quinn—her college roommate—had enough on her plate, raising a teenage sister and trying to get her landscaping business off the ground. Lainey hadn’t done a great job of staying in touch, and unloading her disaster of a life didn’t seem fair to someone who’d become almost a stranger.

Even if she could really use a friend right now.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Fontana asked, reaching into the worn leather purse hanging half-off her shoulder. She pulled out a tissue and pressed it into Lainey’s hand.

Lainey blinked as a tear slid down her cheek.Dammit. “Sorry, Tana, for being like this.” She ducked her head and dabbed at her nose, then her lips. “Being back here…it’s hitting me hard.”

“I could tell something was wrong the moment you stepped off the plane, but I wanted you to talk to me without me having to force you to.” Fontana’s blue eyes softened, her lips quirking into one of the irrepressible smiles Lainey remembered. “I get tired of being the pushy one in every relationship in my life.”

Lainey swiped a knuckle beneath each eye and fought back a laugh. “I think the telling requires more alcohol. And pushy looks good on you. It always did.”

“Perfect, because I have a plan,” Fontana said, her voice lifting with excitement, mischief creeping in at the edges. “We’ve got beer and wine tents open all weekend. There’s even a tasting tomorrow night. Promise has gotten pretty hip, Lainey. With that haircut, you’ll fit right in.”

Lainey stuffed the tissue into the pocket of her threadbare jeans and pressed her lips together until the urge to cry dissolved like smoke in the mist. Her father had taught her something of value after all. “Youbelong. I never did, if anyone even remembers me. I only moved here junior year, but it was the longest we stayed anywhere, so this is my adopted hometown.” She ran a hand through her hair, the pixie cut still unfamiliar. “And I chopped off six inches because I needed change of the monumental variety.”

Fontana flicked a piece of straw from her tie-dye shirt. Paired with her flowing gingham skirt, the mismatched outfit perfectly captured her laid-back vibe. “Me, belong? Are you kidding? As usual, I showed up covered in dirt and grass. What can I say? Landscaping isn’t as glamorous as it sounds.”

Lainey drew a breath scented with sunsets and gardenias, air that would turn thick as velvet come summer. As she met Tana’s vivid blue gaze, she realized she needed to tell someone how the pieces of her life had slowly come undone.

Her situation boiled down to six words: cheating ex, derailed career, savings gone.

Which pretty much left her out of options.

Though she couldn’t—wouldn’t—tell a soul that one of those options was returning to the town she’d left behind. She’d even had the passing thought to ask the man who bought her uncle’s mechanic shop for a part-time job. She’d worked her way through high school doing minor repairs and still knew her way around an engine, and then some.

But pride was pride. And she wasn’t that desperate.Yet.

Fontana lifted her hand to her brow, shielding her eyes from the fast-fading sun. “Let’s have some fun this weekend. We’ll gossip, drink, eat crappy fried food, and sleep until noon. You can tell me about the one who got away, because I know someone did. And I’ll tell you about the losers I’ve dated, none of them getting away fastenough.”

Lainey stared into her empty cup. “Actually, there was someone. The summer before college. I never told you about him. He left, and I stayed. End of story. One of us had a future, and it wasn’t me. Though, sometimes, in the dead of night, when the house is creaking and the world stands still, I think of him. And I...I wonder.”

Wonder if I made a big mistake.

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