Page 91 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Wait.” I stand from the picnic table and grab the magazine proof. “Here.” I sniff and hold it out. “This is for you. It runs next week inBeyondmagazine.”
Brody stays where he is, his hands propped on his hips, his face like stone. Every ounce of him is tense. He is a caged animal. A coiled spring.
I drop the proof on the table and take a step backward. I take a steadying breath, my eyes darting from Brody to Griffin, who is watching on, his eyes full of concern. “I’m so sorry, Brody,” I finally say. It’s the only thing Icansay.
And then I turn and go home.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kate
“You know,” Kristyn says,“this would have been a much easier conversation had you not saved everything up for one phone call.”
I lean back onto the quilt I dragged off my bed and stretch my arms over my head, looking up through the branches of the sugar maple in Grandma Nora’s backyard. The leaves are a deep rich green right now, but in the fall, they’ll turn a bright, vibrant yellow before dimming to burnished gold. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It just felt like everything was happening so fast,” I say. “I think I knew I was falling for Brody, and I knew you’d be able to tell if we truly talked about it.”
“I get it. But sheesh. You got a job offer, spent a night sleeping in Brody’s arms, fell in love, and learned the true reason your parents divorced all in a month. Your friends-to-lovers story turned into a telenovela.”
“Don’t forget about finding a picture of theother womanon the internet.”
“Ohh, that’s right!”
“Is there a romance trope for friends that lose touch and never talk again? I think that one is mine.”
“Don’t lose hope, Kate. You’ll talk to him again. You guys will figure this out.”
I breathe out a sigh. “I don’t know, Kristyn. You should have seen his face.”
“Just give him a minute to process. And don’t go anywhere, for crying out loud. No more spontaneous trips across the Atlantic.”
I smile. “That’s good advice.”
“It is good advice. And I would have given it to you before had you paused for two seconds and asked for my opinion.”
“Fine. Lesson learned. From now on, I’ll pause all my major freakouts and consult with you before doing anything drastic.”
She chuckles. “And your life will be better for it. So what are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. Finish Grandma Nora’s house, I guess. Start applying for jobs.”
“I bet that part will be easier than you think. Just email every editor you’ve ever worked with and let them know you’re looking.”
“Not every editor,” I say. “I want to be in the states. I want to see more of you. And I probably ought to see more of Mom and finally meet the husband she’s had for four years.” What I really want to see is more of Brody, but my heart won’t let me dwell on that right now. It only took two hours after I left Triple Mountain, but I finally stopped crying. I’m too wrung out to start up again.
“I would love to see more of you too,” Kristyn says. “You know, there are probably a lot of writing jobs in Chicago. You could always come up here.”
I groan and roll onto my stomach. “No, thank you. Chicago gets colder than London.”
Once I gave myself permission to acknowledge it, it only took a minute to recognize the home I’m craving can only be in Silver Creek. And not just because of Brody, though he’s obviously the biggest part of it. But I’ve enjoyed being back in the mountains. When I carve away the hard parts, the tension with my mom, the uncertainty of my life with her, there is still a lot of good in this place. I haven’t been very good at recognizing it. But I want to start. I’ll look for a job based in Asheville. Or, if I have to, go back to my idea of freelancing the pants off of Western North Carolina tourist destinations. Whatever it takes, even if that means stocking shelves at the local Feed n’ Seed, I’ll find a way to stay.
But only if Brody will have me. The town is too small for us to peacefully coexist if he won’t. If my future is going to require me to get over him, it will have to be living somewhere that isn’t here.
“All right, I gotta go,” Kristyn says. “Jake wants to leave for dinner, and he’s tired of waiting on me.”
“Go get dinner. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Or before if you and Brody work things out. Okay, love you, bye!”
The sun is almost fully set now, the first fireflies dancing in the yard. I could stay out here all night, but I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and crying burns a lot of calories. I can’t fill the emptiness in my heart, but I can at least eat.
