Page 28 of Meet Me in the Valley
“She left that night, right? The night we met for real?”
Logan and I always called it that—the night we met for real.We’d known each other in the way people do in a small town. Same schools, same faces, passing familiarity. But that night at Torren’s spot was different. That night, we were two people running from our own messes, and somehow, we ran straight into each other.
“Yes. It was so long ago. I miss her, but at the same time I’m so angry. And now everything with Mom …” I trail off, skipping another rock into the water.
Two skips. Damn.
“I had a thought that came to me earlier.”
“Yeah? Tell me,” Logan says. His rock gets six skips. I stick my tongue out at him.
“I feel this pull. To Nora.” I take a break from tossing rocks and invite Logan to sit next to me at the end of the dock. Like old times. “I know she’s in Las Vegas.”
Logan’s eyes widen. “Really? How do you know that?”
“She sent me a postcard after I graduated from high school. No return address,” I say, pausing. “But in the letter, she said … ‘When you’re ready, come find me.’”
Nora made it clear when she left—she didn’t want to be found. Not right away. She knew it would wreck our parents, but when Nora set her mind to something, that was it. No talking her out of it. No changing her course.
I knew the night she walked out it’d be a long time before I saw her again. She was eighteen. Legally free to go. But did I think she’d vanish completely? Cut us off for over twelve years?
No. Not even close.
“You asked me earlier what’s next? Well, I’m ready now. I need to go and find her,” I sigh. “For Mom.”
“Alright. I’m in.” Logan’s voice lands with easy confidence. He claps his hands on his thighs, that familiar crooked grin lighting up his face.
And, okay, maybe my chest too.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got a favor to cash in. It helps when your dad is the chief of police. I’ve got friends in high places, baby.”
He says the wordbabyin a joking, totally non-romantic way. But it still sends tingles down my spine with the way it sounds coming out of his mouth. Excitement surges through me, eager and optimistic at Logan’s confidence.
“Seriously? You’ll do that for me?”
Logan’s arm drapes around my shoulder like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “Of course. It’s the least I can do. You know I love your mom, right?” he murmurs, tucking my hair behind my ear in simple affection. I nod, tears threatening to fall again.
“And you know I love you.”
Like a friend, Tia. He loves you like a friend.
“Let me do this for you. I’ll take care of everything.”
His words lift the weight I’ve been carrying all day, peeling back the edge of my grief just enough to breathe. My body feels spent, like the sorrow has hollowed me out, and all I can do is lean on him—literally, and in every way that matters.
A single tear slips down my cheek as I rest my head on his shoulder. He wraps me tighter and presses a knowing kiss into my hair. That simple gesture sparks something fierce and tender all at once, heat curling low in my stomach, warmth rising in my chest.
Then, as if the universe is in on it too, an airplane cuts across the sky, sudden and silent like a shooting star. Logan and I bothlook up, the moment stretching between us like it was written just for us.
“Logan?
“Hmm?”
“Where are they going?” I ask him, when suddenly our fingers find each other and intertwine.
“Anywhere you want them to.”
