Page 17 of Somewhere Only We Know
I drop a $20 in the tip jar. “Thank you.”
I don’t bother saying goodbye to anyone else. So I push out the door onto the street hoping I can leave before I’m stopped.
“Hey!” A voice yells out to me moments later.
Fuck! Stopping, I turn and see Kamryn stomping her way over here.
“Nice try. We’re not done talking. So you’re going to take me to my car,” she orders in the way Jax used to.
We hold our stare and it’s clear she’s not going to let up. “Fine. Where to?”
“My car is at Jax’s place.”
Because of course it is.I drop my head back and decide now is a good time to curse that we’re in the same city. Cincinnati of all places.
Stepping back a few paces, I motion Kamryn to follow me. Silently, we walk up the short hill to my truck. And because I’m not a total douche, I open the door for her. Rounding the back, I exhale roughly before hopping in the driver’s seat.
“You’re her Nate,” Kamryn says when I start up and give a swift nod. “I may not have been as attentive when I graduated college, but I still listened when my sister told me about this guy friend of hers. Which was not a lot, might I add. My sister is not as open as I am.”
We hold eye contact until I force myself to look away. “Which way?” I finally ask before I pull into the street.
“She’s at the other end. So take a right at the third street,” she says and sits back in the passenger seat. “Wow. You really did a number on my sister.”
I swallow through the lump in my throat. “I didn’t mean to leave the way I did.”
“You said your dad was sick?”
“Yeah.”
“And how is he?”
I know Kamryn doesn’t mean it in a rude way. “He passed away before I graduated.”
The doctors could never figure out how or why a seemingly healthy, middle-aged man could pass away so fast. One minute he was going to his weekly appointments and the next he passed away in his sleep.
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
“Thank you.” I say and flip the turn signal on and slow to turn. “You may think I left Jax and never thought of her.But you’d be wrong. She’s all I’ve thought about since I left. But I don’t regret going home and spending those unknown final moments with my dad.”
Kamryn is silent but instructs me to take another right. “I want to be mad at you. My sister–she helped me through my grief of losing Liam while still trying to get over you. But I also want to commend you for putting your family first. I guess that’s one thing you and my sister have in common.”
I glance over at Kamryn and see she’s blinking away tears for what her sister went through. I never so much as looked at another girl my final semester. And when I got drafted, I focused on baseball. Meanwhile, Jax never left my mind.
“Turn right at the next street and then she’s at the new builds.” Kamryn instructs.
I do what she says and tighten my grip on my steering wheel. “I never got over her.” I confess.
“Had your dad not gotten sick, do you think you two would be together?”
“Yes.” I answer with zero hesitation and slow down once I get to the new townhomes and whistle. Jax is a complete stranger to me so I have no clue what she does for a job.
Had my dad not gotten sick, we would have graduated together. Those plans we made would have come true. I mean, who knows if Jax would have followed me to wherever I was drafted but I know we would have stayed together. She loves being around her family so she may have stayed home and just traveled to meet me where my games were being played. But I do know, in the depths of my soul, that she and I would be married by now. Maybe with a kid or two. The thing about futures is that to operate, they need wrenches. That’s what happened with us. A wrench was thrown and I have no idea how to fix the damage.
Kamryn points to the last unit and I roll to a stop when I pullover. “My sister settled with her ex.”
I look around her toward the front door and then at Kamryn. “What do you mean she settled?”
“Jax loves love. She always has. You probably know this. And I think she was constantly searching for what she had with you in other people. That led her to someone who was the complete opposite of you in every aspect.”
