Page 6 of Fall Back
With a huff, I push the window open after I remove the screen. This experience makes me realize this shouldn’t be as easy as it is. Fucking hell. Am I going to have to talk to the landlord about how it’s too easy to get into this window? Because I don’t know how doors work and didn’t think of taking my keys with me when I took my coffee to my back porch?
Yeah, I don’t think I’m interested in having that conversation any time soon.
I grip the windowsill and then let go before trying again, turning my hands a different direction. It feels better, like I can hoist myself up easier. This is already going to be difficult, so anything I can do to make it easier would be preferable.
Just as I’m about to jump and use the momentum to get up higher on the windowsill and tumble inside my house, I hear someone behind me. “Freeze,” the man barks and I comply. “Now step back toward the sound of my voice and interlock your fingers behind your head.”
I do as I’m told and stand facing the house even though I desperately want to turn around. While I respect them, cops are kind of on my shit list considering they weren’t willing todo anything about Dave. Their hands were tied, I got it, but I deserve to be safe too.
“Turn around slowly.”
When I do, my gaze locks with a pair of striking blue eyes I would know anywhere. They’re the same eyes of the boy I used to have a crush on when I was younger. But he never looked at me twice and I understood why.
I was younger than him and he was best friends with my older brother, Noel. Jared Taylor wouldn’t have done a thing to jeopardize his friendship with Noel. Not for me when I had stars in my eyes, but no idea of my place in the world. Not when he had confident older girls hanging all over him and wanting his attention. Still, it wasn’t easy feeling invisible, especially when there were other ways I was struggling to fit in as well.
Noel and Jared went off and joined the military right after I finished my sophomore year in high school. In a lot of ways, it felt like Noel abandoned me and the ranch. Fletcher, our oldest brother, was floundering, stuck between duty to Limitless Ranch and the love of his life. In the end, Limitless won, or maybe the distance between him and Eden won. I’ll never really know.
It doesn’t really matter now considering Eden came back to Wintervale almost a year ago. Even though Eden came back with a son, Macklin, Fletcher didn’t hesitate to go after the woman who got away. I don’t think he ever stopped loving Eden, even when he tried. My brother was in a holding pattern in his life for far too long and it showed.
He became a grump who only focused on the ranch. Sure, Limitless required a lot of work, but Fletcher treated work like a punishment. I didn’t know the man knew how to relax.
I saw a different man when I came back home for their wedding. He was smiling. Fucking smiling! I had almost forgotten what my brother looked like when he wasn’t trying to carry the weight of the world on his back.
Now, the man does have a lot to smile about. Between Eden being back in his life, Macklin, who is an amazing little boy, and the baby they’ll be welcoming in a few months, life is good for him.
Seeing him happy along with Noel, who found a woman of his own—something I wasn’t sure would ever happen—made me really look at my life. I had to wonder if I was missing more than was worth missing. It wasn’t something I considered when I moved away, but ten years later, I needed to examine the possibility. When I was 18, all I could see was how small Wintervale was and all I could feel was how much I didn’t fit in.
But did I not fit in or was it easier to say I was misunderstood and stop trying?
I was a kid who didn’t know any better.
Still, leaving allowed me to go after the career I wanted and find success. I can’t say leaving was all bad. Still, coming home for the wedding made me wonder if there was more to Wintervale than I wanted to see when I looked at it from my rearview.
Now I’m back. When I finally tell people I’m here to stay, I’ll say it’s because of all the things I was missing with my family. But, really, I’m running.
I just don’t want to mention that part to anyone if I can avoid it. Especially my brothers; they’d freak the fuck out. And I wouldn’t even be able to blame them for it.
Now it looks like my cover is going to be blown sooner than I wanted.
Jared blinks a few times at me, surprise shining back at me in his blue eyes. Those same eyes sweep down my body and then back up again, heating as they do. I’ve never seen him look at me with want written all over his face. Then again, I haven’t seen him in a long damn time except for briefly seeing him across the room at the wedding.
We weren’t friends back in the day and that never changed. My crush was that of a girl who didn’t know better, and who didn’t understand all the reasons we would never have happened. It was easy to pin my heart to him and then use it as another reason to leave and never look back.
Except here we are face to face.
“Carson?” Jared’s voice wavers slightly before he swallows hard and clears his throat. “Carson Burns? What the fuck are you doing here and why are you trying to break into this house?” He spits the next words, “And what are you wearing?”
My eyes narrow and I bristle, totally ignoring the fact that Jared, now a police officer, is pointing his gun at me because he thinks I’m a damn intruder, even though I’m far from it. My hands slam down on my hips as anger bubbles up and allows me to ignore the fact that this police officer gave me instructions on where my hands should be.
“I don’t see why that is any of your business Jared Taylor,” I snap at him.
Amusement flashes in his eyes before he masks it with a scowl and arches an eyebrow as if to ask me if I’m serious. I am. At least, I think I am.
“My badge and gun would indicate that it is, in fact, my business Carson,” his words come out coated in laughter which he’s trying to mask. He’s failing miserably.
I huff out a breath, annoyed that he’s the only person other than Maggie, who knows I’m in town. I’ve been able to fly under the radar so far and now everything is falling apart right in front of my eyes. Damn it.
“Are you trying to coerce information from me using the authority of your badge?” I try and sound strong, but even I can hear it’s more bluster than anything else.
