Page 35 of Crashing Into Me
Because you don’t get to choose who that is, the inner voice replied to her again. Looking up at the moon and the beautiful light show it cast, she knew she would never see this view again. Not him, not this house, never step back into the town of Hamby. The tears sprang to her eyes again, and this time she didn’t wipe them away. She reached into the jacket pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
She pressed “Paula” on the screen and waited for the familiar tone of her best friend’s voice. It rang three times and went to voicemail. She hated leaving messages and hit “End”. She looked down at the phone and hit “Messages”, and then “Carmen”. She pressed “Reply” and typed through her saltwater-drenched face.
LANA: I’m coming home.
A few seconds passed, then her phone vibrated.
CARMEN: Why?
LANA: Long story. Ask the charge nurse to put me on the schedule in seventy-two hours. The shift doesn’t matter.
CARMEN: OK...Where’d you go again?
LANA: Hamby, GA.
CARMEN: What, too hot to handle?
Lana looked up at the sky, then at the birdbath covered in snow.
LANA: Heat’s the thing that’s the problem here.
She turned the phone off and slipped it back into her pocket. She wiped her face, then took a long, icy breath in. Out of nowhere, Kayden’s warm arms were wrapped around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder, and it made her jump. She tried keeping her head tilted to the sky, hoping he wouldn’t see her still wet face, then he kissed her neck.
“What are you doing out here?” he whispered in her ear.
She shrugged, being unable to form words and trying to hold back everything she wanted and needed to say. He turned her around, and when he saw the tears on her face, his brows furrowed.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“It’s, it’s...,” she had to stop herself now as it was on the tip of her tongue.
Maureen’s threat was a real one. She looked into his handsome face and, for the second time, she lied to him, and it killed her inside.
“It’s just so beautiful out here,” she replied, wrapping her arms around him so she didn’t have to look him in the eyes anymore.
“Those don’t look like tears of someone enjoying the view,” he replied, tilting her head up.
“You sure that’s it?” he asked, searching her face.
She tried averting her eyes from his for far different reasons than before.
“I’m sure, baby, it just overwhelmed me, was all,” she said, forcing a big smile, and that wasn’t a complete lie.
“When we build our house, it’ll have a view three times as good as this. You’ll need an IV if you keep this up,” he teased, kissing the top of her head.
She wanted to say no; she wouldn’t get the chance to live in that house with him, because his mother’s actions against her would not only make her a liar but also another person on a long list of people who had betrayed him. But she didn’t say anything. She held onto him for dear life, trying to mentally remember every curve of his body, every kiss, and every touch. Pretty soon, it would be all she had left of him and Hamby. Just memories that would eventually fade away and her with them.
HEATHCLIFF TROTTEDOUTSIDE in the snowed-over parking lot of Hamby P.D., his thermos and keys in hand. It had been a long, boring day of Hulu marathons at work, and helooked forward to his warm bed. As he reached the P.D.’s snowmobile, the flip phone on his belt clip started to ring. “Maureen” flashed across the small green LCD panel on the front, and he flipped it up in a hurry.
“Hey there,” he answered, the grin on his face deepening the wrinkles on the corners of his mouth.
“I’m in the mood for company,” she replied, and the line went dead.
He looked around the empty street, surprised at her candor, but giddy like a schoolboy. He put his ski cap on, jumped onto the snowmobile, and took off down the street. He’d waited almost an entire lifetime for Maureen Capshaw, and he wasn’t about to let the fact that it was two o’clock in the morning stop him now.
THEY WERE UP before dawn,and Kayden was in a remarkably chipper mood, as was to be expected. He thought his mother actually was having a change of heart when it came to him. Lana observed him as he excitedly held a conference call with Taylor about when the construction would begin. The living room was serving as his makeshift office until he could secure office space in town. The snow plows were moving in from Shelby, and pretty soon, people would be able to roam about again.
She’d be able to do what she had to as well. When he was done on the phone, he beamed another smile her way, and she tried her hardest to match it, hoping he would believe it and not question it.
