Page 15 of The Homecoming

She nodded. “I’m just not in the mood for this.”

He studied her intensely for a moment with dark eyes that may have seen through her soul as she shifted in her seat. Without another word, Daniel announced they were taking off, to which the others protested by saying the night was still young. They left anyway, but not before she made a quick glance around the parking lot while waiting for Dan to unlock the jeep. Autumn leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.

“If the job is making you this miserable after a week, just quit,” he said.

“It’s not that,” she replied.

“Autumn, you’ve been so weird and jumpy all week. A failing travel agency job isn’t worth this.”

Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she turned toward the window and hoped he couldn’t tell, but when he pulled off the road into the grass at the edge of a cornfield, it was obvious he had. He put the car in park and paused. “Are you ending things with me?” he asked, his voice almost a whisper.

“Oh god, no,” she replied. She wiped her eyes. “No, please don’t think that.”

“Please tell me what’s going on.” He laced his fingers between hers and brought them to his lips.

“Well,” she began, “I left Knoxville in the middle of the night, stuffed my car with clothes and few personal things, but left my furniture with my roommate. I changed my cell phone number and quit my job that day.” She stopped, studying the stalks of corn ahead of them.

“Why?” he asked. It was more of a prompt than a question.

“We’d dated for two years, but he started saying things about getting married when we graduated. And I didn’t want that. So, I did what I thought was right and broke up with him.”

“I take it he didn’t appreciate the gesture.”

She shook her head. “He kept coming over or calling, talking about how we could just be friends. He begged me to stay friends with him and I tried—if only to appease him—but it didn’t work out. The more I told him to leave me alone, the worse he got. He’d follow me, he’d come into the store where I worked and watch me, he’d leave notes and cards taped to my door and my car, he’d call me at all hours. I tried complaining to the police after a while, but nothing he did was actually illegal. I tried to date again after a couple of months, but the two guys I went out on one date each with never spoke to me again. I found out through friends that Mark had gone up to both of them, said he was my fiancé, and that they were to leave me alone.”

“Holy shit,” Dan replied.

“I knew I couldn’t stay there. I had to leave, but I just needed to make it to graduation.”

“But what does that have to do…” He paused, connecting the dots about her fears. “He’s here.”

“I don’t know. This week at the travel agency, I caught glimpses of someone on the street that might have been him. I’ve taken different routes home and when I go places, make four right turns to make sure I’m not being followed.”

“You should have told me sooner,” he said.

Autumn shook her head. “I sound like a paranoid loon.”

Dan looked at her for a minute before asking, “Did he hurt you, physically?”

She looked away.

“What’s his name?” Dan asked in a tone that sent a shiver down her spine.

“I don’t know if he’s actually here,” she protested.

“If he’s not, then he doesn’t have anything to worry about.”

She didn’t reply to that.

“Look, I don’t like what he did before, and I won’t go after him, but if he comes here now and tries to start shit with you, then I’ll finish it. Let him walk up to me and tell me he’s your fiancé,” he suggested, leaning over to touch her chin. She turned toward him and he planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

Summer

7.

The forecast called for full sun and said it would hit ninety-nine degrees with a sharp rise in humidity. In such misery, the water was the perfect place to be on a Saturday afternoon. The boat swayed in the gentle current. Autumn, Hannah, and Rebecca sat around the front with their feet propped up. With the sun on her legs and the wind in her hair, Autumn stretched out and inhaled the fresh air. Kyle had borrowed his parents' boat and had invited everyone out to the lake. The guys were all crowded around the helm, fascinated with the controls. That morning, they’d gathered at the marina and loaded up on food, drinks, and sunscreen. The lake was bustling with others who’d had the same idea. The trip out had made Hannah queasy, but luckily, motion sickness medicine had been stored on board. Now that they were anchored, Hannah sipped on Sprite and didn’t look green anymore. The lake was surrounded by trees and had several birds gliding close to the water in search of fish.

“Alright ya’ll,” Kyle called out. “Last one in is a—”

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