Page 39 of The Ghost of You

I hate the country club. There is no sense of privacy there. Rumor after rumor is all that happens. Think the real housewives but on a small-town level. I still can’t believe my sister is dating the son of the president of the country club. She was a tomboy, hated everything about that part of the town, but once she met Connor, she had hearts pouring from her eyes. He is a nice guy from what Becca has told me.

“Well, you can indirectly tell her it won’t be happening.”

Becca sighs into the phone. “Anna May, you know I love you and I have never pressured you to come back here. But this is important. I bet Connor doesn’t want to propose until he knows you’ll be here. And your parents miss you.”

I pinch my fingers between my brow. “Becca, I can’t.”

She doesn’t say anything and I don’t expect her to. Not once has she asked me to come home. She understands how much it hurts to be there, to see everything that reminds me of Kyle. She knows I would relive every memory we ever had everywhere I go. It was the reason I left. The pain of Hartswell was too much when the whole town was involved in the story of Anna May and Kyle.

“I need to get to work,” I tell her as I battle back the memories fighting their way to the surface.

“Okay. I miss you. I’ll talk with you soon.”

I hang up and grab a throw pillow and scream into it. My mind suffocating me. I attempt to meditate, Seraphina’s way of eliminating negative energy but my mind won’t free itself of the prison I put it in.

I look at the clock and see I have fifteen minutes to get to the yoga studio. I rush out the door and make it just in time.

After I teach my two classes, which went horribly, I step into the office to grab my things.

“You doing okay?”

“Hmm?” I ask as I knock over a glass of water at the coffee bar.

Seraphina stands up from her desk and looks at me. “That was the worst I have ever seen you teach. At first I thought you were sick, but then I noticed you were in your head.”

“What are you talking about?”

She clears her throat as she sits on the edge of her desk. “Well when you are sick you teach the class fine but you tend to do less of the actual movements.”

“So?” I have no idea where she is going with this.

“Today you barely talked and when you did it was monotonous, robotic.”

I lean down at pick up the glass and wipe up the spilled water. “I’m just having a shit day.”

I look up and she is staring at me with her arms crossed. I know that look. That’s the look of talk or I will fire you.

“I talked to Becca this morning. Stirred up memories.”

“Why do you still talk to her?”

I scrunch my brows at that. “Because she was my best friend my whole life.”

“Until college when I became your best friend. Then she got weird.”

“She was jealous I had a new best friend.”

“Hmm,” she replies with attitude.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t think it’s weird that Becca never asks you to go home?”

I shake my head. “She respects my decision to stay the hell out of Hartswell.”

Seraphina tilts her head to the side. “Yet your family doesn’t?”

“They just want to see me. And they can visit me.”

---