Page 1 of Back To You

Prologue

Annie

When you love someone, you let them go. If they come back, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.

That’s what all good romance movies and books always say.

They remind you that love is always enough.

But what about when it isn’t?

Is love enough when you come from two completely different worlds? Is love enough when you have two completely different ideas of what the future holds? Is love enough when your “friends” corner you in a room at a party the night before everyone leaves for college? Is love enough when those girls show you a recording of your boyfriend confirming every single internal worry you ever had about how you weren’t good enough for him?

Because it isn’t.

Love isn’t enough when one of you comes from wealth and stability and the other comes from hardship and insecurity. When one of you comes from a family that knows you’ll do great things and the other comes from one that told you that you would never make it out of the trailer park.

When one of you has their whole life planned: college, law school, a career at his dad’s law firm. And the other is moving across town to bartend at some dive bar and enrolling in community college with no idea of what to do with her life.

We were never meant to make it past high school.

We were never meant for a happily ever after.

Luke was always meant to realize the shy, introverted girl he sat next to in first grade wasn’t going to be part of his epic love story.

You think you know someone after 12 years of being their other half.

Turns out, the person closest to you is the one who holds all the power to hurt you the most.

Chapter 1

Seven years ago – August

Annie

Walking into Lenny’s feels more like walking into a home than my real one ever did—the familiar neon lights, the high-top tables, the big bar taking up most of the space, the rock music playing in the background. It hasn’t changed a bit since the last time I was here a few years ago.

The only thing missing is my father slumped over at the bar barking for another drink.

“What are you doing here, Vivian?” Emmett’s voice brings me back to the present, and the use of my full name jars me. Luke is the one who started calling me Annie when we first met, but the nickname didn’t stick for everyone else until freshman year.

The only people who still call me Vivian are my mom and the four girls I used to call my friends.

“I need a job,” I reply to Emmett, but there’s no way he can hear me with how quiet my voice comes out. There’s only one other guy in here besides us, being that it’s just after eleven in the morning.

My family has known Emmett’s since I was a kid. Emmett, being over a decade older, used to keep an eye on me here when his dad was the one running the place.

I haven't seen Emmett in a few years, not since his parents moved down to Florida and Emmett stayed here in Wisconsin to run the bar, renaming it to honor his late sister.

His huge stature and tattoos are meant to scare off anyone looking for something other than a drink, but he’s never scared me. Not when I remember what he looked like before all the ink and muscles.

"What?" Emmett barks from behind the bar. His arms are crossed and his permanent scowl is in full effect.

I didn’t expect Emmett and I to reunite after these past years with happy tears and hugs, but I have to resist rolling my eyes at how he thinks his “I’m big and tough” act works on me.

Lenny’s has been more of a constant in my life than either of my parents. Coloring or doing homework in the booth in the far-right corner was how I spent most of my childhood. Until Dad went to rehab and ran off with his sponsor four years ago, right after my mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia, refusing any and all help I tried like hell to give her.

It was the only place I could think of running to after what happened last night.

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