Page 15 of Love Story

I shaved carefully, avoiding the worst of the bruised areas, and brushed my teeth until I felt halfway human again.Clean and presentable, but not quite the version of me I liked to put out into the world.I ignored the lingering aches and the reminder of how little control I had left.

My stomach rumbled, loud enough to pull me out of my thoughts.Food.That was the next step.I dressed warmly—thick sweater, jeans, wool socks—and grabbed the coat Harriet had found for me and the half-finished Adam Nelson cozy mystery I was re-reading for the tenth time, which I tucked into a large pocket.My boots felt stiff as I tugged them on, but they’d do until I broke them in.

“Time to face the real world.”

The connecting door to the main house creaked as I pushed it open.The smell of breakfast hit me immediately—coffee, toast, maybe bacon.Harriet had been busy.I stepped into the kitchen, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the faintest pull of something I hadn’t felt in months.

Belonging?Or just hunger.Either way, I was here and ready to face the world the best I could.

Aunt Harriet was already at the table, her sharp green gaze—much like mine—watching me over her coffee cup.

The warmth of Harriet’s kitchen wrapped around me like a familiar old blanket, and for a moment, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia so strong it almost hurt.We’d spent a few weeks here some summers when I was a kid—me and my parents.I could still picture them sitting here, laughing and talking as if we had all the time in the world.

I missed them both.The ache for my mom was sharper, still fresh even after all these years.I regretted how much I’d let work take over my life before she passed, how I’d put family second when she needed me most after the divorce and her diagnosis a few years later.And my dad?He was in Hawaii, half a world away, remarried, with a new family.

The memories were both comforting and bittersweet.The clatter of Harriet moving about brought me back to the present.Laughter from past summers was an old ghost, and I could almost see my younger self sitting at this table, grinning over stacks of pancakes drenched in syrup.

Harriet set a plate in front of me with a practiced efficiency that made me smile.“Right on time,” she said with a raised eyebrow.

Pancakes, of course, with a little glass pitcher of maple syrup sitting at the center of the table, gleaming like liquid gold.And bacon—so much bacon that I might die of happiness.

She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat across from me, her sharp gaze softening.“You know,” she said, her tone light, “Not that I don’t want you here, but I keep wondering why you didn’t go to Hawaii instead.Seems like a better choice than snowy New Hampshire.”

I didn’t explain.I couldn’t.She wouldn’t understand the tight leash of Boston’s reach or why Caldwell Crossing had been my first thought.Instead, I smiled faintly, picking up my fork.

“I’ll take bacon over beaches any day.”I dodged the question, and she snorted, clearly not buying it.

Still, she didn’t press.I was grateful for the food in front of me, but more than that, thankful for Harriet.I couldn’t tell her everything but being here felt like a small step toward piecing myself together.

“How’d you sleep?”Her tone was light, but I could feel the weight of her gaze.

“Fine,” I lied, taking a bite of pancake to avoid elaborating.Sleep was slightly—not much, but a little— easier here than it had been in Boston but saying that felt too… personal.“Better than the first two nights,” I added after she left silence for me to fill.She’d make a brilliant interrogator.

“You look so tired, sweetheart,” she murmured.

“I’ll catch up.”

She paused again, making more coffee.“What are you doing today?”

I waited for a beat, hoping she’d suggest something, but she waited for me to speak and fuck, I had no idea what I wanted to do.

I’m not in the city.

I’m not suffocating.

But what next?

“I think I’m going to go for a walk and see if I remember some old places.”

“Can I ask you to get me a few things at the store?”

“Sure.”

She nodded with approval and smiled.“Good, good.”

I wish anything felt good right now.

But I can do a store.

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