Page 2 of Paper Hearts

That day never came but the memory still burns bright.

Aunt Leslie’s home remains the same. Though it’s one of the smaller homes on the lake, its memories are massive. This place with a screened porch was home to me every summer for six years. The rocking chairs on the wraparound porch have our names carved in them, and the hole in the front-door screen is still there from when Arya’s younger brother, Myles, flew through it chasing his dog, Buddy.

“I really hope Ben sleeps here,” Brenna notes, looking every bit the exhausted single mom she is.

“Hopefully the air-conditioning’s fixed.” I reach for my bags and Eddie’s in the back.

After Brenna gets Ben inside, I stand next to my car, taking in my surroundings, searching for anything that might be different.

Blowing out a breath, I close my eyes and then open them again. The last time I was here at this lake, my world was shattered. Everything I thought I knew about love and the one who showed me what it meant was destroyed.

When I look next door at the James’s house, a rush of memories surface, and they all tie to the truck in the driveway.

Oh.

Shit.

I blink rapidly, unprepared to see it. What the fuck is he doing here?

I’m not sure what I’m expecting coming to the lake house, but I’m not sure it involved seeing that familiar 1956 Ford with its rusty metal parked in the Jameses’ driveway. Okay, I had a feeling he’d come. I mean, his sister’s wedding is tomorrow, but part of me thought—hoped actually—that maybe Myles is driving it now. Not likely. Ender would never part with that truck, even to give it to Myles. It’s a piece of him and defines who he is. Rough on the outside, older beyond his years, but still, commendable in his own way.

“Shit,” I mumble, stepping away from the car.

Harper, one of my four older sisters, meets me outside, her smile as big as her round belly. She’s due next month, and her ass could attest to that. “You look amazing,” I tell her, because she does. She’s glowing and happy.

As the summer heat blasts me, the air feels different already. Maybe not the humidity, that’s always been that way—a permanent hint of oncoming rain in a sky full of bright blue—but it’s like the atmosphere is shifting to make room for impending doom.

“Hads!” She gleams, her sweaty hands gripping my wrists as she tugs me closer. “It’s been… like… years!”

“Harper.” I laugh. “I saw you at Christmas.”

“Right. Maybe I forgot. Pregnancy brain.” She looks over my shoulder into the car. “Where’s Eddie?”

“With Mom. They’re coming up tonight.”

“Oh, right. You just got back from New York, didn’t you?”

I nod. I had enough time to pick up Brenna on my way and Mom swore to me she’d have Eddie here before the wedding.

Returning the hug, I gaze across the way to the truck and then back at Harper. We make small talk as I retrieve my other bags from behind my seat. That’s when she notices my attention next door.

“I can’t believehecame back.” Harper shakes her head, looking over at his truck and then away, just as quickly as I did. “Does he know?”

I frown, unprepared for the way my stomach twists even before he’s mentioned. I can’t believe it either, but it’s his sister’s wedding. He was probably forced to attend. “Not that I know of. I didn’t know he was going to be here.”

No one has seen Ender—including me—since my and Arya’s graduation party six years ago. Remember when I said love was destroyed for me that day? It has everything to do with Ender James. He joined the Navy from what Arya said, and he’s now working down in Gainesville laying tile. Other than that, no word, and especially not to me, the girl he left behind. The truth is, I’m not sure if it was Ender’s intention to leave that night, but he did and he made damn sure nobody could find him.

I never got an answer as to why—a question a girl like me, the one looking for the story, the underlining meaning—needed. And I’ll admit, part of me, the story seeker, thinks maybe after all this time I will finally get my answer if I see him.

Some would wonder if I’ve moved on. You tell me. I wrote a book about him, because his memory was literally haunting me. If that doesn’t spell crazy, I don’t know what does. So, no, I haven’t moved on.

“Hazel and Becca aren’t coming. They bitched out,” Harper tells me, fanning herself with her hands.

“Figures.” I knew Becca couldn’t make it. And after my twenty-first birthday, that’s probably for the better. Since that night, there’d been a definite shift in my relationship with all my sisters, and I doubt things will ever be the same.

With my bags in hand, I follow Harper inside and we lounge around Aunt Leslie’s with Brenna and Ben as I wait for Arya to call so we can go over anything she needs me to do as her maid of honor.

After an hour of waiting for Arya to call, I’m getting antsy. I don’t want to walk over there and knock on the door. I really want to know if that’s Ender’s truck in the driveway, and the fact he might be over there, a few hundred feet from me, has my stomach in knots.

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