Page 19 of Take Me Home

He imagined teen Hazel driving herself on a wide detour, neatly cordoning off her old street and house and all the complicated feelings she had about them. “That must have sucked,” he said.

She refused his sympathy with a firm single shake of her head. “The point is, no, I don’t want to run into Justin. But that’s true of pretty much everyone in Lockett Prairie. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone.” She shrugged. “I’m just not that great with afters.”

“Afters?”

“After moves, breakups, quitting a job. Once I leave, I don’t go back. Ever.”

“That’s—”

“I know it’s crazy.”

He frowned. He was going to say it seemed sad, though what he’d really meant, on second thought, was lonely. “So, relationships are…”

“Fine while they last. Then, it’s—” She made a cutting motion with one finger across her throat. And with that gesture, he saw the exact moment when she locked up the brief access she’d given him. “You’re probably still friends with all your exes, right?”

“Sure, we’re cool, I guess.”

“Even the one you lived with? What happened with her?”

Ash half groaned, half laughed into his hands.

“What?”

“She cheated.”

Hazel’s eyebrows shot up. “And you’re still friends?”

“We’re…” He searched for a word to encompass his feelings about Brianna. “We just weren’t a good fit. She said my world was like this little shoebox, safe and cozy. Then, I guess, not so cozy. She said she cheated because she wasn’t feeling it anymore, but I kept trying to fix everything. She didn’t see another way out.”

“Wow, she really overshot on that one.”

Still, his feelings had never quite swung from hurt to hate. His sisters had blown up a group chat with so much vitriol toward Brianna that he’d ended up talkingthemdown instead of the other way around.

“The guy she cheated on me with cheated on her, so…” He shrugged. “Karma took care of it.”

“Sure. Karma.” She slapped her palms on the table, leaning across the table at him. “No, Asher. She cheated on you. Karma doesn’t ‘take care of it.’ ”

“It was a long time ago. Now she’s engaged to one of the trainers for the basketball team. Got me tickets to a few games this season.”

Hazel covered her face and mumbled into her palms, “Oh my God.”

The kitchen door swung open, and Ash straightened at the sight of Emeline bringing their food, braced for another discomfiting exchange. “It’s hot,” she barked, slapping his hand hard. Then, she set everything down with record speed and quite a lot of noise and left.

“I think I’m witnessing you develop PTSD in real time,” Hazel remarked.

“And enjoying it.”

Despite the terrifying service, the food at least looked good. He drizzled syrup over his chicken and waffles and passed the pitcher to her.

Hazel scraped all the fruit off her pancakes before drowning them in syrup.

“Hold on. There were regular pancakes on the menu if you didn’t want the fruit.”

She beamed at him. “I know.”

He shook his head and cut into his chicken. “So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

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