Page 4 of That One Night
The words made something flutter low in Emery’s stomach. The kind of flutter that reminded her she hadn’t kissed anyone but Trenton in nearly a decade. Hadn’t even thought about it.
Until now.
“I’m serious, Em.” Maisie’s voice softened again. “You already did the hard part. You left. Now it’s time to remember who you were before all of this. Beforehim.”
Emery swallowed hard, her throat tight.
Maisie had been through her own heartbreak last year. When her boyfriend moved to Texas and left her behind, she’d cried for a week. Then she’d booked a solo backpacking trip through Europe. That’s where she was headed tomorrow, until school restarted in the fall.
And Emery? She was heading back to a town she’d tried so hard to outgrow.
But apparently she was going with a list.
“Okay,” she said, folding the paper in half and tucking it into her bag, because she was all out of fight right now. “I’ll do it. I’ll do your damn list.”
Maisie beamed. “That’s my girl.” She pulled Emery into a fierce hug. “Now get out of here and go do something totally irresponsible. Preferably involving tequila.”
Emery smiled against her friend’s shoulder.
She had no idea what the summer would bring, but for the first time in a long while she wasn’t just bracing herself for survival.
She was heading home to start again.
Chapter
Two
“Hendrix Hartson,why aren’t you answering your phone?”
Hendrix looked up from the ground where he was repairing an irrigation line that had been leaking for a week, and tried to suppress a smile. His cousin Sabrina was pouting, her brows knitted the same way they used to when she didn’t get her way as a kid.
At twenty-six, his junior by three years, she could just about get away with it.
“I’m busy,” he pointed out, glancing at the water still trickling from the line. The sun was beating down, there was a farm full of animals that needed watering, and if he didn’t fix this pipe soon, there’d be hell to pay.
And also, he didn’t want to answer his calls.
Since he’d come home to Hartson’s Creek a couple of months ago, his phone had become a millstone. Constantly buzzing with texts from his brothers, missed calls from his mom, and naturally, daily Snapchats from Sabrina. Because his cousin was way too cool for a regular message.
“I’ve sent you, like, a dozen Snaps this week,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I even called you last night. And don’t tell me you were busy then. There’s nothing going on around here.”
She huffed and looked around at the expanse of farmland, golden wheat swaying alongside rows of sunlit corn.
“It’s so boring.” She shook her head.
“I’ll check my phone tonight,” he said, even though they both knew he wouldn’t.
“Liar.” She sighed like the weight of the world had landed on her shoulders. “I remember when you used to be fun.”
“When was that? Back in grade school?” he teased.
They’d always bonded over being the youngest in their loud, chaotic families. Her with three older brothers, him with two. At family parties they’d run wild, stuffing their faces with frosting, spiking lemonade with hot sauce. They once tied helium balloons to their Great Aunt Gina’s dog to see if he’d float.
He didn’t. And Aunt Gina hadnotbeen amused.
Finally stemming the leak, Hendrix stood, wiping his face with the hem of his dusty t-shirt and feeling the ache in his back.
