Page 9 of Below the Far Horizon
He hadn’t figured that out when movement caught his eye, and he looked up.
It was the woman who had been sitting on the bench.
He put a pleasant look on his face, although he dreaded the interaction. She’d be offended because he didn’t recognize her, he’d be embarrassed and surprised when she told him who she was.
Then, the wind caught her hair, and a microexpression blinked across her face, and suddenly everything clicked in his brain. He knew exactly who she was.
Four
Grace couldn’t believe she was walking toward the man who reminded her of her high school crush, Trevor. But since she was pretty sure it was his older brother, Jimmy, she figured she’d go talk to him. Although she wasn’t sure why.
She didn’t want to know what was going on in Trevor’s life, but after seeing the man walk by, she couldn’t do anything but sit there and think about asking him about Trevor. She had put Trevor out of her mind when she got married to Lonnie. Even though Lonnie hadn’t compared to Trevor. That should have been her first clue that she was making a mistake, but she had just figured that it was her first love and all of that, and those memories were bound to loom larger-than-life, even though they couldn’t be accurate. After all, Trevor had just been a teenager when they’d gone out. He couldn’t possibly be as special as what she remembered him as being.
And she tried to tell herself it was perfectly natural for her to be curious about him. His brother would expect her to ask about him. In fact, he’d probably think it was odd if she didn’t ask. If he even recognized her, which he probably didn’t.
She wasn’t entirely sure it was Jimmy.
Still, as far as she knew, none of his family lived in town, except forhis dad, who lived alone, since his wife had left him a few years ago. She remembered her mom talking about that.
Regardless, her feet practically went on their own accord, hunting for the man until she found him sitting at a beautiful display of tulips. She hadn’t been back far enough to see it, or she might have been sitting there. She only made it to the water which she loved.
“Excuse me,” she said, realizing that it was a little bit rude of her to stop and talk to someone who was obviously here for some purpose and wanted to be alone. Still, she eyed his face as he looked up with polite interest and not irritation.
At least, it was polite interest until he stood looking at her for a bit, and then something that looked a lot like horror crossed his face. She didn’t expect Jimmy to be super thrilled to see her. After all, she had broken Trevor’s heart and done it in a not very nice way. Anyone who loved him couldn’t be faulted for not caring for her.
She hadn’t thought about that, but it was too late for her to turn around and leave unless she really wanted to be rude.
“Yeah?” the man said, and he seemed a little less guarded.
“I’m sorry. You remind me of someone I used to know.”
“I do?” the man said, and he seemed to have control of his expression again, because the look of horror had disappeared, and polite interest had taken its place.
“You do. I might have known your brother as a teen. Are you Jimmy Gillett?”
His brows went up, and his eyes slid away for just a second, reminding her of the way Lonnie’s did every time he was going to lie to her. It was a tell she could recognize easily now, but one she had missed her entire marriage.
Finally, the man took a breath and looked back. “It’s tempting to me to say that I’m Jimmy.”
There. She was right. His eyes slid away because he’d been thinking about lying. She almost congratulated herself. After all, that was because of her husband cheating. Through the betrayal and the divorce and all that pain, something good came out of it. Some skills she could use in real life. Although, why she would be happy that she could tell that people were lying was beyond her. Lies did not make her happy.
“I’m sorry. You just look an awful lot like him.”
“That makes sense. He’s my brother.”
It took her all of a second and a half for those words to sink down and for the meaning to become clear. Trevor had one brother and one sister. If this wasn’t Jimmy, but Jimmy was his brother, that meant she was talking to Trevor.
Now she really did want to turn around and run away, and she didn’t want to care that it would be rude. After the way she left him, that’s probably what he was expecting anyway. Maybe she should just give him what he expected out of her, which was for her to be rude and unkind.
Although, during the entire time they’d been together, she’d never been anything like that. She’d been herself, more herself than she’d ever been able to be with anyone in her life before. Trevor made her feel completely at ease and had loved her for exactly who she was. She didn’t feel like she had put on any show for him and had the express feeling that if she had, he wouldn’t have loved her. Because it was her authenticity that he admired the most.
Most likely, she just remembered wrong. After all, first loves had a tendency to take up a lot of room in a person’s brain.
She finally got her scattered wits together and said, “Then you must be Trevor.” While she spoke, she was trying to figure out how she could extract herself from the situation. Could she say her mother was having an emergency? Could she pretend her phone rang? Could she send an SOS to…who? Her sisters wouldn’t have any idea what she wanted, and she’d have to take her phone out to do it anyway.
Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her, and she wouldn’t have to say her name.
“Yes.” He spoke, and his words were measured. “And you are Grace.” He paused, for what, she wasn’t sure. “I assume you’re not still my girlfriend, even though you never officially broke up with me. You just left.”
