Page 23 of Always a Chance
He was right, of course, but I couldn’t unhear those words.Gone forever. Never come back.
I didn’t realize until that moment how much I wanted that all to be a lie. I wanted to move past everything that had happened, to make myself forgive Johnny. Or really, to convince myself he’d never been to blame. But if what happened to Gianna wasn’t his fault, that meant it all fell on me.
I burst through the door of the Surf Hut, needing to get out of view, away from the vortex that was Johnny Kelly. The bell chimed above the door, and I froze. This place looked different. Ten years ago, it had been little more than an ice cream place with a weird mix of surf lessons and a rack or two of souvenirs.
Now, every inch of the shop was stuffed with everything I could imagine. T-shirts, snacks, tourist gifts, scuba gear, surfboards. I forced my feet forward, breathing in the cool air conditioning and letting my heartrate settle.
I browsed the shelves but didn’t see much of the items in front of me. All I could picture was that gorgeous woman with Johnny. There’d been something familiar about her, but I hadn’t thought about it as she smiled at him.
I wasn’t jealous, couldn’t be. Johnny was my target, the subject of the piece I needed to write to keep my job and maintain my great big-city life far away from the drama of Gulf City. In New York, everything was simpler. I was just an anonymous ant on a hill of bigger, more important ants. And also very bad at metaphors.
Someone could walk through Manhattan and not see a single person they knew. There was a power in that. Our mistakes weren’t amplified. No one got too close. Not like here, where I apparently couldn’t escape the Kellys.
I stopped, almost running right into Tanner as he crouched down, stacking candy on a shelf. He looked up at me, blinking, before recognition dawned. “Talia, hey.”
Anger bubbled up in me. Anger at my father for shutting me out, at myself for letting it happen. And at Johnny, most of all. “I was just leaving.” I turned on my heel, ready to book it to my car and get out of here.
I’d almost made it to the door when it opened. Finley walked through, digging through her purse. When she looked up, a smile spread across her face. I lived next door to the Kellys my entire life. Johnny was my person, but Finley had always been my favorite. Quiet, sure, but she was also the nicest person I’d ever met.
“Tali!” She yanked me into a hug. “My mom told me you were in town. I stopped by your house earlier, but Gigi didn’t know where you were. It’s so good to see you.”
Those were more words than I’d heard her utter at one time before. The years changed us all. Finally, I returned the hug. Other than Gianna, no one had welcomed me back like this, and I hadn’t realized how much I needed it.
A tear escaped my eye as I leaned away. I wiped at it, but not before Finley saw.
“Hey.” She smiled. “It’s good you’re back. You know that, right?”
I wiped furiously at my eyes, unable to stop the tears. “I’m not back… just… here for business.”
Finley didn’t look like she believed me, but she nodded. “Come on, I think you need some ice cream. It’s on the house.”
Tanner appeared at the end of the aisle. “Finny, you do realize I own this place and not you?”
He did? That was a surprise, but it shouldn’t have been. Tanner had always been smart. Definitely smart enough to find a way to make a living around what he loved.
Finley reached the glass case containing the ice cream. “And you, my wonderful brother, would not deprive a sad girl of life-saving treatments.”
He crossed his arms and stared at her but didn’t stop her from scooping out two giant scoops into a waffle cone and handing it to me. I should have turned it down and walked away, but my feet wouldn’t move. “Cookie dough?”
Finley smiled as she took her own cone, filled it, and shut the freezer. “If you don’t like it anymore, I can get you something else. I mean, I know people change in ten years, but ice cream preferences are forever.”
When had Finley turned into such a babbler? I found myself liking this version of her. “True that.” I wasn’t sure how she remembered much about me since I hadn’t even called her in a long time.
Tears gathered in the corners of my eye, but as I licked my cone, I couldn’t deny it did help.
Finley pulled herself up to sit on the counter. “Now, what has my brother done to upset you?”
“Nothing,” Tanner said, putting his hands up in front of his chest. “I swear.”
Finley rolled her eyes. “Yes, because when it comes to Talia, I was obviously talking about you.” To me, she said, “I swear, sometimes, I think he forgets he isn’t my only brother.”
I hid a smile behind my cone. I’d forgotten what spending time around the Kelly siblings was like. They loved each other very much, and it came out as squabbling and teasing, sometimes wrestling. It was nice to know some things hadn’t changed. “I’m just so sick of Kelly men and their egos.”
Finley sighed. “Tell me about it. And my husband fits right in with all of them, so I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“Why do they have to use charm for everything?”
“It’s so fake, right?” Finley laughed. “Like, yes, we get it. You think you’re gorgeous and suave, but let’s take the ego down a notch.”
