Page 3 of Back in the Country
A flash of emotions rips across her face and is gone in an instant. I don’t like it.
“You need to go to school and get your degree and not be tied to some guy back home.” The words hurt but they’re necessary. I can’t hold her here, and I’d already made a promise. If she comes back though, that’s an entirely new ballgame.
“Anything else?” She taps her foot impatiently.
“Sorren doesn’t find out.”
“Obviously.”
“There’s a lot at stake, Marlee. Sex complicates everything, and I refuse to lose youorhim.”
“I understand that, Waylon.”
Stepping into me, she pops up on her toes and presses a chaste kiss to my lips. “Sealed with a kiss.” She winks and then turns and continues walking down the road as if she didn’t just flip my entire life upside down.
MARLEE
PRESENT DAY
There is nothing quite like driving the back roads into Clementine Creek, Tennessee. It’s been my home since I was seven years old and is my favorite place in the world. Being in Nashville for school and then work has been a necessity—according to my brother and Waylon. I push away the ache.
I’ll have time to deal with Waylon later.
The road winds through the fields of corn and cotton. Clementine Creek is surrounded by farmland and filled with hardworking people who are more like family than neighbors.
I follow the curve in the road as “He Could Be the One”by Miley Cyrus plays from the speakers, and the wind blows my blonde hair around my face. My heart fills the instant I see the sign welcoming me to town. This is my happy place.
This is home.
A lot of changes are coming soon, but I let myself have this moment to just exist in the town I love with the people that know me best.
The tires bump gently onto the driveway of my grandparents’ house.
My house.
I close my eyes and breathe in the sweet smell of honeysuckle and freshly cut grass. Memories flood my senses.
So many good things have happened here. Some bad. But the good would always outweigh the bad. We’d been safe here, Sorren and I, and we’d been loved. We arestillloved.
My heart warms my chest as I look to my right and spot Flora Thayer standing on her porch waving like she can’t wait to get her arms around me. She’s the closest thing I had to a mother growing up, and I am better for it.
That first week here, she’d knelt beside my chair at her table and said that when I was ready, I could call her Mama. I remember her tucking a lock of hair behind my ear and seeing love radiating from her gaze. I’d launched myself into her arms and had been calling her Mama ever since.
My phone buzzes in my purse, and I pull it out to see a message from my ex-boyfriend. My stomach sinks.
CALEB:When are you coming home?
Without responding,I shove my phone back into my bag, because as far as I am concerned, Iamhome. Stepping from the car, I stretch and then begin the short walk across the yard to the woman beaming back at me.
“Look at you, darlin’!” She pulls me in for a hug and holds me tight. Mama gives the best hugs, but I’d never say that in front of Daddy—he’d be devastated.
Holding me out at arm’s length, she studies me and smiles. “It’s so good to have you home. I missed you something awful.”
“Me too.” And I mean it.
“You’re stayin’?”
“I’m home.” I nod.
