Page 22 of Bountiful
It wasn’t easy to feign sleep; I hadn’t tried it since high school when I’d had to share a room with my twin brother foratime.
But I persevered, not giving Dave an inch. I hatedgoodbyes.
“All right.” He chuckled softly. “If that’s how you want to play it. Goodbye,beautiful.”
He fit his lips to the back of my neck and gave me a soft,slowkiss.
And then—finally—heleft.
I waited, listening. His footsteps were achingly slow as he walked down my staircase. My heart was in my mouth at the sound of the door opening and shutting behind him. The sound of his rental starting up gave me ashiver.
If I sat up and opened the window right over my head and waved, he would see me and stop. God, I wanted him to stop and kiss megoodbye.
Wait!I wanted to yell.Don’tgo.
Fuck.
My heart thudded with unhappiness, but I didn’t move. He wasn’t going to stay in Vermont, even if I humiliated myself. He had a life somewhere else. And he hadn’t asked for mynumber.
I don’t date,he’dsaid.
It was the same thing Griff had said right before he and Audrey became acouple.
The truth was that men didn’t date people like me. I was the girl they “hung out with,” as Dave had put it last night. The bartender was a good time and fun in bed, but not aforevergirl.
My heart hammered as Dave’s truck backed up slowly. I heard the sound of his wheels pivoting in the dirt and the purr of the engine as he stepped onthegas.
Maybe sixty seconds later, he’d driven far enough away that I didn’t hear the engineatall.
I lay there in my bed for a long time after that, the sheets smelling like his aftershave. Maybe another girl would have cried, but that wasn’t my style. Sadness didn’t come leaking from my eyes. It settled into my heart instead, like aweight.
An hour later I struggled upright, hoping to shake off my blues. But the first thing I saw was Dave’s shiny watch on the bedside table where he’d accidentally left it. I crawled over and looked closely enough at it that I could hear itticking.
Well, hell. I couldn’t keep it. It was too pricey to be a guiltless souvenir. Instead, it would become something to add to my to-do list—find Dave from Brooklyn and FedEx hiswatch.
What I didn’t know that August morning was that finding him would proveimpossible.
I also didn’t know that six weeks after I started searching, I’d realize that Dave had left something far more valuable than a luxury watch behind inVermont.
And he wouldn’t be back foreitherone.
PartTwo
July 2017
ChapterEight
Two Years Later
Zara
“Ireally should head home,”I said for the third orfourthtime.
But it was so pleasant here on the Shipleys’ front porch, in a rocking chair, with my daughter in my arms. We’d just eaten a big meal. The Shipleys usually threw a dinner party on Thursdays at their farmhouse. As Audrey’s business partner and a friend of the family, I had a standing invitation, along with my daughter, Nicole. And we rarely missed a ThursdayDinner.
I should be inside washing dishes with Zach and Lark. But, as always, Nicole was a sleepy weight in my lap, and so the Shipley clan gave me a free pass oncleanup.
It was a pretty summer night in July, and the sweet weather made me wistful. I’d always loved Vermont summers, but July was the month when I’d met Nicole’s father. Two years had gone by, but it felt like justyesterday.
