Page 1 of That Reilly Boy
Chapter One
Cara
“What are we going to do about that Reilly boy?”
It isn’t the first time that question’s been asked in this town, by any means, and I know it won’t be the last. But it’s the first time I’ve heard that question come out of my mother’s mouth because the Gambles and the Reillys haven’t really spoken to each other since…well, however long four generations is. Ignoring each other in a town the size of Sumac Falls, New Hampshire isn’t easy, but somehow our families have managed it.
Until now, apparently.
I ignore the familiar pang in my chest whenever I hear the Reilly name. She has to be talking about Aaron—the Reilly boy who did not leave town like his ass was on fire the day after graduation—but I don’t know why Mom would be talking about him.
“What about him?” I ask, my curiosity piqued. I’ve never been told how the low-key feud started, which was awkward considering I went to school with the two Reilly boys.
“One of them wants to buy the house,” my mom replies, and judging by the way she’s scrubbing the counter with a wet rag, she isn’t thrilled by the offer. Gin Gamble can scour the finish right off a hardwood floor when she’s in a mood.
My first grooming appointment of the day is in twenty minutes, so I had been making my way toward the door, but the bait of a potential buyer for this house hooks me.
It’s the first offer we’ve had on the house since my dad’s heart gave out on him five years ago, which makes sense because it’s not on the market. It would be, if only I could convince my mom we really need to sell it. But apparently, on his deathbed my father made my mother promise she’d keep the house in the Gamble family. Unfortunately, a trust fund to maintain the house hadn’t been part of the inheritance and I should be logging things in the checkbook register with red ink to indicate the danger level.
Whether she wants to admit it or not—and she definitely doesn’t—we’re in trouble.
“Can you imagine?” my mother continues, either not noticing or not caring that I didn’t respond. “A Reilly living in the Gamble house?”
“To be fair, once the sale is final, it would be the Reilly house.” Feud or no feud, our lives would be easier if the house sold, so I care a lot less about whose name is on the mailbox than she does. But Aaron and his wife already have a really nice house, so I’m confused. “Which one wants to buy it?”
“The older one.”
Hayden. That pesky pang in my chest hits a little harder this time, and I’m even more confused. Why would he want to buy our house?
“I forget which one that is, besides one of those Reillys,” Gin continues, “but he’s back in town and told his real estate agent or lawyer or whatever he is to contact me.”
Oh, I know who Hayden is.
I spent every study hall block of my freshman year staring at his gorgeously brooding profile from two desks over and one desk back. He’d been a sophomore at the time, and that study hall had been my favorite forty-six minutes of every school day.
And then came the glorious moment Hayden had bumped into me on our way out of class. The way he’d put his hand on the small of my back had made my skin feel hot and prickly all over—a sensation I’d never felt before. His blue eyes were even prettier up close, and a shock of dark hair had fallen over his forehead. I left fingernail marks in my textbook from the effort to keep from smoothing it back.
“Sorry, Cara.”
I’d forgotten how to breathe because Hayden Reilly knew my name.
Of course he did because, again, small town with a small school, but logic had been no match for my raging teenage hormones.
We had two classes together my sophomore year, and Hayden talked to me whenever he had the chance. I can still picture him leaning against my locker, smiling at me in a way that made my common sense go right out the window.
When the school year ended, we found a secret spot in the woods. Whenever we could sneak away, we’d sit on a boulder by the river, eating ice cream and talking about anything and everything. Eventually we did less talking and more making out. That summer, Hayden became my entire world.
When school started again—my junior year and his senior—secrecy and stolen kisses weren’t enough anymore, and he asked me to be his very public date to the fall homecoming dance.
My parents didn’t know I was even seeing a Reilly and I knew they’d be angry, but I didn’t care. I was going to homecoming with Hayden.
And then…well, I don’t like to think about how the story of our star-crossed romance came to an end. It wasn’t tragic on a Romeo and Juliet level, by any means—nobody died or anything—but seventeen years later, my heart’s still a little broken. It’s not as if I’m still madly in love with him after almost two decades, but the old wound still hurts if I poke at it.
Hearing his name is a pretty hard poke.
“Your father would roll over in his grave if I sold the house to a Reilly,” my mom says.
Is there a good reason my dad doesn’t find me lying awake, wondering if this is the month I’ll have to choose between fuel for my car or fuel for the furnace, to be more roll-worthy than doing business with the Reilly family? “I don’t get it. Why does our family hate the Reillys so much?”
