Page 1 of Secrets Among Us

Chapter One

Sadie

“I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I’m going to miss you,” Melanie said, shaking her head.

I pushed my lips into a forced smile and nodded. “I’m going to miss you like crazy, but it’s for the best. I need to go back home to my family in New Hampshire.”

Melanie leaned against the counter of the coffee shop I’d called home for the last six months and sighed. She’d become one of my closest friends in Washington since I moved here. The moment I met her, it felt like I’d known her forever. There was just something so familiar about her, and it reminded me of back home.

“I know. I get it. I still can’t believe you left everything you knew back east. That’s extremely brave, and I don’t have that in me.” She shivered. “Even moving here and buying this place were a big deal for me.”

“You’ve done fabulously with everything, and you are a risk-taker. Buying this place from the previous owners was a big deal.”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t take risks. It’s why I bought this coffee shop. I knew it was already successful. I’m more of a wash, rinse, repeat type of gal. Anything new makes me break out in hives.”

“Should I get that on a T-shirt for you?” I asked, chuckling and pulling my dark blonde hair into a quick ponytail.

The truth was that I wasn’t brave at all. I was the exact opposite of brave. I was running from a nightmare that seemed to follow me everywhere and destroy anything that created happiness.

Zack Parker’s words floated through my mind, and I blinked the sadness away.

I’ll protect you so that you can stop running.

And then I remembered my reply.

I can’t run away from my mind, Zack. And that’s my problem and shouldn’t be yours.

Breaking up with him was for the best. We shared a traumatic history, and it wasn’t healthy.

It just wasn’t.

My throat clenched at my last thought, and I sipped the very last pumpkin spice latte I’d made for myself at Granite Beans.

I didn’t need to become another cliché. I already felt out of my element with everything that had happened to me, and falling in love with my rescuer wasn’t a good idea.

Even if it had already happened.

The truth was that I loved it out here in Washington. Being nestled in a mountain town where tourists only visited on the weekends left the weekdays for the locals to do a lot of quiet contemplating, and that was what I’d needed… until recently.

Now, it felt like my thoughts were suffocating me, and all eyes were on me. I’d be at the grocery store and get a creeping sensation up my spine. I’d go to pick up a hamburger at the local hangout and feel like someone was lurking in a booth, watching me. It had started the week before I’d ended things with my boyfriend.

Of course, I'd see nothing whenever I turned around to check things out.

Nothing.

My eyes met Melanie’s. “Well, you can come visit anytime. But I’d probably wait until after I’m out of my parents’ house, or it will feel like a slumber party from your teens.” I shook my head. “That is the one thing that’s hard to swallow. I’m headed into my thirties and moving back in with Mom and Dad.”

“Oh, please. They’re going to love having you.” She grinned and shook her head, letting her red hair cascade past her shoulders. “You promise you’ll let me haunt you in New England when you’re all settled?”

“Promise.” I nodded, thinking about the encroaching fall weather. I’d always loved this time of year when leaves were changing and a crispness nipped at my nose.

So much had happened to me in the last six months that it was hard to focus on what I wanted, but I knew there was nothing left for me out here but heartache.

I’d made a decision, and I needed to stick with it.

At least back in New Hampshire, I could wallow around a little about my breakup and have my sister and parents pick me back up.

“What did Zack say about the move?” she asked, knowing enough about our relationship to not be worrisome but enough to ask the hard questions.

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