“Can’t believe you’re back,” she murmurs.
“Had to be,” Rett says then pauses, slumping in the face of her mother’s hurt expression. The sadness in Eliza’s blue eyes. “Sorry, Mama. I was planning on comin’ at Christmas this year.”
“I know, sweetie. Now go on, get some rest. Your daddy’ll be home in about an hour.”
She presses a kiss to Rett’s temple, just like she did when Rett was a child, then leaves Rett to her own devices. Rett doesn’t bother unpacking her bag. She isn’t planning on being here for more than a couple of days. She drops the bag on the floor in front of the closet and sits in the rickety chair she used to sit in so long ago. The lack of changes in the room brings back the feelings of being an awkward teenager, hiding away from the nosy town while they gossiped about her life. Everyone’s lives, really, but she gave them the biggest scandal seven years ago.
She thought she had done what was best for her. The town, and fate itself, proved how wrong she was.
Now here she is staring at her bed in her childhood room, trying to undo everything she did when she was eighteen.
Eliza was right: Matthew Cox appears in the living room fifty minutes later, the front door squeals closed behind him, and he booms Rett’s name. She hurries out of her room, stumbling in her rush, and her father laughs. His arms pull her in without hesitation, and she melts into the embrace, breathing in the still-familiar scent of cigarillos and beer. He must have been at Mr. Mullen’s weekly poker game.
The man has been hosting them for as long as Rett can remember, and her father has been a willing participant for just as long. The men in town poke fun at the women—call them pests and busybodies—but the men gossip just as much at the games. Rett made the mistake of joining once when she was fifteen. She never went back again.
Matthew kisses her hair and gives her one more squeeze before releasing her. “Glad you came home, kiddo.”
Rett doesn’t bother telling him the visit will be barely long enough to scratch the surface. She has a life to get back to, and Oak Creek isn’t it. She loves the sleepy little town, but her job, herworld, is back in Columbus. It will never be here again.
Eliza forces Rett to sit at the table and eat dinner while Matthew watches his shows on the television. Rett pushes the food across the plate as Eliza fills her in on the latest breaking news in town. Miss Agatha’s granddaughter announced her pregnancy and impending divorce in one fell swoop. Everyone wondered if it would be enough to finally give the old woman a heart attack, but she’s still going strong. Mister Franklin Jones and Miss Amelia Rogers have been living together for the last handful of years with no sign of marriage in sight. Miss Minnie moved away to be closer to her grandchildren but came back within the year.
“City life didn’t agree with her,” Eliza says before sipping at her tea. Her gaze cuts to the ring on Rett’s left hand. “So I see Austin went for extravagance.”
Rett smiles at the large, glittering stone. “Yeah, he did. He said I deserve it.”
“You never told me how he proposed.”
So Rett does. Eliza examines the ring as Rett tells her about how Austin Cobb took her to dinner with their friends at a high-end restaurant. Halfway through the meal, before they’d even considered dessert, he dropped to one knee and waxed poeticabout his love for her. How badly he wanted to spend his life with her. Rett’s cheeks burn when she reminisces on his near-begging for her to say ‘yes’. Everyone had stared, watched, and waited with bated breath for her reply.
How could she have said anything other than ‘yes’? Even as he slid the ring on her finger, as he kissed her amid the applause, she made a silent vow to make the marriage last, even if it kills her.
Eliza holds Rett’s hand a moment longer then blows out a breath, releasing her daughter from her gentle grip. “And he makes you happy?”
“Oh, Mama, happier than I been in a long time.”
“Then I’m glad you found him. I just wish we’d gotten more’n a few calls with him first.”
“Sorry,” Rett murmurs, grimacing.
Eliza has a point. She and Matthew have never met Austin in person. Rett hasn’t been home since before the relationship with him began five years ago. She couldn’t take the risks that came with being within the borders of Oak Creek. She ships presents home, calls after church every Sunday, and thanks her stars she isn’t here. Columbus and her fiancé are her home now.
“Hey, Mama?” When Eliza hums in acknowledgment, Rett hesitates then stares at her hands. “Does he know?”
“In this town?”
Rett sighs and pushes away her plate. Her appetite has officially disappeared with those three words. If he knows she’s back in town, and why, maybe he will make it easy on her. Hopefully. Eliza pats her daughter’s arm and rises to her feet, picking up the plate. As she scrapes the remnants of the meal into the bin in the corner, Rett blows out a breath and stares at the far wall.
Being back in Oak Creek brings mixed feelings. On one hand, she is stuck doing something in a place she no longer belongs.On the other, she loves seeing her parents. She loves the town that raised her. Despite the sprawl, the six hundred inhabitants always came together to make up a generous community. No one refuses to help others. There is a generational divide, but everyone is willing to lend a hand. To love one another.
But if there is anything she knows from almost twenty-six years of living and the year and a half of knowing him at eighteen, it’s that Calum Wilson will never make things easy on her.
Morning comes too soon. Rett stares at the same pebbled ceiling she knows from childhood. The overhead fan circles lazily, dispelling none of the humidity. Dishes clatter in the kitchen, her father’s low singing beneath the cacophony. She closes her eyes, smiling to herself, and lets herself get lost in the sound. Though she knows it is her fault, she hates how long she’s been away.
Blowing out a breath, she lifts up to grab her glasses off the edge of the desk. After shoving them onto her face, she sprawls once more on the bed, groaning to herself. She can’t put it off. She has to find Calum. The sooner, the better. She can’t stay in Oak Creek, and she can’t go home until she finishes what she’s come to do. It was a mistake. That’s all it was. A mistake that she’s paying the price for seven years later.
Memories push to the forefront of her mind. Even with how much she loathes him for bringing her back home, she can’t help but laugh at recollections of seventeen-year-old Calum Wilson stumbling into town like a baby giraffe. All awkward and gangly, unsure of where he fit in, so angry at the world—and his mother. No one knew why she sent him to Oak Creek in the first place. He certainly wasn’t telling anyone. Only Rett knew the truth, though it took nearly three months before he trusted her with it.
They were thick as thieves by October, and falling in love with him was easier than breathing. It only made sense. Theyspent all their free time together. If he wasn’t working at his aunt Georgie’s corner store and Rett wasn’t babysitting the neighborhood kids, they were down by the river. They were inseparable. It only led to them making the biggest mistake of their lives.
