We arrived in front of the ranch style house that Bethany grew up in. I parked in the driveway behind Mr. Cross’s old truck. I turned the key to shut off the rumbling engine. Bethany and I sat in complete silence only the soft hum of the radio in the background.

“Guess I should go in,” Bethany spoke up.

Glancing over, my eyes met hers. They were red and irritated from her crying. She was understandably mourning. An entire city was mourning Mr. Cross. The funeral home was overfilled with people from all over town. People from every walk of life filled the pews and stood in the halls.

“I do have a couple boxes of things you might want. Some old pictures and what not. I think Dad would want you to have them,” Bethany spoke softly. The pain evident in her voice. She’d spent so many days with Olivia in that house as she packed away her father’s life into boxes.

“Yeah, I’ll come in.”

We both got out the car. The summer night was warm, and the crickets echoed all around us. Our feet crunched through the gravel as we made our way to the front door. Bethany took out her key as we approached the door and she unlocked it.

Inside, the house was beginning to look and feel completely different. Most of the photos had been stripped from the walls and pieces of furniture were beginning to disappear. Bethany didn’t play around, and she was getting everything done as quickly as possible before she left Fort Shasta without looking back.

“The couch is gone,” I noted as only the armchair that was a favorite of Mr. Cross remained.

“I donated it to the shelter. When I was there I noticed they had one in the rec room that was pretty beat up. Minister Garland had a truck come over earlier to get it. Figured it could go to a place that deserved it,” she explained as she sat her purse down on the coffee table. Next to her purse sat two boxes from the local hardware store.

“I take it those are the boxes,” I commented as I stepped toward her and the table. Bethany nodded as I glanced down and right away saw a photo from prom night. It was of Bethany, Mr. Cross, and I before she and I headed out to the dance. “That feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time.”

Bethany chuckled as she picked up the frame and observed us from long ago. My smile freshly freed from braces and Bethany beaming as I placed a corsage on her wrist. We stood in front of the house. She was a vision in coral while I wore a black tux with a coral bow tie to match her dress. We were off for an unforgettable night where we would be crowned prom queen and king. It was also the night I told Bethany I loved her for the first time as we danced together on the Sundial bridge.

“It’s amazing how much I think about those days. The good times. We grew up though, it was inevitable. Life continued as it does. I think we became good people. Through the shit that is Fort Shasta, we grew.” Bethany brushed her thumb over her dad in the photo as he smiled proudly.

“Fort Shasta has its problems, but it’s not exactly shit,” I countered. “There are good people and they keep this town from completely falling apart. We lost one of the best, but life will go on as you said. It will have to continue I guess.”

Bethany placed the photo back in the box. She turned away from me, but I had to see her face. I needed to gaze into her bright blue eyes the way I used to. Whenever I felt like there was nothing left, there was always her until she was no longer within my reach.

My hand took hold of her shoulder and I turned her to face me. I could read the pain that was spelled out all over her face. She’d been broken more times than one, and I knew one of those most guilty was myself.

“Beth,” I began, but I couldn’t find the exact words the way I’d found them all those years ago on the Sundial bridge.

Instead, my other hand gripped her waist and I roughly yanked her soft curves toward me. I palmed her warm cheek, my thumb running over her warm skin. The sigh that came from her was gentle and screamed of the feelings she had for me that were buried deep inside. Releasing them was my goal as I pressed my lips to her soft pillows.

Her moan enticed me as I deepened the emotion filled kiss. My tongue asked for invitation into her mouth with the slightest flick over her lips. Her lips parted, and I fought to deepen the kiss. My arm secured her body to mine as I inhaled her intoxicating rose scent. I’d kissed a few girls, but never had their kisses held the power of the ones I shared with Bethany.

Lost in the kiss, shock ricocheted throughout me as Bethany pressed her hands to my chest and pushed me away. I stared back at her as she stood with her fists balled and her breathing erratic.

“How dare you! How fucking dare you! You don’t just get to come in here and take advantage of my heart like this. I’m in pain, Liam. My dad just died, and I broke up with my fiancé. You are using that to your advantage. How dare you use me like that after everything you’ve done to me.” I witnessed the anger that blazed in her eyes.

“I’m not using you.” I had to stay calm with her. She had to know the truth. I’d fucking messed up and I knew it. Mr. Cross wanted me to apologize to her and I’d planned to when she came for a visit three years ago, but she’d done everything in her power to avoid me and I never got the chance. “I’m trying to say sorry. I’m trying to say I messed up.”

Bethany laughed almost manically before she growled. Her fingers ran through her thick blonde locks as she tried to concentrate on my words.

“You’re sorry and you messed up. What makes you want to give me that apology now, seven fucking years later. Seven years have passed Liam. You left me for Kayleigh. You gave her the one thing I wanted. You had a child with her and you want to tell me now that you messed up?”

“I think about it every damn day. I know I was wrong. I was scared. The future had so many unknowns and I was so fucking scared of what that future held in it for us. You wanted this life that was...Damn, I don’t know! It wasn’t what I dreamed about.” We stood face to face in the living room of the old house. It was the first time we’d duked it out since the break-up.

“Why? Because it meant leaving behind your precious Fort Shasta. Sorry that my dreams were bigger than staying in this town, but you didn’t have to do it the way you did. You lost more than me that day.”

“What do you mean?” I asked confused.

“Spring break was coming up and I was coming out here, remember?” she asked, and I nodded. Her trip had been unplanned, and she was anxious to head down, which was rare for her. Normally, I would go up to Seattle or we’d meet halfway in Portland. “Liam, I was pregnant.”

A similar shock ran through me as the day when Kayleigh revealed she was pregnant with our daughter. Unable to keep on my feet, I sat down in the remaining arm chair.

“Pregnant? You were pregnant?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Before that break, it had been around two months since the last time I saw Bethany. We’d spent a weekend in Portland eating at little cafes Bethany had read about online and wrapped in one another as usual.

“And then you threw me a blow over the phone when you decided we should go our separate ways. I never saw it coming and it broke every part of me. I’d decided I would eventually tell you about the baby, but I wanted to get myself together for a life of being a single mom. That was until I started bleeding one night two weeks later. I went to the ER alone and I was completely alone when I learned I’d lost the baby. I never told Dad. I never told you. Olivia only learned a month after.”

Her confession blew me away. I had no words.

“I was...I am a perfectionist. You know this. I’ve always had this control over most of my life. In academics I was always on top and I was on the way to a promising career. Losing you and the baby were things I couldn’t control and that broke my spirit for a long time, especially when I learned you were with Kayleigh and she’d gotten pregnant. I find it kind of funny that you want to say sorry now, when for the second time my spirit can’t find a way to repair itself. Dad was my constant through pain even when he didn’t know I was hurting.”

“Bethany,” I whispered as I stood and stepped toward her. “I’m sorry that I let my fear do that to you.”

“What were you so afraid of anyway?” she questioned as her eyes searched mine for the answers she desperately needed. She’d been waiting years for me to admit my shortcomings aloud to her.

“You were bigger than Fort Shasta, I understand that. Fort Shasta is my home and my security. I had this dream of getting married and raising a family here, doing what I love. You wanted something different. You had your dreams of being a surgeon and leaving this town behind, and I thought with as much as you’d outgrown Fort Shasta, you’d outgrow me. I figured I’d make a clean break before my heart was broken. I fucked up. I know it and seeing you here, even under the circumstances, I’m reminded of my fuck up, and I’m reminded of my feelings for you. I think–No, I know I still love you even after all this time.”

She had it. She had the keys to my heart and my emotions. There was no lying and there was no way than to lay it all out on the table for her. She looked taken aback and shocked. It may have been too much at once, but she needed it. Maybe it was the closure we both needed or an opening. Who knew?

I picked the box on the table up into my arms and started in the direction of the door. I knew she needed time and I wouldn’t force her to give me anything else than she’d given me.

“See you at the service tomorrow,” I said as I reached the door.

“Yeah,” she mumbled quietly. I quietly left the house without anything more and headed down the gravel to where my car was parked. “Liam,” her voice called from the front door and I sharply turned to her. “I just thought you should know first. I’m selling the bar. I’ve spoken with a real estate agent and it will be going on the market.”

I stood. It was my second blow of the evening. How could she walk away from the pride and joy of her father? He’d worked his ass off every single day to keep the place running and she was going to throw it away like a piece of trash. Crossroads was part of our town, it was a monument.

“Don’t question it. It has to happen in order to pay off all the debt. I’m sorry, but it’s happening Liam.” I saw her remorse. Something inside of her wanted to hold on to that one piece of her dad’s legacy and I would have to figure out a way to save it. I wouldn’t just be saving it for me, or Bethany, but for Fort Shasta.