Jake remembered the feeling of loss when his parents died. It had been crushing, even though his dad was hardly involved. But knowing they were both gone, both at the same time in a car wreck—some drunk driver running a light—it was like the air got sucked out of a room. Except that room was his life. It was a black hole of emptiness that for a while, he fell in. The only light was that he and Candace had each other. Together they cried and laughed and called each other in the middle of the night. They packed up their childhood home, doing all those things you have to just do, even if you don’t want to. They were alone, but alone together.

When he looked up from his phone at the click of the door and realized Shelby was gone, it felt like that same black hole opened right back up. Except now he really was alone. He felt the loss in the very center of his gut, deep and unending.

He shouldn’t have been on the phone when she left. Losing Shelby was the worst thing. The deal didn’t matter. But somehow, Jake had looked at his phone, scrolling through all the messages from Xander, the weight of how much trouble he was actually in sinking in with each message. It was a tiny moment of distraction, but it sent a big message.

Shelby was gone and he didn’t blame her for walking out.

He ran after her, even took the elevators down to the bottom floor and ended up locked out of his room and unable to even get back up to his floor without help since he left his card key in the room. It was like she’d never been there.

Had she? The last day felt like a dream. Of the best kind until the end. A relationship with her, while complicated, seemed inevitable. Unavoidable. Impossible to ignore.

Jake had made the classic mistake of so many movies—he’d kept something from her. Something so huge that he probably couldn’t rectify it. He had to try.

First he called Xan, just to face the music.

“Oh, now he calls.”

“I’m sorry, Xan. I turned my phone off. What happened?”

Xander sighed. “Nothing that could be helped, I don’t think. Not unless you wanted to marry the mayor’s daughter.”

“Definitely no.”

“Things were precarious anyway with the permit office, but you ticked off McClure. He used this to his advantage and called in some favors with the parks department and the state wildlife fund.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Essentially, McClure shut us down on two fronts. He called in all his favors, I guess. The Lucky city planners denied our proposal and then Louisiana said no to the bridge over the wildlife refuge. It’s done.”

“Wow. He’s good. I mean, bad, but good.”

“Tell me about it. We underestimated the allure of power to a small man. I don’t know what he’s got in the works now, but something, obviously. He’s using the headway we made to make his own something. Not sure what yet. Honestly, I suspect this was his plan all along. I don’t know that he ever was going to support the project. The daughter was probably just an excuse. It’s not your fault. I just wish you’d been around while I was dealing with this.”

“I’m sorry,” Jake said. It seemed like all he did today was disappoint people.

“Whether you answered or not, this was falling through. Did you at least get the girl?”

“I thought I might,” Jake said. “Until she found out—not from me—that I was part of the reason she lost the house.”

Xander groaned. “No happy endings? That stinks. Well, maybe you can buy back her land for her. I mean, how much was it, anyway?”

“Pennies,” Jake said. “I don’t know that it will win her back after what I did, but it’s the least I can do. They’ve lived there forever. Did I tell you she has an alligator named T-Ball?”

“I’m sorry—what? I think you need to get back to Chicago, stat. You’re starting to sound crazy.”

“Maybe I am. Well, let me wrap things up here. My car will be done tomorrow, I think. I had a message from the garage I didn’t check yet. I’ll head to town tomorrow, get Layla, see about fixing her land.”

“Get the girl, Jake. We may have lost the deal, but there’s got to be something redeeming this.”

Even if it wasn’t possible, Jake knew he had to try. He couldn’t give up on Shelby. Even if it meant giving up on everything else.

When Jake arrived at the garage the next day after a night of almost no sleep, Greg was inside behind the counter. Jake smiled, but Greg didn’t. “Hey, Greg. I heard a rumor that Layla’s done. I’m still happy to let you drive.”

He grunted. “She’s done, but I don’t want to drive her. Let me total you out.”

Jake’s stomach dropped. Greg was being too cold. He must have heard about Shelby or the land or both. Would she have come back and told everyone what happened? He didn’t see her like that, but it had only been the night before and now Greg was clearly mad.

“Slim!” Greg called. Slim appeared in the doorway between the room and the garage. “Can you bring out the car?” Slim didn’t look at Jake.

He passed a piece of paper over to Jake showing line items of what they did. The total was more than triple what Jake thought it would be. “Um, okay.” He glanced at Greg, who was smiling now. But not in a friendly way. Maybe he didn’t just know about Shelby, but everything. Did the whole town know? He swallowed and passed over his credit card.

“Thank you. Enjoy your ride home,” Greg said.

Jake couldn’t find any words, so simply nodded and left.

He stood out front for a moment, waiting for his car, shuffling his foot along the sidewalk. He noticed that there were a lot of people out today. A few of the garage guys were out front, but didn’t speak to him. Across the street by the diner, there were half a dozen people standing out front, then more on down Main Street, all looking like they were waiting for something.

The purr of the engine caught his ears and he turned toward the garage. As Layla nosed out and pulled in front of him, he blinked, not sure what he was seeing.

Slim got out, slamming the door, engine still running. He slapped a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Got you a little something extra there, buddy. For Shelby.”

He laughed and went to stand by the other guys in front of the garage as Jake stared.

Layla’s electric blue paint had been completely covered in graffiti. Not even car paint, but it looked like a mix of spray paint and house paint. All kinds of colors that didn’t match and things like peace signs and smiley faces. Covered. The whole thing.

He heard the sound of snickers surrounding him. Slim, arms crossed in front of his chest, met his gaze boldly, as though daring Jake to say something. More laughter up the street. Heads turned. That’s why they were all lined up, Jake realized. They were watching for him to leave Lucky.

His deal failed, he lost the girl, and in the middle, had turned an entire town against him.

Head down, Jake got behind the wheel. He didn’t want to think about what it would cost to repaint Layla, or what it would be like to drive her on the highways looking like this. She already drew attention, but now it would be double, and not the normal kind. But Jake felt like he deserved it. Or maybe worse.

It wasn’t the car so much as the rejection that got to him. He shouldn’t care so much what anyone in Lucky thought of him. Just Shelby. But somehow, knowing that they’d all turned against him for the land deal, seeing their faces smirking as he drove slowly down Main Street in his defaced car, he knew it did matter. It mattered a lot, because Lucky was Shelby. They had her back. They were her people. And if they were rejecting him, so would she.

His pride was already dead, so he only had one more stop to make before he went to see about Shelby. It was just a car. It was just paint.

But it was so much more. It was everything.

Daddy stood in the doorway as Shelby packed. “You don’t need to go, sweetheart.”

“Yes, I do, actually.”

“We don’t want you to.”

“We? Really, Daddy? You and I—we were the we. WE were. She gave up being a part of that years ago.”

He sighed, leaning up against the doorframe. She realized that he was wearing his leg. It was one of the first times in a long time she remembered seeing him do it without her having to ask. “Sweetie, we were always waiting for her to come back. You and I. And she did. She’s here now and you can’t ignore that. You shouldn’t. We’re a family. We. The three of us.”

“Three’s a crowd,” she said. “Just let me pack. I’ll be gone soon and then you can do your we thing. Have fun figuring out the house stuff. Let me know what you decide and where you go.”

“Shel…”

“Daddy, just let me go!” Her voice choked with tears as she zipped up her suitcase.

“I always wanted you to travel. That’s why we got the Airstream. I just don’t like how you’re doing it. When and why. It’s ugly. You don’t want to leave this hanging between you and your mama.”

“I didn’t want a lot of things, but I didn’t have a choice. I have a choice about this and I’m going.”

“Is this about something else? Is this about Jake?”

“This has nothing to do with Jake! Forget Jake! He doesn’t care about me and he doesn’t matter. Daddy,” she pleaded. “Please just let me go.”

He stepped aside and she gave him a brief hug as she carried her suitcase from the room. He didn’t say anything else and she caught the wetness in his eyes, but did not stop. She couldn’t. She had to go.

Her mama stood in the middle of the living room, near her father’s chair. Shelby met her eyes for a moment, without meaning to, then pointedly looked away. There was too much vulnerability there. She had to harden herself to walk on by to the front door and out. No goodbye.

Matt stood outside with his truck, the Airstream hitched to it. “You sure about this?” he said, not looking happy.

“Yep. Let’s go.”

Before I change my mind, she thought, but didn’t say.

The irony wasn’t lost on her. She was furious with her mama, unwilling to even talk with her right now, all for running away. Shelby had been the one who stayed. Until now. With no destination in mind, she was taking Matt’s truck and the Airstream for an indefinite period of time, leaving Lucky and all her problems behind. Or on hold. The problems would still be there when she returned. Maybe harder to deal with. But for now, she had to stop being the girl who stayed. She had to get out.

Matt got behind the wheel and she tossed her bag into the Airstream and then they drove off down the long driveway. Her parents stood on the front porch as Shelby watched in the side mirror. Daddy put his arm around Mama and she put her head down on his shoulder. Shelby looked away.

It was all just too much.

As they made it into town near Matt’s house to drop him off, she caught sight of a car she didn’t recognize. As they neared passing it, she realized that it had been painted crazily almost like it had been tagged by graffiti artists. A custom paint job? A prank.

Then she saw Jake behind the wheel and remembered what Matt said the night before about the town being mad at Jake. Before she slunk down in the seat, she thought Jake met her eyes. Surely he would see her and turn around. He would stop her to talk, to try to explain why he did what he did, and why he just let her leave him without chasing her down.

But when she glanced in the side mirror a moment or two later and saw his car behind the reflection of the Airstream, it continued steady on, no brake lights.

How she wished that she had seen brake lights. Even now, when she was furious and hurt, she wanted nothing more than to see him coming after her.