Four Years Earlier

The rain was pouring down. Kassie sat behind the wheel of her car, watching the drops hit the windshield as every so often lightning streaked down outside. It reflected her mood perfectly, a storm brewing inside her as she thought of the boy who’d taken her heart and thrown it away as if it were nothing.

She just couldn’t believe that she’d let herself be taken in like that. That she’d let herself believe all of Adam’s lies. He’d promised again and again that he loved her, that she was the only one that mattered. But that wasn’t even the betrayal that mattered most.

With a sigh, she dropped down her head on the steering wheel, the tears streaming down her face as she recalled the scene that she had just witnessed. If she hadn’t finished work early, would she have even found out? Obviously, neither of them had ever planned on telling her about what they were doing. This was nothing more than a fling to either of them.

Jenna had a fiancé. She was planning on marrying someone else. So why then was she messing around with Kassie’s boyfriend? Closing her eyes tight, she was taken back a couple of hours to Adam’s living room. She’d walked in, tired, her feet still hurting from being on them all day waiting tables. And there he’d been, undressed, tangled up skin-on-skin with the girl who was supposed to be like a sister to her.

They had tried to say it meant nothing, that it was just a one-time thing, but she knew better than that. The way they were looking at each other, touching each other, made it obvious that they had been with one another in the past. She just wondered how long they had been pulling the wool over her eyes.

“I’m so stupid,” she muttered to herself as the tears started flowing from her eyes once more. She’d been in love, that was the only explanation for it. She had been in love, and that had clouded her judgment and kept her from seeing the truth when it came to Adam and Jenna and all the little things between the two of them. Now, in retrospect, she could see the sparks of electricity that she had never had with her boyfriend, the chemistry that had flown between the two of them from the very beginning.

Maybe it was just meant to be, she mused, wiping her face. Maybe that was it. And if that was the case, she needed to just move on and forget him. After all, she was only eighteen years old. There would be plenty of time to find another guy. And didn’t she have other plans? Things that she wanted to do with her life?

Exhaling slowly, she reached down and started her car. The rain was coming down even harder now, the last light of the day having completely gone. The only light came from the flashes of lightning that came intermittently, sparking through the darkness. When her car roared to life, she pulled out onto the road and eased onto the street, looking one last time out onto Adam’s apartment building and realizing that it was the last time that she would pull away from there.

“Good,” she whispered to herself. It was time to let go, she thought as she glanced at the pile of her things in the backseat. She had just come to see him, to pick up these mementos, and to say goodbye. The breakup had been surprisingly quiet—no fighting and no tears—apart from this small breakdown in her car. Kassie had been unable to deny herself that luxury.

Rumbling down the road, radio off, the only thing she could hear was the rain pattering against her windshield and the occasional boom of thunder off in the distance. Her mind was blank as she forced herself not to think of what had just happened. It was in this absent state, driving along, that she saw a faint sign of movement along the side of the road.

Kassie’s first instinct was to drive past it, her safety her first priority. But with the mood that she was in, she couldn’t fathom the thought of someone being out there alone in the storm that night, and after only a brief hesitation she slowed down to a stop, seeing that it was a young man about her age walking along the side of the road.

He paused and looked over when she stopped next to him and pulled down the passenger side window.

“Hey. Do you need a ride?” she asked.

He looked a little bit puzzled, as if he wasn’t used to people offering kindnesses to him.

“Ah, it’s okay,” he said, shaking his head. He was young, with brilliant blue eyes and shaggy dark hair.

Kassie wondered why he would refuse her offer. They were in the middle of nowhere. How far could he possibly have to go?

“Where are you headed?” she asked.

“Edge of Spartanburg.”

“That’s at least a two-hour walk,” she said, a little amazed that he could even think to walk so far in the pouring rain, especially when in the middle of a storm. It could actually be dangerous to go so far in these conditions. She leaned over and undid the lock. “Come on. I really don’t mind. I’m headed in the same direction.”

He looked unsure but after a moment went ahead and opened the door and clambered in. The man looked a little shabbily dressed, in old but clean clothes, as if he didn’t have a lot of money but someone was doing their best to take care of him. Around these parts, that was probably the case. There were a lot of poor families.

“There’s a towel in the backseat,” she said, noting that he was already soaking wet from the rain.

He paused again, but after she started to drive he leaned back and began to dig around until he found it, emerging again and beginning to dry off his hair.

“Uhm, thanks,” he mumbled politely as Kassie nodded at him. She looked over, noting that there was something beautiful about him, as strange as that sort of thought may be to have about a guy. Not just beautiful, though. A little bit wild, and unlike any of the other guys that she knew. He seemed a little bit on edge, as if he might come undone at any moment, and he kept staring out the window as he continued to dry himself, out into the darkness of the forest and the trees.

“What were you doing out there?” Kassie asked. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, so she didn’t know why she found herself compelled to speak. Maybe she just felt like she had to break the silence, but when she did the man just shrugged.

“Don’t have a car. No other way to get home,” he said, before they both fell to silence again for another few long minutes of driving together.

Kassie drew a shaky breath, and before she knew it, she was thinking again about what had just happened. Then the tears were coming. Why? She kept telling herself it didn’t matter, but nothing she could do would stop the crying.

“Hey, you okay?” asked the man.

Kassie shook her head. Then, without knowing why, she pulled over to a stop on the side of the road.

“I’m just… I’m having a really shitty night,” she said, hearing her voice shaking as she wiped her face. “Sorry.”

“No. Uhm, it’s all right,” he said. “But you seem really broken up about something.” Then, while she was still looking away, she felt a hand brush over her shoulder. Glancing over, she saw that his blue eyes were fixed on her and trembled a little bit.

“It’s… It’s stupid,” she said. “It’s nothing really. Just some dumb drama. My boyfriend… I caught him tonight. Cheating on me, with the girl who’s supposed to be my best friend. Isn’t that ridiculous? Now I’ve lost him and her too. I just feel so alone.” Letting out a hollow laugh, she shook her head.

“I know how that is,” he said. “Feeling alone, I mean.” Another long silence. Then, “It’s not that bad. Being alone. I’ve been that way my…well, for a long time now. I guess you kind of get used to it. I mean, I’ve got Miss June. She’s this woman who helps me out. She sort of took me in a few years back.”

Kassie looked over at him. The way he spoke was unsteady, like he wasn’t used to talking much. She thought that was probably the case. He seemed like the strong but silent type. Forcing a smile onto her face, she put her hand over his and squeezed gently.

“Thanks,” she said, feeling genuinely comforted by the small gesture.

He smiled at her, just a little, as if he was unused to the expression. Then, they just sat there for a little while, side by side in the car as the rain continued to pour down outside. Kassie didn’t know why she didn’t just start the car again and drive away—why she wanted to just sit there with that stranger and stay for a while—but something about him made her feel just a little bit better.

Then, really uncertain why she did it except that perhaps she needed it, needed something to forget everything that had just happened, she leaned over and gently pressed her lips against the young man’s, noting how soft they were. They shouldn’t have been so soft. He looked hard and rough around the edges, but his kiss when he returned it—when he reached out and pushed his fingers through her hair—was remarkably gentle.

“You…” he began to murmur, but Kassie shook her head.

“Let’s not talk,” she said as she kissed him again, and he nodded in return.

They continued to kiss as the storm deepened outside, the lighting coming in quicker and quicker bursts as he pressed his hands against her waist. Then, without another word, they clambered together through the small space between the front seats and into the back.

She wasn’t the sort of girl who did this sort of thing, but right now, Kassie didn’t care. All she wanted was to forget Adam, to forget everything, and something about this wild stranger made her think that he was just the sort to get her mind off the pain that was raging on inside her. With every touch, she felt all the anguish slipping away and being replaced by primal passion. It was impossible to think that something seemingly so simple could mean so much, but it did. It felt like an important moment in her life, even though she didn’t even know this man’s name.

And then, when it was over, they quietly dressed again and rode back to Spartanburg in silence. But she didn’t feel ashamed of what she had done. If anything, she was glad. It had brought her comfort in a time of need.

Two months later, though, when she stared at the pregnancy test in her bathroom and realized that she was pregnant, her world shifted completely. She’d had sex with a stranger, someone whose name she didn’t even know. Someone it would be impossible to find again.

A storm had blown into her life, but she couldn’t be angry—not after she held her little girl for the first time several months later. When that happened, Adam and the man she met on the side of the road, they meant nothing to her. Her world became focused on the little girl in her arms, and anything else was meaningless because she knew then that she would never be alone. Her little girl was now the center of her world, and she would do anything to protect her. Anything and everything.