Chapter Thirteen

“Jay-Jay, breakfast!” Mom’s voice rang out from the kitchen. I continued to stare at the ceiling like I had most of the night. I didn’t want to recount how many times I tossed and turned, blaming it on jet lag. I berated myself when my mind kept looping back to what Stevie told me. He was here. In this town. So close, but so far away from me.

After Krista had hung up on me, I made a point to avoid all news about supercross, which wasn’t that hard in Florence. Only one night of too much wine and bad decision-making led me to type his name in the Google search bar. Headlines like “Talented Supercross Career Ended Too Soon” or “A Career Ends Before It Really Began: The Devastating End of Hunter ‘The Haze’ Harris.”

My very muscles ached as I read those headlines, knowing how much he must hurt. I wasn’t strong enough to read about or see Hunter from afar and not want to be there for him. When I woke in the morning with tear-stained cheeks and a pounding head, I decided I would never do that to myself again. I was strong, but Hunter was my weakness, my addiction. To stay clean, I had to keep all temptation out of my life.

I never looked again.

“Jayme!” Mom yelled again, forcing a groan from my lips. I rubbed my face, swinging my legs out of bed. The clock on my nightstand announced 10:15 a.m.

“I’m coming!” I shouted back, as my little sister burst through the door.

“Mom has your breakfast ready, Jay-Jay.” She rolled the knob back and forth with irritating clicks. “You slept in late! I already ate mine forever ago. You better come, now.”

“Yeah, I heard.” I pinched my nose. Day one and I already wanted to run screaming. I had been living on my own, not answering to anyone for a year. Being back under my parents’ roof with my every move documented felt constricting.

“Your eggs are getting cold.” Reece lifted her eyebrows, like I was about to get in trouble.

“I’m coming in a moment.” I stood, stretching, sensing the weight of exhaustion riding over my bones. I had slept all of three hours.

Reece trailed after me through my room, following me to the bathroom like a shadow, her toes nipping at my heels. “Reece, can I pee in private, please?”

“Reece, get your bottom back here and leave your sister alone,” Mom called to her from the kitchen. My sister ignored her and wiggled the doorknob after I shut it behind me. Irritation crept up my spine. I had missed my family, but we had all too quickly slipped right back into our roles.

Click. Click. Click.

“Stop it, Reece.” Coffee. I need a pot of coffee.

“Will you play Barbies with me?” Reece asked through the door, twisting the locked knob back and forth.

“Later, okay? Can I wake up first?” I tossed cold water on my face, the summer heat already starting to cook the house. As I stared at my reflection, the walls seemed to be closing in around me. This was all so strange. Just a couple days ago, I woke next to Luca. It had been a great morning of cafe con leche, croissants, and sex until we got into our fight. Now I was back in my childhood bed, being told when to eat. My little sister annoying the crap out of me.

The lure to call him and tell him I was coming back was tempting, but I pushed the feeling aside, knowing I was tired and cranky.

As I meandered into the living room, my sister danced around me in circles, tugging on my arm, not giving me an inch of space. I headed for the coffee pot and grabbed the biggest cup I could find.

“Reece, go change into your swimsuit. Grandma Penny is already sitting outside.” Mom pried Reece from me, pointing her down the hall. “Thanks.” I dumped the rest of the pot into my cup.

“She just missed you.” Mom leaned into the counter, smiling at my cantankerous attitude.

“I know.”

“You don’t look like you slept well.” Mom, on the other hand, looked beautiful. She was always stunning, even without makeup. Today she wore jean shorts and a flowy tank, looking more like my older sister than mother.

I snorted, pouring a little milk and sugar in my coffee before guzzling it down.

“I know it’s gonna take you a few days to adjust, but I was hoping you could run a few errands for me?” She shoved off the counter, grabbing a sheet of paper off the fridge. “Grandma Penny’s prescription needs to be picked up, and we need a few things at the supermarket.” She placed the list on the counter. “Plus, I thought you might want an excuse to get out for a few hours.” She darted her gaze down the hallway to where my sister was.

“Yes. Errands sound good.” I nodded.

“Your dad is at work, and Grandma said she’d watch Reece while I get some work done. I have a huge deadline coming up.”

When I was abroad, Mom finally quit her job at that horrible lawyer’s office and had transitioned into working more in the field she wanted, marketing for a small boutique pet store opening up soon.

“If you’re hungry, your breakfast is right there.” She signaled to the table. “It’s good to have you home.” Walking by, she rubbed my arm, heading to her bedroom, where she had set up a little office for herself.

At the sound of my sister’s shrill voice, I shot into the bathroom before she spotted me. I had missed her, but my annoyance level was cranked to an all-time high. I wanted to blame it on jet lag too, but this mood had coated me like a second skin from the moment Stevie brought up his name last night.

Screw you, Hunter. I am doing just fine.

That chapter was over. Shut down for good.

 

 

My red jeep rolled down the street with the air conditioner cranked all the way up, blasting my hair back as I sang loudly with the radio. I bounced to the beat of the song as I cruised to the store. I loved the public transportation in Europe; it was so easy and convenient. Barely any high school kids died in drunk driving accidents because everyone took the bus, train, taxi, or underground.

But.

I could not deny the freedom of being in my jeep again. I didn’t have to wait for my stop, I could play my music as loud as I wanted, and I had no timetable but my own.

Dad kept it in the garage while I was gone, and it hadn’t been touched since the day I left. It took a few times to get the engine warm and a light blinked on my dashboard, but right this minute, I was loving the freedom too much to take it into the shop. Tomorrow. On my list for tomorrow.

The music shifted to another kick-ass song. Turning it up, I curved down the long back road leading to the grocery store on the other side of town, pushing on the gas pedal.

Clunk. Hisssssss.

A noise came from the engine, my gaze darting to the gas needle. It was still half full. A loud sizzle sputtered; a puff of smoke wound up from my hood.

Shit.

This time I spotted the heat gauge pushing way past the middle mark where it normally hovered. In the middle of the summer, cars overheating here was normal, but this was me just being careless. The car hadn’t been checked in a year, and it was abnormally hot for June, while I cranked up the AC.

The smoke billowed in thicker plumes. Pulling the car over on the desolate road, I cursed myself. I purposely came this way because it was the long way to the store, and I had been in no hurry to get back home.

Climbing out, I glared at the car, knowing enough not to touch the hood until it cooled. The radiator continued to whistle and hiss like an angry snake, smoke wheezing from the engine.

Great.

Calling home was pointless. Mom couldn’t really help me, and Dad was more than forty-five minutes away, and the local garage was a number I really didn’t want to call.

“Be a freaking adult, Jayme.” I sighed, leaning in, and grabbed my cell from my bag on the passenger seat. “Pull up your big girl panties.” My thumb hovered over the button, knowing this wasn’t a comfy six degrees of separation from Hunter; this was one step: Doug. Growling under my breath, I hit call and shoved the phone to my ear, my lids squeezing closed.

Maybe he no longer worked there. Some random employee I didn’t know would answer.

“Hello? Doug’s Garage. May I help you?” the familiar cheerful voice said into the phone.

Wow, it was his shop now? When did that happen? Doug had not been the typical go-getting entrepreneur.

“Hey, Doug.” I gnawed on my lip. “This is Jaymerson.”

“Jaymerson?” He hesitated for a moment like he had forgotten the name. “Ohhh! Right. Hunter’s old girlfriend.”

My right eye twitched.

“What can I do for you?” His tone became more relaxed, like he had been doing his “professional” voice before.

“My car overheated, and there’s lots of smoke. I’m not sure what to do.”

“No worries, we can get you, bring you back here, and check it out,” he responded. “Where are you?”

“Fuller Creek Road.” I searched the motorway for a landmark, the dense vegetation and trees increasing the humidity around my body. I couldn’t see any road marker indication where I was. “Uh…  I think I’m about a mile out from Main Street.”

“Okay. Sit tight, girl. Sending someone your way now,” he said before hanging up.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, I played with my phone, swinging my legs back and forth for about ten minutes when I heard a car pull up behind me, spotting a tow truck and an outline of a guy in the front seat.

“That was fast,” I muttered to myself as I slipped off my seat. Tugging at my tiny ripped jean shorts, I turned to the person climbing out of the tow truck. “You got here really—” The rest of my sentence died on my tongue.

The guy froze in his place, his nose flaring as he sucked in a breath.

Oh. God. No.

I couldn’t move, breathe, or think. Everything shut down as the world tipped sideways, plunging me into oblivion with nothing to hold on to. I had to remind myself to stay standing.

Shock stuck in my throat as a chill overtook me, despite the summer heat. My gaze fastened on the last person I expected to climb out of the truck.

Hunter Harris.

Last night I imagined multiple circumstances of how I’d run into him, how I’d respond, but nothing prepared me for reality. Seeing the real man before me kicked everything out from under me. And man was exactly what he was. He never looked like a boy to me, but the last year had matured him. Hardened him… physically. My god. My gaze dragged over his physique. His tall athletic body was even more built and toned. Corded tan arms bulged under his grease-streaked white T-shirt, his chest straining the fabric. His defined jaw was covered with a little more scruff than I remembered, his hair a little longer, curling at his neck.

Holy shit.

The pieces of my heart I had thrown over the bridge suddenly grew back, slamming painfully against my ribs.

He worked for Doug? As a mechanic?

Hunter’s blue eyes pierced me in place, as though I were a bug in a science experiment. Slowly his eyes ran over me, his gaze feeling like fingers, trailing down my heated skin, but no emotion leaked through, except for the angry twitch of his jaw.

“Jaym-er-son.” Slowly. Deliberately. A sneer lifted his lip as his tongue curled over each syllable.

Seeing him was hard enough, but hearing his deep husky voice… saying my name. I realized with a profound, acute awareness…

I never should have left Italy.