“Do you want to live?”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
JEREMY SHERIDAN crushed his empty beer can in his fist. Nothing felt right. Staying or going. But he disliked the idea that he might be a burden.
He sat on the deck of the little shop where his brother-in-law, Lucky Romo, painted motorcycles for a living. The same little shop where Jeremy had been living for a while, next door to his sister, Tessa, and Lucky, thanks to their kindness.
He’d spent a lot of time with Lucky since his return from Afghanistan. He’d never have expected the guy to become his new best friend, but he found Lucky easy to be with. Maybe it helped that Lucky didn’t talk a lot. Funny, most people looked at Lucky and saw nothing but a big burly biker with long hair and tattoos. But the guy was an artist, the real thing, a freaking Picasso with a paint gun.
And people who looked at Jeremy saw a war hero. The war hero. Destiny’s official Boy Wonder.
It was a role he’d thought he wanted. One he’d pretty much played all his life. Star athlete in high school, homecoming king, all around good guy. And he’d thought coming back to his hometown and being that same guy again would be easy, the natural thing to do. But turned out he’d brought some heavy baggage home with him. The kind you couldn’t unpack.
He walked into the house, to the fridge. Opening the door, he rummaged around and at the same time heard Lucky come in from working in the garage.
“Any more beer?” Jeremy asked.
“Had the better part of a six-pack in there last night,” Lucky replied. “You drink it all?”
“Guess that’s possible.” Jeremy cursed under his breath. “Sorry, man,” he murmured.
“Don’t need to apologize,” Lucky said, “but . . . you don’t seem like you’re doing too good.”
“I’m okay,” he claimed. But he still stared into the fridge, because it was easier than meeting Lucky’s gaze.
“Listen, you sure you don’t want me to paint that old truck? I’ve got some down time right now.”
Jeremy glanced up to see Lucky hiking a thumb over his shoulder to the driveway. Lucky had probably offered to paint Jeremy’s old Ford pickup half a dozen times since he’d come home. Jeremy knew it looked like crap—a mottled, sun-beaten red. But it had always looked that way, from the very day he’d bought it used right after high school with the money he’d saved from working at Edna Farris’s apple orchard. It felt like one little piece of his old life he hadn’t lost. “Nah, man. But thanks.”
Though now it hit him for the first time that maybe it was an eyesore in the driveway of a guy who painted vehicles for a living.
Now he met Lucky’s gaze. “If you want me to move on, just say the word.”
“No, it’s not that. There’s plenty of room, and you’re family. And hell, you spent most of your adult life in war—that’s bound to mess you up. But . . .” Lucky stepped closer, spoke lower, even though they were the only two people anywhere nearby. “People are beginning to talk. To worry.”
Jeremy finally shut the fridge door, stood up straight. “People?”
“Tessa. Your parents.” He stopped, sighed. “Everybody really. Tessa and your folks are pretty sure some stuff happened in Afghanistan they don’t know about.”
“You say anything?” Jeremy asked. He had confided in Lucky. Lucky had come through some bad shit himself and landed on his feet. Better than on his feet—he had a great life. Maybe Jeremy had hoped Lucky’s change of fortune would rub off on him somehow.
“No,” Lucky assured him. “You asked me to keep it just between us and I have. But . . . guess I worry a little, too, dude. Thing is . . . I’ve been wondering if maybe you should think about talking to somebody.”
Jeremy’s gut tightened. “I talk to you. That’s enough.”
“I’m not sure it is,” Lucky told him.
“I already did that kind of talking,” Jeremy pointed out. “Before I was discharged. I passed with flying colors.”
“You mean you lied.”
He crossed his arms. “I just wanted to come home, man. Put it all behind me.”
“A shame that last part didn’t work.”
Jeremy didn’t answer. But he knew it was true. And he knew Lucky was right. Last summer he’d worked some construction in Crestview, the next town over—but it had been a temporary position and when it had ended, he’d let it. He’d let himself go right back into the solitude up here at Whisper Falls.
Over time he’d discovered that he liked just keeping to himself, here at Lucky’s. He liked looking off the deck out into the thick woods that surrounded the place. He liked thinking about walking into those woods and just getting lost there. Sometimes he took those walks, into the trees and up to the falls. Sometimes he napped because it turned off his thoughts for a while.
He kind of wanted to walk into the woods and get lost right now. But war heroes don’t spend their days holed up in the woods drinking beer. He’d hidden from that reality almost as well as he’d hidden from everything else. Until now.
“Maybe I should go somewhere new,” he said, voicing the thought he’d been turning over in his head for days now.
“No, man,” Lucky told him, shifting his weight from one workboot to the other. “Like I said, this isn’t about that. You’re always welcome here.”
And Jeremy let out a breath. “I know, and I appreciate that. But . . . maybe a change of scenery would do me good.”
“Where would you go?” Lucky asked.
Jeremy considered options. On one hand, there weren’t many—he didn’t have a lot of ties outside Destiny. But on the other, there were millions—it was a big world.
“Maybe I’ll go to the beach,” he offered up. No particular reason, but the beach was a peaceful place. “Maybe I’ll head to that that little town where your parents live.” Lucky’s mom and dad had moved to Florida years earlier, and Jeremy had even gone with his own parents on vacation to visit them right after his return from overseas, back when he was wearing the war hero persona better. “It’s nice there.”
“Yeah, it is,” Lucky agreed.
Although Jeremy wasn’t really sure what a change of scenery would do for him. Other than stop him from hiding himself away in those woods forever. At the beach there was only the ocean and horizon. A lot harder place to hide.
Maybe a move would help him make a new start.
“What’s the town called again?” he asked.
And Lucky replied, “Coral Cove.”