You Always Come Back by Emily Smith

Author:Emily Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

CHAPTER

14

Now

A STONE OF DREAD sits in my stomach in the weeks following. I never should have come back to Pacific. There are too many secrets whirling around me, too many confessions from my surviving siblings and the people around us that are setting my very knowing off kilter. I don’t want to deal with any of it. I half consider throwing my bags in my car and making for Nashville in the middle of the night, damn it all to hell.

The only thing holding me here is Deck. I stare at his face over our morning coffee, him laughing and teasing April and Auggie, so much more himself than I’ve seen him in years. If I leave him behind, it will break him. The pressure of being the one thing standing between someone and their sobriety is a lot to shoulder.

Auggie seems to sense this shift in me, despite the fact that I don’t tell him about the Mark/Dillon video, because he’s suddenly more attentive. Asking me to come along on simple errands about town—the grocery store, takeout, a random wedding pickup. I feel his eyes on me like an overcautious shepherd. He’s waiting for me to bolt.

Maybe I’m waiting for the same thing, when April’s big senior fundraiser arrives. Every upcoming senior is expected to have a family member working the event. I don’t know how that job got relegated to me over one of our three perfectly capable brothers, but I want to cry sexism. The dread at having to socialize with this entire town is only amplified when I pull up to the massive iron gate outside the allotted venue. Auggie warned me beforehand, but I’m still not quite prepared. This is Colton Davidson’s house.

The would-be mayor apparently has a younger cousin in April’s grade and has nobly offered his home to host the event. Convenient, considering over half of Pacific and Hazel are going to be in attendance. I expect a campaign speech at any moment.

“Oh my God, July,” Nicole Sheridan—scratch that—Nicole Davidson greets me at the door, her smile fake and bright. At least her husband is nowhere in sight. “How are you? It’s so nice to see you.”

Mark’s high school girlfriend is hardly recognizable through all the Botox, hair dye, and spray tan she’s subjected her body to over the last nine years. Granted, I might be a little jaded. I should probably make an effort, since her best friend was one of Harry’s victims, but we’d never liked each other. Not to mention, she dumped Mark the day after Harry was arrested.

“I’m freaking great,” I say, meeting her mock cheeriness. “How’re you?”

My tone goes over her head. “Just great. It’s so good of you to come out and support April. It must be so nice to have you at one of these things after you’ve been absent for so long.”

I bite my tongue. Maybe not totally over her head after all. “Where do you want me?”

Nicole leads me to the row of tables where baskets and donated goods from vendors across the county are being displayed.

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