Page 13 of Just One More Thing

I point at him. “I’m serious.”

He charges.

I step sideways at the last second.

His beak smacks the brick with a loud tap.

“I told you.”

He jerks back, shakes his head, and glares at me as if this is somehow my fault, then stomps off, quietly squawking.

I watch him go.

“Honestly,” I mumble, “same.”

A boat horn sounds in the distance. Someone laughs too loudly. The breakfast crowd at Lazy Larry’s are hollering about laziness. The whole town keeps moving along as though nothing tectonic just shifted under my feet. Blue Crab Bay is very good atpretending the ground isn’t moving while it quietly redraws the fault lines.

And Jake?—

I left him standing there.

Waiting.

Again.

The shame hits so fast I actually flinch.

For one reckless thought, I imagine turning around.

Walking right back into Tall Tales. The bell over the door giving its stupid cheerful jingle. Jake turning toward me. Finishing whatever he started. Being brave for once instead of running.

The look on his face if I came back.

I want that look more than I should.

I can see it so clearly it makes my stomach flip.

I brush my palms off on my shorts and take another step away from the wall. Then another. Each one feels wrong. As if my body knows exactly where it wants to go and I’m making it do the opposite.

I keep walking.

But every step away feels a little too much like loss.

CHAPTER 6

EMORY

I’m sitting here like an idiot, staring out at the bay as if it might hand me answers.

Idiot feels like my default setting lately. The last twenty-four hours. The last decade.

So I start walking, because as soon as I stop moving, my brain snaps right back to yesterday. To Jake saying my name. To me doing what I always do when emotion shows up uninvited and I don’t have a plan.

I run.

I slipped past him like a coward. Mumbled something—maybe an apology, maybe a grocery list—and got out before he could say anything. Before I could say the wrong thing.

Again.