Page 23 of You Met Me There

“That’s great,” I say, smiling at her. I take a sip through my straw, the coffee now watery from the melted ice. “Did you graduate nursing school?” Juliet was in her second—or third—year of nursing school when I left.

“I did, and then I got my master’s. I work in cardiology. Mostly with kids.”

“That’s really great. And sweet that you’re with kids so much. I’m a little jealous. I’m not around kids very often, except one that I babysit for my best friend.” A nervous chuckle escapes my lips. “Anyway,” I say quickly, “I’d love to meet your kids. I guess I’m an aunt.”

Jules sighs, straightening as she lowers her arms to her sides. “Listen, Natalie. I’m glad to see you, but I’m not really sure why you’re here. Now, I mean, after all this time.”

Her words hang, heavy, between us.

“Oh … well …” I touch my empty ring finger out of habit. I left my wedding ring in my makeup bag to ward off any questions about Luke and my running away again. “I just wanted to come home. I wanted to see you, Tyler, and Mom and Dad.”

She lifts a brow. “Well, they’re not here. They all moved out of town. It’s only me left.”

Her previously relieved, if not cheerful, demeanor has slowly morphed to irritation, making my shoulders sag under the weight of all my fears. I knew it was too much to hope for forgiveness from my family. She’s mad.

My palm begins to sweat against the cool cup in my hand, and my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I shake my head and have trouble meeting my sister’s eyes, so I stare at the floor where her sneaker bounces with agitation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” I say. “I’m sorry I left.”

“It’s not that you left, Natalie.” My name is spit out like it has a bad taste. “It’s how you left. It’s that you didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye. None of us got that.” She throws her hands up, her gaze sliding around the kitchen like she’s searching for her next words on the ceiling. She looks me straight in the eye, and I meet her stare. “Tyler and I were terrified that something bad happened to you. And Mom and Dad? They didn’t stop searching for you for months.” I step back as if she punched me, my breath lost. “They called the cops. They asked everyone we knew if you’d said anything to them, anything that would give us an idea of where you went.”

I say to the floor, “I was okay. I left a note.”

She scoffs. “A note. A note that said nothing but that you were leaving.” There’s a pause, and her voice is softer when she finally says, “Did you really hate it here that much?”

My eyes shoot up. “No. No, I didn’t hate it here. Not always, anyway.”

Her words are hard and cold now. “Then why would you run away?”

“Because … I … I fell in love.” My heart skips at the thought of Luke.

Jules’s eyes narrow, and her arms cross over her chest again. “So you ran away with him?”

I nod. “He was on a trip here with his parents and we just … had a connection. I didn’t want him to leave after their vacation and let him forget me. I was just a teenager, desperate to not lose the guy.”

She bites her lower lip. After a beat she says, “You didn’t think Mom and Dad would let you be with him, did you?”

“No.” I shake my head slowly. “They wouldn’t have understood. I can say that with all certainty because I hardly understood it myself. It was love, I know it was, but it was so fast. They wouldn’t have understood or listened to me.”

“What about his parents? Why didn’t they call us to explain? To say you were safe? Natalie, we were thinking the worst things.” Pain laces her voice, and she drops her eyes from mine for the first time.

The more I say, the more I fear she’ll hate me. I told so many lies to get where I am, but I don’t want to lie anymore.

“I told them my parents weren’t around,” I say. “I told them I needed them to take me to Florida so I could have a family. And Luke begged them to take me.”

“So you lied about having parents and got a new mom and dad?!” Jules’s hands fly to her head, running through her hair. Strands fall loose from the clip. She looks like she’s going to throw me out.

I take another step back. Not because I’m scared of what she’ll do, but because I’m readying myself to run. It’s what I’m good at.

Samantha and Mike, Luke’s parents, weren’t happy to learn a year after I left home that I still had parents in Maple Lake. They were angry and hurt by my lie, but they didn’t send me home.

“I’m not going to interfere with however you’ve handled leaving home,” Mike said. “But I want you to reach out to your parents and tell them you’re okay.”

I wasn’t okay, though. Not by a long shot. I hadn’t been sleeping, I couldn’t go anywhere without always fearing I’d have a panic attack in public, and I had to start therapy. No one but me and my therapist knew I had anxiety as a teen and that the severity of it stemmed from leaving home before I was truly ready. But the Hamiltons paid for my doctor’s visits and let me stay with them in their beach house in Fort Lauderdale.

A year later, Luke and I got married and everything was almost perfect.

“I panicked!” I confess now. “I didn’t know what else to say to them when they looked at me like they wouldn’t take me with them. I needed to be with Luke.” I want to cry. “I couldn’t lose him,” I whisper.