Page 10

You were really cutting it close there. *Alexa, cancel timer for one hour*

How was the flight? Flights?

Taylor

Pretty much as fun as the DMV.

Mila

Taylor

I was reading my book and they were JUST about to fuck and my Kindle died.

Mila

Nooooooo

Taylor

Actually now that I think about it, it probably killed itself. The last line I read was ‘I ran my tongue through her sopping wet folds.’

Mila

Really? Folds. We’re still saying that?

Taylor

She got that origami punani.

I laugh, set my phone on the counter, and step into the shower, letting the lava-like water melt off the remnants of the world’s longest travel day.

I don’t know how long I stayed in there, and I don’t remember how I got wrapped up in the world’s coziest bed, but I don’t have the chance to bother figuring it out before I let the effects of the last forty-eight hours pull me to sleep.

Knox

A deep exhaleescapes me as I lean back, allowing the water to rain down on me and the rough edges of the stone wall shower to dig into my back. I’ve been lucky enough not to have run into anyone I haven’t personally sought out yet since I’ve been back. I drag my hand down my face and turn off the water before getting ready to confront the thing I’ve been avoiding these past few weeks.

It’s not that I don’t love these people. While rugby might have made me, this town raised me. When I left, I left with hundreds of people rooting for me. The people of Stoney Meadow were my biggest supporters, my number one fans. I lived in a new city for six months before I came back for the first time. I continued to come home for holidays, or whenever I had time off, but every time I did, it was a distraction. Over the years, I found myself coming home less and less. Six months stretched into nine, and nine, became twelve. This last stint had gone on for three years. I’m grateful to my parents who still cared enough to make the trips out to watch me play major games and championships even if I only saw them for a night or two.

Now I’m back and I have nothing to show for it. When I’d come home, it was always,‘There’s our superstar’or‘Knox Browning, Stoney Meadows’s greatest claim to fame’. I never bought into all the hype or let it go to my head. It was never about the fame or the prestige for me, but now it’s all about how I’ve let them down. My biggest motivator now is to get my shoulder healed, work through this injury, and get back to my team in whatever capacity that might be. I have to believe that will negate some of the guilt I feel for letting them down. Working the night shift was the best case of a worst-case scenario because it meant I wouldn’t have to see anyone. But tonight, as I start my truck and make my way up to the main house for dinner, I buckle up for the storm of disappointment I’m sure I’m about to walk into.

Emerald Browning Cottageis the heart of this land, but the large old, walnut wood dining room table is the heart of this Inn. It was built by my great-grandfather and my pa when my dad was just a toddler. Photos of dinners held at this very table over the last sixty years decorate the room. It seats twenty people easily, and while it is the heart of the inn, it also holds the heart of my family.

“Olivia honey, can you grab the other tray of the boxtys from the kitchen? There's room at the end of the table.” My mum sets down bread bowls filled with what smells like beer cheese soup before her head snaps up, noticing my presence.

“Smells great, Mum.” I smile at her as she rounds the table, wiping her hands on her apron. She brushes a dark brown curl from her forehead, revealing slightly glassy eyes, but her smile glows as she wraps her delicate arms around my waist.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispers against my sternum and I hold her just a little tighter. She pulls back, keeping her hands on my waist. Looking up at me, her eyessearch mine, and I breathe a little easier when I find nothing but pure joy in them.

“Nice of you to show your face around here, Knoxy.” My mum smiles, stepping back at the sound of my sister’s voice. I palm the back of her head like a basketball and pull her into my side. She’s grown so much since the last time I was home and looks more like a real adult rather than the fresh-faced eighteen-year-old she was when I last saw her. She’ll always be seven to me though. “Let me go!” Her voice comes out in a mumble, somewhere around my armpit and I release her head. She stumbles back a step and glares at me. “When do you think you’ll outgrow that?”

I flick my eyes up and purse my lips. My finger dances in front of my face. “Plus seven, carry the one—” I don’t miss the way she rolls her eyes. “Oh. Never.” I reach to ruffle her hair again, but she’s quick and bats my arm away.

“Alright, children. We’ve got company. Sit,” my dad grumbles and Liv and I move to the same two seats we’ve always sat at. It’s ridiculous how my life has been turned completely upside down, yet some things haven’t changed at all.

A family of four—all with the same jet-black hair, olive skin, and thin lips begin to fill their plates across from me. While a woman roughly in her thirties taps away on her phone down by my father. “Would you like some?” he asks mid-scoop.

Her American accent is thick when she says, “Oh, no thank you.” Her lips press into a thin line and she drops her phone in her lap.