Page 6 of The Lilac River

Later, as Grandma dozed and I pretended to read, my mind wandered where it always did: three miles up the road, to the Last Creek Ranch. To Nash.

I'd promised myself I wouldn't think about him, but Silver Peaks was built out of memories, and every corner of this town whispered his name. He was everywhere. In the fading whitepaint on the football field bleachers. In the scent of rain on hot pavement.

In the lavender fields that stretched out like a river of purple toward the mountains.

God, those fields. He used to say they smelled like summer and secrets. We used to lie in them for hours, pretending we had time.

I thought being here would make it easier. I was wrong.

"You’re not going to fix it by sitting there," Grandma’s voice cut through my reverie.

I blinked. "Sorry?"

"You heard me." She shifted, bones cracking like brittle branches. "You’re hiding, Lily. Always have been."

"I'm just settling in," I muttered, sliding a bookmark into the spine.

Grandma gave a world-weary sigh. "Keep telling yourself that." She eyed me like she could see straight through my skin. "You loved that boy. We all knew it. Your mom even loved that boy."

I looked away, swallowing the sudden lump in my throat. "I had my reasons."

"Maybe so," she said softly. "But reasons don’t keep you warm at night."

My stomach flipped. It was such a simple truth, but it landed like a slap. She wasn’t trying to hurt me, just reminding me of the cost of silence.

I closed my book with a snap and stood. "I’m going for a walk."

"Good," Grandma called after me. "Maybe you’ll walk right into your future, that’s if you stop running from your past."

I paused in the doorway, fingers resting on the frame.Or maybe,I thought bitterly,I’ll walk straight into the thing I still love and can’t have.

Outside, the light was fading into that sleepy golden hour, where everything looked softer and more dangerous. I tugged my sweater tighter and headed toward the trail behind the house, boots crunching over loose gravel.

I didn’t know where I was going.

I just knew I couldn’t sit still with all this noise in my chest.

Not when every breath I took reminded me of him.

Chapter 3

Memories – Maroon 5

Nash

My day off was supposed to be peaceful. Instead, I’d spent it tangled in memories I didn’t ask for, thanks to Wilder’s bombshell that Lily Jones was back.

Ten years. Three thousand four hundred and forty-one days.

That’s how long it had been since I last held her. Since we’d laid side by side, talking all night about college and dreams, whispering promises we thought we’d never break, then made love until we drifted off to sleep wrapped in each other.

June fifth. Six-thirty in the morning. Three days after graduation.That was the moment everything shifted. That was when she kissed me goodbye to go and pack ready to visit her Grandma for a couple of days.

The night before we’d talked about me switching schools, leaving Alabama for Ohio to be closer to her. I even told her I’d defer for a year if I had to. I meant it. I was already a damn good quarterback, with analysts predicting I’d be drafted high. I knew Ohio State would snap me up the second I spoke to their coach.I hadn’t signed a National Letter of Intent with UA, and I was ready to move heaven and earth for her.

None of it mattered.

She left town hours later.