Page 81 of The Lilac River

I straightened my spine. Lifted my chin.

I didn’t owe anyone an explanation. What could I give them, certainly not the truth. Anything else would make it seem like I hadn’t cared. Like it had been easy to leave. Easy to explain away and there was nothing simple about it.

Nash and I may not have been complicated as teenagers, but now we were more complex than a rabbit warren. His father had made sure of that.

Still, as I paid for my groceries and hurried toward the door, I couldn't help glancing around one last time. Whispers. Stares.Stories blooming like weeds in the cracked sidewalks of Silver Peaks.

Stories, assumptions and lies.

But maybe...maybe if Nash was standing beside me, maybe if we faced it together.

But that was never going to happen. He’d been more than clear about that.

"Did you get Grandma’s canned pineapple?" Mom asked, peering into a grocery bag when I got home later.

"Right here." I handed her two cans. "I’m not about to make that mistake again."

"Good girl. She's bowling tonight."

"Bowling?" I stared. "With whom?"

"Some ladies from the Thursday Club. And some gentlemen from the Wednesday Club."

I laughed as we put away the groceries. "How is this real life?"

"You’ve been gone a while, honey. Silver Peaks has...evolved."

When we finally settled with coffee mugs in hand, Mom pinned me with her knowing stare.

"Okay," she said. "Tell me what’s happening with you and Nash."

"Nothing!" I protested. "Mom, it wasn't a date. Wilder invited me after I went to pick up my phone."

She raised an eyebrow. "And yet, you’re lying awake thinking about him. Am I right?"

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Maybe."

When I told her about running into Mayor Miller, she grew quiet. Then, after a few moments, she said, "Hear me out. I have a crazy idea."

"Please tell me it doesn't involve naked pictures," I said, grimacing.

She barked a laugh. "No. I’m thinking about telling our story to the local paper. Getting ahead of the Mayor." She shrugged. “We can make sure the truth is printed, not a bunch of lies that he’ll spin.”

I stared at her. My tiny, fierce mother. She had been married to a coward of a man, a bully, a murderer, and she’d had the courage to leave. She’d moved halfway across the country with her child to a small town where she knew no one and carved out a life for herself. Standing there, her hair in a messy bun, holes in the knees of her old worn jeans and wearing an ancient Boyz II Men t-shirt I had never seen her look more determined.

“No, Mom. I can’t let you do that.”

“You can’t stop me, sweetheart. It’s my decision. I barely saw you for ten years because of that secret. I’m not willing for that to happen again.”

“And if it backfires, and you lose your job? Or I lose mine?”

"Then we’ll fight it, not sure he really has any power anyway. Whatever happens, though, we’ll manage, Lily," she said gently. "We just have to stop living in fear."

"Okay. I’ll think about it," I whispered. "But you have to promise me you’re sure."

"I’m sure." She squeezed my hand. "And you have to promise me that you’ll tell Nash everything."

"I-I can’t."