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“You can. Find that little girl inside you who was lonely. You find her and you bring her back here. Show her you survived. Show her you’ve found your people. Be her fucking hero, because you’re the only one who can be.”

He stands and pulls my sobbing, snotty self to my feet. His thumbs brush my tears away. “We’re not bad people just because we looked for connection in the wrong places. I know the road you’re on has become familiar, but you can’t stay on it, Lexie. Iknow it’s scary, but you’ve got to make a turn. I promise it will be worth it.”

I push his hands away, ordering myself to stop crying. I’m trying so hard to hold onto my annoyance with him. How dare he give me hope for something more. “I don’t see any turn.”

“It’s just up ahead.” He takes the journal in my hand and presses it to my chest. “You’ll want to lighten your load before you get there.”

Frozen with indecision, I clutch the journal against my heart as my eyes follow his retreating figure down the path.

A little crow lands at my feet, pulling my attention away from him. He’s carrying something in his beak. I bend to pick it up after he drops it on the ground. He hops away but stays as if he’s making sure I retrieve it. It’s just a piece of asphalt.

I straighten and hold it up to the light. The little bits of gravel sparkle as pretty as stars against an inky night sky.

“I don’t see any turn.”

“It’s just up ahead.”

When I look back at the crow, he’s gone.

Chapter Eleven

Ash

“No. I’m not having a party that celebrates my stupidity,” I tell my sister for the hundredth time while glaring at my phone.

Jesse said she’d call. Why haven’t they called?

Willow places her palm against a tree, lifting her face to the sun. “You don’t want to disappoint Jesse, do you?”

“Jesse is busy. She doesn’t have time to throw me a party.” She should be punching my goddamn number into her phone right now.

“She left me in charge,” my sister says proudly.

“Oh, so it’s you who would be disappointed, not Jesse.” Another minute ticks by, and I think my head might explode.

She giggles and looks over her shoulder at me. Her happiness temporarily distracts me from my need to hear Lexie’s voice.

“Do you know how often Jesse leaves someone else in charge?”

“No, but I bet you’re going to tell me.” My phone lights up, jolting my heart for a brief moment, but it’s only Brody.

“Never. That’s how many. I can’t let her down.”

I laugh when I read Brody’s message. He’s telling me he’s going to miss my welcome home party.

Me too, buddy. Me too.Because my only plans are to sneak up and see my girl.

My sister plops down beside me. “Please.” She blinks at me.

“Fine. On one condition.”

She bounces on her butt. “Anything.”

I can see her mind already rolling over a list of everything she’ll need. “Lexie will be there.”

She instantly deflates. Her posture tells me she doesn’t hold that kind of power, even though her husband is the president of the club.

“Willow, I’m dying to see her.”