Page 25

Nova

I sat in the chair in front of the firepit and watched Lance raking the leaves.

I probably could’ve gone back inside, but I was enjoying being out there and breathing in the fall air, snuggled in Lance’s oversize sweatshirt.

Before Adam, fall was my favorite season.

Especially fall in Bayou. The people of Bayou were serious about their decorations.

All the stores on Main Street would have a display with bales of hay at the front of the door.

On top of the hay, they’d have a scarecrow and pumpkins surrounding it.

You couldn’t drive down any road and not see a house decorated as if everyone had an agenda to outdo the other.

“Nova!” My head swung around toward Quinton’s frantic voice, calling my name.

“What’s wrong?” I asked when he came outside looking more afraid than I thought I’d ever seen him look before.

“What’s wrong?” he repeated. “I’m ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door until I have no choice but to use the emergency key Ms. Martha hid. Then I open the door and smell smoke. I’m looking all over and calling for you, and you’re nowhere around. That’s what’s wrong.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I backed away from him.

“Hey, Quinton, you need to calm down.” Lance stood next to me.

“I am calm. Trust me, this is calm.” He closed his eyes.

When he opened them the fear and anger I’d seen before was gone.

“I’m sorry, Nova. I couldn’t find you, and I immediately thought .

..” He pulled his lips in and shook his head as if trying to shake away the scary thoughts that came to his mind.

“Quinton, I’m okay.” I walked away from Lance as a familiar pang of anxiety rose inside me as I thought about all the fights Quinton and I had over Lance, and then the last fight that changed my life forever.

I stood in front of Quinton and took his hand in mine.

“Hey, I’m right here. I’m fine,” I kept reassuring him.

Quinton gently pulled me into him and hugged me. His touch didn’t feel uncomfortable, so I lingered in it a little longer before we broke away.

“Why does the house smell like smoke?” Quinton asked, pointing toward the house.

“I was cooking eggs and got distracted. The smoke from the pan set off the fire alarm. But it was fine because Lance came in, shut it off, and opened the windows.”

A crease formed between Quinton’s brows as he glanced from Lance back to me. His jaw was set, and there was a guarded look in his eyes that I remembered all too well. “Can I speak with you for a minute?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong? Is it Skye?”

“No, Skye’s fine. Everyone’s fine. I just need to talk to you in private.”

“I’m pretty sure this is about me,” Lance said, shaking his head and smirking.

And just like that, it was twenty years ago, and I was caught between my best friend and the man I loved. I didn’t like the feeling back then, and I hated it even more now.

“Okay, listen. I know what this is about. For a long time, I blamed Lance, too, for that night. I think a part of me still blamed him, but I don’t want to hold on to that anymore, and you shouldn’t either,” I urged Quinton.

“Blamed me for what night?” Lance asked.

“This isn’t about that,” Quinton said.

“What night?” Lance asked again.

“The night I went missing.” I lifted my head to Quinton, then closed the space between Lance and me.

“I’d told Quinton that we’d spoken a couple of times, and, as you can imagine, he didn’t take it well.

We got into a huge fight, and I stormed out.

That’s when I went downstairs to the bar and, well, you know the rest.”

“You were upset with me?” Lance asked, his words filled with hurt and dread. “Nova, I’m sorry, had I known that call would’ve caused all of that, believe me, I never would’ve—”

“But you did know she was married, right? And you did know how her husband felt about you, right?” Quinton questioned.

Lance’s jaw muscles twitched. “Yeah, I knew that. Did you know that a husband’s job is to always protect his wife?”

I knew those words must’ve landed like a gut punch to Quinton. He balled his hands into tight fists and the tension circled around us, trapping us all in this atmosphere of anger, and I hated it so much.

I stood between Quinton and Lance. “Okay ... enough!” I shouted.

“I only brought that up because I have a second chance at life, and I don’t want to spend it with all those negative pinned-up feelings like I had in that room with Adam.

I want to be happy.” I looked at Quinton.

“Like you’re happy with your new life.” I turned to Lance, but the words were for Quinton.

“And you can’t tell me who I can and cannot be friends with anymore.

” I looked at Quinton again to make sure he understood what I was saying.

“I’m not your wife anymore. I can choose my friends. ”

The hurt that flashed across his face was unexpected. For some reason, I thought he’d be relieved to know that he didn’t have to carry that burden anymore. That hate that he held for Lance for so long was about me, and now he could let it go.

“You don’t know him like you think you do,” Quinton said.

“Of course I don’t,” I chuckled. “It’s been fifteen years.

I don’t know any of you anymore, if you really think about it.

But that’s what I want to spend this time doing—getting to know the people I love again.

And in order to do that, there can’t be any secrets.

” I looked over at Lance. That’s why I wanted you to know how I’d been feeling. ”

Quinton touched my arm. “I get that, but I’m trying to tell you that ...”

“What?” Lance cut in. “What are you trying to tell her? Because, like Nova said, she doesn’t know any of us anymore.

” He turned to me. “A lot has happened to me over the past fifteen years, and I hope I can share some of it with you one day. But I can promise you that I’m not keeping any secrets from you. ”

Maybe it was my imagination, but I could’ve sworn I felt heat radiating off Quinton’s body. No one got underneath his skin like Lance.

“There you are,” Mama said, standing at the door and looking out at us. “What happened in here?”

Lance walked away and went back to finish up the rest of the yard work.

Quinton and I followed Mama back inside.

I helped her put up the groceries and explained how I almost burned her house down.

Quinton sat quietly. He was still breathing hard, like at any minute he could jump from that stool, run back outside, and tackle Lance.

“I should get going.” He hugged me, then Mama, before he left.

“What’s that about?” Mama asked.

“I’ll be back.” I followed Quinton to the front door. “Are you okay?”

He smiled, but I knew Quinton’s smile, and that wasn’t it. “Yeah, of course.”

“Lance really got to you.”

“He didn’t get to me. He just ... I don’t like him, and I don’t understand why no one can see him for who he is.”

“Who do you think he is?” I waited for him to fill me in, but he couldn’t. “What happened between the two of you? And don’t say it was nothing.”

He stared at me, and I could tell that there was more that he wasn’t saying. When the forced smile returned, I knew he wasn’t going to tell me.

“Fine, but just know that you’ll feel a lot better once you let it go.”

He touched my shoulder. “Talk with you later.”

I watched him drive off, and a part of me wanted to call him back and sit with him until I knew he was okay.

Then, I reminded myself that he had a wife to go home to.

Someone else would comfort him and make sure he was okay.

Why did it feel like I just received the news that he was no longer married to me?

I thought I was okay with that news. I told myself I was fine, but now I didn’t know if I was.