Page 1 of Keep My Heart (The Haydon Falls #1)

Lyndsay

‘Hey, I’m here,’ I say, searching the airport terminal. ‘I don’t see you.’

‘I’m running late,’ Diane says. ‘Had to go home and get Leah’s soccer shoes. I just dropped her off. I’m on my way. I’ll text you when I get there.’

‘Okay. See you soon!’

Going to a bench by the window, I take a seat and scroll through my phone.

‘Mind if I sit here?’ someone asks.

I look over and see a guy pointing to the seat beside me. He’s cute—average height, stocky build, short blond hair.

‘Go ahead.’ I scoot over, giving him room.

‘I’m just waiting for a friend,’ he says. ‘His plane’s here, but they haven’t let them off yet.’

I nod and look back at my phone.

‘You waiting for someone too?’ he asks.

‘I’m waiting to be picked up.’ I look up from my phone. ‘I just got into town. ’

‘Oh, yeah? Where are you from?’

‘Los Angeles. I’m just here for a few days.’

‘You got family here?’

I nod. ‘My mom.’

The guy turns to me. ‘What’s her name?’

‘Patty Davis.’ I glance behind me out the window to check for Diane’s minivan.

‘Wait.’ The guy turns more as he stares at me. ‘Lyndsay?’

I stare back at him, realizing I recognize him. ‘Matt?’

His eyes widen and he smiles. ‘Holy shit. Lyndsay Davis. Or I guess you go by Sommers now. I haven’t seen you since high school.’

‘Yeah, I guess that was the last time, wasn’t it?’

‘You missed our ten-year reunion. I thought for sure you and Chris would be there.’

‘We couldn’t make it,’ I say, looking away.

I don’t want to talk about Chris. I came here to get my mind off him, but now that I’m back, I’m realizing this town is just a reminder of him.

It’s where we met and where we fell in love.

Coming back here was probably a mistake, but I needed to see Diane.

This is a time in my life when I need my best friend.

‘So where is he?’ Matt asks, looking around. ‘Where’s Chris?’

‘Oh, um, he couldn’t make it.’

‘He had to work?’

‘Yeah.’ I should just tell him the truth.

Why would I keep it a secret? In a town this small, it won’t be long before everyone knows.

I’m surprised they don’t already. The way my mom gossips, I can’t believe she hasn’t told the whole town.

I’m guessing it’s because she thinks Chris and I still have a chance.

We’ve broken up and gotten back together so many times, she probably thinks this is just a temporary separation.

But it’s not. Yesterday the divorce was made final.

My marriage to Chris is officially over.

‘Actually, that’s not the reason,’ I say.

‘What was that?’ Matt asks, glancing over at me.

‘The reason Chris isn’t here. It’s not because of work. It’s because we um .?.?.’ It’s hard to say this. I don’t know why. It should be easy, especially since I’m the one who filed for the divorce. ‘Chris and I are divorced,’ I blurt out.

‘Oh, shit. I’m sorry.’ He pulls me in for a hug.

I haven’t seen this guy since high school and he’s acting like we’re best friends.

But that’s Matt. He was a nice guy back then and obviously still is, the way he’s acting so concerned for me.

He was on the football team with Chris, but they weren’t really friends.

Chris was a cocky jerk whose friends were other cocky jerks.

He only cared about himself, and still does.

‘It’s fine,’ I say, pulling away. ‘We’d talked about it for a long time. We just took forever to actually do it.’

‘And it just happened? Like this week?’

‘It was final as of yesterday. My lawyer called and let me know. I assume Chris knows. I haven’t talked to him. He’s in Vegas with a friend.’

‘I’m really sorry it didn’t work out.’ Matt scoots back a little, giving me a genuine look of concern. Why didn’t I marry someone like him? A nice guy who would’ve treated me well. ‘Anything I can do to help?’

‘No, but thanks for offering.’ I smile and glance down at his hand, noticing the wedding band. Of course he’s married. He’s a great guy. Some girl probably scooped him up years ago. ‘So what’s new with you? What have you been up to since high school?’

He shrugs. ‘Got married. Had a couple kids.’

‘How old are the kids? ’

‘Mia is three and Bella is six. How about you? Any kids?’

‘No,’ I say, trying to hide my disappointment with a smile. ‘We decided kids weren’t for us.’

‘Really?’ He eyes me, his head tilting to the side. ‘For some reason I always pictured you having kids.’

‘We thought about it, but Chris wanted to focus on work.’

‘What’s he doing for work?’

‘A little of everything,’ I say with a laugh, but it’s not funny. Chris has practically bankrupted us with all of his businesses, none of which took off. ‘I’d rather not talk about it, or him.’

‘Yeah, of course. Sorry about that.’

‘It’s okay.’

He checks his phone for the time.

‘So who are you waiting for?’ I ask.

‘Nick.’ Matt looks up from his phone. ‘You remember him, right? From high school?’

‘Nick Kanfield?’ My pulse ticks up just saying his name.

I had a small crush on him back in high school, which is odd because he wasn’t at all my type back then.

He was one of the smart people who got all A’s and took the hardest classes.

I, on the other hand, took the easiest classes and still struggled.

‘Didn’t Nick used to tutor you?’ Matt asks.

‘Yeah, that’s right, he did,’ I say, as if I just remembered that.

But the truth is, I’ve thought about those tutoring sessions more than I should’ve the past 15 years.

Nick was so patient and kind. He never made me feel stupid when I didn’t understand something.

Those tutoring sessions are what made me fall for Nick, although I never told anyone that.

I tried to convince myself it wasn’t true.

How could it be? I had a boyfriend. A guy I loved. Nick was just a friend.

‘Looks like he’s finally off the plane,’ Matt says as he looks at his phone. ‘He should be here in a few minutes.’

‘Where’ s Nick living now?’

‘New York City.’ Matt shakes his head. ‘I don’t know how he does it. That place stresses me out. I’ve only been there a couple times to visit him and I couldn’t wait to leave. So much noise and traffic and all those people.’ He laughs. ‘Guess I’m just a small-town type of guy.’

My phone rings and I see Diane’s name on the screen. ‘Hey,’ I answer. ‘Are you here?’

‘I’m at the airport, but I’m stuck behind a line of cars. I should be there in a minute or two.’

‘Okay, I’ll wait outside.’ I get up from the bench.

‘Is your mom picking you up?’ Matt asks as I put my phone away.

‘No.’ I smile. ‘She doesn’t like driving in the big city anymore.’

He laughs. ‘She calls Madison big?’

‘Compared to Haydon Falls, yes. If it’s big enough to have an airport, it’s too big.’ I pull the handle up on my suitcase. ‘Well, it was good seeing you again.’

‘Yeah.’ Matt gets up. ‘Hey, if you have time, maybe we could all get together and have a beer. You could meet my wife. Nick could come over. It’d be a good chance to catch up.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll have time.’ It’s not true. I have plenty of time, but I’d rather not spend it with people from high school. They’ll want to talk about Chris, and this trip was supposed to get my mind off him and the divorce.

‘Over here!’ Matt yells, waving at someone.

I turn and see a tall, extremely handsome man in a suit coming this way. His eyes dart to me, then back to Matt, before going back to me.

Wait, that’s not Nick, is it? It couldn’t be. Nick was skinny and wore glasses and had longer hair that curled up on the sides .

‘Hey, man, welcome back,’ Matt says, giving him a hug.

‘Thanks.’ He pulls back, his eyes going to me.

‘Look who I ran into,’ Matt says. ‘Remember Lyndsay? Chris’ girl?’

Chris’ girl. That’s what people called me back in high school. Chris and I were a total cliché. I was head cheerleader and Chris was quarterback of the football team, the guy all the girls wanted. If I’d known back then how he’d turn out, I would’ve let some other girl have him.

‘Hey, Lyndsay,’ Nick says in a deep, strong voice that’s nothing like the timid voice he had back in high school.

‘Hey,’ I say, sounding breathless. I glance at Matt. ‘I need to get going. Diane’s probably out there by now.’

‘Diane Ellis?’ he says.

‘Yeah. She’s picking me up.’

He nods. ‘My wife used to take yoga with her. I didn’t know you two were still friends.’

‘Yeah. So anyway, good seeing you both.’ I glance at Nick as I leave. His head is down and he’s checking his phone.

He looks up. ‘See ya, Lyndsay.’ He gives me a smile and my insides do some kind of nervous flip-flop thing. What is wrong with me? I didn’t react this way around him back in high school. Then again, in high school, he didn’t look like this.

When I get outside, I see Diane’s red minivan pulling up to the curb. She stops and jumps out, meeting me at the back of the van.

‘Welcome home!’ She hugs me. It’s not home anymore, but I get what she means. She pulls back and looks at me. ‘How do you never age?’

I smile. ‘Believe me, I’ve aged about ten years through the stress of this divorce. If you can’t tell, it must be my makeup. I have a friend who’s a makeup artist. She taught me everything I know. ’

‘You’ll have to teach me,’ Diane says, grabbing my suitcase and flinging it in the back of the van.

‘You look great!’ I say, noticing she seems thinner than the last time I saw her. ‘I like the pants.’

She has on yoga pants in an orange and white pattern that looks like a flame.

‘Thanks! I just got them.’ She winks at me. ‘Tom loves them, if you know what I mean.’

She met her husband, Tom, back in college. They’ve been married for ten years and still flirt with each other and hold hands and kiss in public. I love that she found someone like that, a guy that’s still crazy about her after all these years.

‘Was that it?’ she asks, looking around me.

‘Yeah. I’m only here for ten days.’

‘I wish you’d stay longer.’

‘I can’t. Ten days with my mom is long enough.’