Page 55 of Secrets That Bind Us

Verity

Present Day

The little bell above the shop door opens, as Trish, our new store manager, and I put up more books on display.

The Ink Plot is very close to ready for our soft opening and grand opening day next week.

An entire month ahead of schedule. The three baristas Zoey and I poached from a well-known coffee shop the town over, are currently still deciding over the menu with our head chef, Iris.

It’s been a few crazy weeks between poaching and looking at trustworthy applicants to man the store when Zoey and I can’t be available.

Such as the small book tour Eli signed me up for in January.

“Oh, shit. I think I forgot to lock the door.” Trish groans, putting up the books in her hands, turning to face me. “Although… might just be the eye candy you brought in to help.” She winks.

Smiling, I shrug. “We’re not open yet!” I call out. But then I hear, “Mommmyyyyyy!” and then, “Mom!”

I sigh, handing Trish the books I have in my hands. “Duty calls. Coming!”

I turn and go past the little tables full of merchandise, stop by the pastry display, and steal a brownie cookie Iris is waving around in her hand while she’s talking to the crew. “Hey!”

“Thank you!” I yelp around a mouth full of brownie and brush past quickly.

“Hey, babe?” I hear from the front of the store.

“I’m goin’, Sheriff.” I call back, and weave through the boxes still on the floor that Dean’s been putting around for me all day, only to see Tiffany Myers standing there, and Dean holding what I’m sure is another very heavy box of paperbacks, as Bear lays on the ground in the corner, licking at his paws.

Her hair is in a low ponytail, and she’s wearing jeans and a hoodie– much like I used to.

Her posture is that of a woman who knows she’s beautiful but is too tired to give a shit.

“Hey.” She greets with a pained look on her face, cheeks flushing pink.

I can tell she doesn’t exactly want to be here, but it seems to be more of a need than a want.

I look between her and Dean, a bit confused. “Heyyy...?”

Tiffany crosses one arm over her chest to hold the other, looking downright nervous. “I saw the Help Wanted sign out front.”

I nod. “Um, yeah.” I jerk my head back. “Why don’t you come in? Dean, baby, could you lock the door?”

He leans over and kisses my cheek. “Sure thing, boss.”

I melt a little as I turn and hear the kids up in the loft or the “Kid’s Korner.

” I arch a brow at them to let them know to behave, and they go back to what they were doing.

I lead her deeper into the shop and point to one of the tables.

She has a weird look in her eyes, like she hasn’t eaten well in a few days.

“Coffee or tea? Sandwich? We have a bunch of them we’re testing out for next week’s soft launch, if you’re hungry? ”

Her eyes dart around the filling space, almost ready for opening day. “Oh, uh… Yeah, sure. Ham and Swiss if you have it. Whatever tea you have as well is fine. I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”

I nod. “I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you.”

I come back a few minutes later with her order to see she’s staring out the window, as a few drops of rain splash against it, collecting to race down together.

It’s been raining a lot this season. I’m actually expecting snow this year.

Dean thinks I'm crazy and told me it hasn’t snowed here since our Junior year. But crazier things have happened.

I take in Tiffany. The paleness of her skin, the purple under her eyes, the blonde in her hair isn’t luminous like it was when we were young, fraying at the ends.

I set the plate in front of her along with her tea that’s in the oversized mug, then take a seat across from her.

Glacier eyes finally look over at me. I push my glasses up my nose, and she gives me a small “Thank you.”

I let her sip on her tea and take a few bites of her sandwich before I disrupt her. But she’s the one who breaks the silence between us, still looking out of the window. “We were really good friends once, weren’t we?”

“Uh, yeah. ‘Til about seventh grade you were my best friend.” It wasn’t until eighth grade year when Zoey and her family moved to Adelaide from Oklahoma that I had an actual friend again.

Much like Jake, Zoey kind of just looked at me and made me her best friend.

“I never understood how you switched on me.” I admit. “It really sucked.”

She shakes her head. “That was on me. When Dean’s dad won custody and he moved back from Arlington, I became obsessed with him.

It didn’t help that my mama always had bad shit to say about yours.

How Marie should be ashamed, prancing the reverend’s love child around.

I let it go to my head. I thought… if I made you look like a loser, maybe Dean would want you less.

Or If I spread rumors around… I thought if maybe I did things to make me look cooler, or…

like ‘ the better choice ,’ he’d want me.

” She shakes her head. “It didn’t work. Then it turned out my mom was the town whore.

Is the town whore. So many secrets came to light when Daddy died…

” She shakes her head again, this time like she’s trying to quell the tears forming in her eyes.

“When you left, Verity… and Dean was just trying to survive, I did it again. I had selfish motives when I was trying to help him. He put up some severe boundaries, and I knew you were the only one ever meant for him. He left for New York to find you, and I was heartbroken yet again. But while he was gone, I met Aiden.” She chokes on a sob, and I reach over and place a hand on hers.

It’s cold.

“He was the light of my life. He made me feel things I never thought I could in such a short amount of time. I fell in love. Real love. The kind where you feel like you can’t breathe when they’re not around.

Totally and completely, and I realized I never loved Dean the way I loved Aiden. Ever. I finally understood Dean. ”

Love d .

“She’s had a tough time since her daddy died…” Will’s voice rings in my head.

“Tiffany…”

She pulls away the hand I’m holding and wipes a rogue tear from her face with the back of her hand, shoving it into her lap, and flicks her gaze back out to the town square.

“I gotta get this out, Verity, because I’ve held on to so much hate for you for a really long time, and you never deserved it.

” I wait for her to continue. “It was only then that I understood how deep love really is. I was a total bitch to you. When Aiden was diagnosed– we did it all for him to get better. The experimental everything. It worked for three years. Then it didn’t.

” She finally looks at me. “I would do anything, Verity, anything , to spend just twenty more minutes with him. And when you came back to town after living your best life without Dean, I was angry and jealous. Because Dean doesn’t just get twenty more minutes with you– he gets the rest of your life. Or his.” She stops.

There’s another wave of silence that passes between us before I clear my throat and dip my chin. “Would it help if I said I wasn’t living my best life?”

Tiffany snorts.

“Money…” I shake my head and look down at my own mug, then simply take off my glasses and turn my head to the side so she can see the small scar on the bridge of my nose from that day in Micah’s office.

“When I left for New York, I had four thousand dollars in my pocket. Four thousand sounds like a lot – especially when you're a teenager– but in New York… it’s shit. I was there for seven months when I gave birth to Savannah. It was also the time I found out Dean was alive. Micah had lied to me. But he had somehow made me dependent on him for cash flow. At first… I tried to get back to Dean- but there was no money. It is generally so much more expensive to fly out of New York than it is to fly in.” I scoff with a roll of my eyes.

“Then, miraculously, I signed my book deal and was given a bonus. That moment felt like an act of God, Tiff. But then it was talking to editors, marketing directors, audiobook companies, narrators, and I had meetings on top of meetings all while I had an infant strapped to my chest. Next thing I knew that infant was a toddler on my hip because wouldn’t you know it- all those meetings paid off.

And soon I was on book tours, pulled here and there…

Dean was always in the back of my mind– just not the forefront. ”

Guilt weighs heavily on my shoulders. “I know it’s bad to speak ill of the dead, but Micah was just…

there . And I don’t mean he was there for me…

It was more like, he felt as though he was owed my life.

The life I had worked so hard for. He kept us afloat while I was pregnant even though he was a student, made sure I relied on him heavily after I gave birth.

I thought he was a godsend. When the money came about– a part of me felt like I did owe him.

I took him to every meet and greet Zoey couldn’t attend.

I took him to New Zealand, London, Paris… Safe to say, he got used to it.

“He got used to the money, used to that life I was affording. When he would feel me slip away, he would guilt me. Because he was nothing but kind. He had been good to me. Over the years, we became intimate and he proposed to me in front of a large group of our friends while we were on a yacht, and I felt so… pressured to say yes. So I did. People pleaser that I am. That night, the drinking became excessive. He almost went overboard; he was so drunk.” I grimace, remembering how a waiter barely had enough time to grab onto the neck of his jacket and pull him back onto the yacht.