Page 12 of Traces Of You

It was why she never opened up and let anyone get close.

Ford was the one person she wanted to let in, and it gutted her to see the hurt she was causing him, even back then, when they were just kids.

She’d been in self-preservation mode for years.

The minute she could get out of her mother’s house, she had, but she’d struggled every day since.

For once in her life, she didn’t want to struggle.

Reenie didn’t want to have to plan months in advance an escape route if needed.

All that planning paid off a week ago.

What had Ford said?You can’t run your whole life.

It felt like it was all she’d done.

She was tired.

So freaking exhausted deep in her joints.

She pulled out of the parking lot and took a left-hand turn toward Warrensburg. It’d take ten minutes to get to his parents’ farm. She’d bet they’d pass his house on the way.

The radio was on, the music playing. “You and Me” by Lifehouse.

Why!? Why would this song come on? It was an oldies station, but still…

The first song that Ford asked her to dance to with him at one of the Friday night dances after the football game.

Maureen tried to forget most of her past, but the time with Ford was something she’d cherished like a beloved baby blanket to hand down for generations.

She thought coming here was a risk, but it was one she had to take on the off chance she could just get one look at him in person.

By the time she pulled through the gates of Ridgeway Orchard, she was bawling her eyes out.

She stopped to the side, not even making it to the parking lot of the family bakery and cafe.

The mountains in the distance reminded her of the natural beauty she’d always found here.

The peace and calm on this land when she needed a break.

Was it so horrible to want to find a slice of that again? Even for a short time?

Ford got out of his sheriff’s SUV and walked to her car.

She rolled the window down. “This was a mistake. I need to leave. Just let me go.”

“I can’t let you leave, Reenie. I just can’t.” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and looked up. “I’ll never get you out of my mind having seen you again. Especially not like this.”

He needed closure. Maybe she did too.

It was the only way to leave this life of hers behind and start over.

How she was going to do it in a foreign country she’d only lived in for a few years and hadn’t been back to in fifteen years was anyone’s guess.

But nothing else was working out right in her life.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she said. “Where to go. Who to talk to. Who to even trust.”