Page 28 of When I Forgot Us (Blue River #1)

Aunt Sarah opened the door as she raised her hand to knock. “Saw you pull in.” She motioned at the windows pointed toward the parking lot and Michelle’s little rental car.

She’d have to decide soon about the car. The month-by-month rental had been nice, but if she stayed in Blue River, she’d need a permanent solution.

“What’s made that face show up?” Aunt Sarah took her by the hand and tugged her into the living room.

Michelle eyed the soft couch with its abundance of throw pillows. “You want to get out of here for a while?”

“Sure.” Aunt Sarah snatched up a tattered denim purse and slung it over her shoulder. Her overalls blended in with the blue shirt, and she’d even swept her hair back with a matching blue headband. She caught Michelle looking and patted her hair. “It’s washing day.”

As if that explained everything, she strolled past Michelle, waved at her neighbors, and hurried toward the glass door.

Michelle tagged along after shutting the apartment door. The sunshine hit her full force. She squinted, her eyes still aching from her recent crying. “Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere you want.” Sarah dropped into the passenger seat and yelped. “Better hurry up, though. These seats are hotter than a saddle in summer.”

Leather tended to do that. Her legs burned with a phantom memory of slinging a leg over the back of a horse in the middle of a summer heatwave.

She’d ridden with Chase to the creek, and they’d taken the horses swimming. The lump formed in her throat. Would every memory of them threaten to break her like this?

“There’s that look again.” Sarah clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Did you remember something, or has something happened?”

“Bit of both.” She filled Aunt Sarah in on the recent rush of memories, ending with the most disconcerting one. “I loved him, but I still left.” Her fingers tightened on the wheel.

Aunt Sarah’s sad smile drove a crease into her forehead. “You two were something else, that’s for sure.”

“I wish someone had told me.”

“Do you?” Sarah stared straight ahead, but a ghost of a look passed over Michelle. “What good would that have done?”

“I don’t know.” It was the truth. “But I feel like I should’ve been warned, you know? Like why not give me a little nudge. A ‘hey, Michelle, you used to love this guy, but you left him so maybe go easy on him’ kind of thing.”

“Honey, if we’d told you that, you would have run for the hills.

You were ready to bolt anyway.” The sad smile morphed into the smallest of chuckles.

“You were like one of those wild mustangs who’d never seen a human before.

Telling you about Chase would’ve been like throwing that mustang into a round pen with a hundred people. ”

It was an easy enough thing to imagine. If she’d believed them at all, she would’ve panicked. “You might be right.”

“No might about it. You were spooked. And you had every reason to be.” Aunt Sarah leaned forward and pointed. “Make a stop at the boutique. I want to pick up a birthday gift for Maude.”

“When’s her birthday?”

“Next month.” Brows furrowed and mouth tight, Aunt Sarah gripped the door handle when Michelle stopped the car. “Maude and I always thought you and Chase were the real deal. You two loved each other so much that looking at you was like looking into the sun. You glowed.”

“But I left.” She understood the why behind it. All that came back with the memory, but looking back on it and the life she’d lived without Chase… “And it wasn’t even worth it.”

“No?” Sarah’s head swiveled around with the speed of an owl.

Sitting in the living room at the B the warm tones of vanilla and honey mixed with berries coming from a tower of candles on her left.

Small flower arrangements lined a low shelf where a cash register and a plate of cookies waited.

Aunt Sarah snagged a cookie, holding a second over her shoulder toward Michelle. “Here. Try this.”

She bit into the warm white chocolate macadamia and prowled around the shop. When Aunt Sarah said boutique, she’d expected dresses and ribbons. Not exactly the kind of thing Maude seemed interested in.

This, however, changed things.

Michelle let the space distract her. The further she pulled her mind away from the turmoil of her past choices, the clearer things became.

“Sarah, it’s so good to see you again.” A short, plump woman moved from the back room and rounded the counter. She swept Sarah into a swift embrace, rocking them both side to side.

This was the sort of thing she’d missed out on in the city, this close connection with friends and neighbors.

She’d made friends when she first arrived. They’d gone out together and enjoyed life. But nothing about the friendships had been genuine as what she’d known here.

“You want to change things up?” The woman crossed one arm in front of her waist and set her elbow in the counter. “Well, now let’s see. Maude’s not my most difficult, not by a long shot, but she certainly does have her preferences.”

“You can say that again.” Sarah winked and picked up another cookie.

Michelle left them to the conversation, but the woman’s words danced with the thought she’d carried around since this morning.

Living in the city, she’d wanted a change in her life but had been too afraid of making a mistake to go for it.

A couple walked into the shop and stopped near the candles. The woman popped open the bamboo lid on a pale purple candle and held it to her nose. The man with her waited, grinning when she stuck the candle out for him to sniff.

They were adorable. Young. Fresh-faced and newly in love if she had to guess.

She’d had that and thrown it away.

Was it too late to find her way back to that depth of love? Her heart begged her to try.

But it wasn’t up to her alone. Chase had asked for time. He deserved that. She’d walked away without giving him a reason.

It would serve her right if he decided loving her was too much of a risk.