Chapter Thirty-Six

Derek

It wasn’t like this was my first time in town. In spite of Cole’s teasing, I wasn’t a complete hermit. I did leave the house.

I just made sure no one saw me when I did.

What did it mean for me to be in town in broad daylight? Where I couldn’t control who saw me? Who talked to me?

Who judged me?

Pretty sure it meant I was in love.

"Come on," Aria urged, laughing as she took my hand and led me down the sidewalk. The sun was shining strongly today, a bright November morning melting the last remnants of that freak October storm. A storm I’d remember the rest of my life because it brought me and Aria together.

Since that storm, she and I had set about slowly reacquainting ourselves with our hometown. She delighted in remembering things I’d forgotten thanks to booze, and I took even more pleasure in teasing her about things I just made up out of the blue.

We stood at the corner of the town square. I pointed across the muddy, snow-patched grass. “That’s where the giant stone fish used to stand,” I lied.

“Bullshit, I don’t remember a stone fish.”

“That’s because you were away so long.”

“Are you messing with me?”

I ducked my head. “Yup.”

She smacked me.

And then dragged me in to Mrs. Feathergill’s antique store.

She always did fight dirty.

“It'll be fun!” Aria laughed, hauling me under the faded red awning.

“I don't call shopping ‘fun’,” I growled. But she must've been able to tell I was happy. Because she laughed that laugh of hers. Her wide smile was like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud.

I was so smitten with her that I’d do anything to see that smile. Right up to and including standing on my head and singing the national anthem. So I followed her into an antique store - maybe dragging my feet just a little bit - but I quickened my step the second she interlaced her fingers with mine.

The inside of the store was overwarm for this bright, sunny day. Dust motes danced in the beams of sun that made it through the dirtied windows, and I suppressed the urge to sneeze.

Aria made a beeline for the back of the shop, where a wad of dusty brown clothes were crammed on a narrow rack.

I don't know anything about fashion, but whatever Aria saw seemed to make her really happy. She plunged her hand into the brown wad, and - like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat - pulled out something shiny and red.

"Hello beautiful," she purred, as she ran her fingers over it, eyes gleaming. "Where were you when I was performing?"

I shuffled closer, my curiosity overtaking my aversion to fashion. She was holding a corset, the kind that Victorian women used to wear in those fussy old cameo photos. It looked like it was ready to fall apart if you sneezed on it, but Aria treated it so reverently that I held my tongue and didn't say so. "You like it?" I asked instead.

I could practically see the gears turning in her head. "Back when I was in high school, I got really into the whole history of fashion and stuff. I created a whole look," she said, putting her hand over the fabric. "Some kind of broken-down-doll-punk. An alien's interpretation of what a girl would be.”

"I don't think I'm smart enough to follow the rest of this conversation.”

She laughed and shook her head. "Sorry, sorry, this is kind of conversation I used to have with Xavier. We used to talk all the time about things like image and artistic integrity. I wanted to be somebody completely unlike the rest of the world. I wanted to do something never before tried." She laughed with a grimace on her face. "But what I ended up doing was following my boyfriend around, letting him write the songs and control everything… including my body. If I could do it all over again, well…,” she licked her lips and swallowed. “If I could do it all over again, I would leave the first time he lifted his hand to me.” She held the corset up to her torso. “And I’d pick my own costumes.”

I blinked. She’d never spoken about what Killian had done to her so… candidly before. “Proud of you,” I murmured.

She looked up. “For what?”

“You’re… talking about it.” I reached for my back pocket, ready to pull out my wallet. Maybe she was ready to talk about it more?

She shook her head violently. “No Derek. Not yet.”

I let my hand fall and nodded. “‘Course,” I agreed. When she was ready, I told myself. When she could talk about it without that fear in her eyes, then I would give her the number for the support group. “But there’s always time for a second chance. There's always room to do things over."

She looked up at me, biting her lower lip so hard she's practically chewing on it. "Do you really believe that?" she whispered.

"I do believe it," I said, moving closer to her. I tipped her chin up to me. "I believe in doing it over and over again, until you get it completely right." Like designing a prosthetic. Or breaking into a closed system. No matter how long it took, I didn’t stop until I got it right.

I’d gotten it right with her the same way, after all.

The brush of her lips against mine sent sparks down my spine. I was telling her I believed the power of doing things over, but it wasn't a lie, and it wasn't just for her benefit, it was for me too. I was getting a second chance, here, with her, and I woke up every morning so grateful that it had come. And I loved her for giving me that chance.

I loved her.

Now I had to tell her.

The bells above the door jingled, and Aria moved away from me reluctantly. “I’m going to try it on," she said.

"You'd better let me see you in it," I warned her.

She licked her lips. "You sure you don't want to save it for back at your place?"

"I want to see it there, too.”

She laughed and headed back behind the hanging piece of fabric that marked off the dressing rooms. I walked away, shuffling, idly picking up things and putting them down, not really seeing them.

"Derek?"

I turned to hear the familiar voice. "Brynn,” I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

“I could say the same to you.”

“I know. I’m…”

“Back?”

“Sort of.”

“Jesse told me what you did,” she said softly. “Shoveling him out like that.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad you guys are talking again.”

“Me too,” I said, looking down at my hands. Brynn was almost vibrating with happiness. “Derek…I’m so happy to see you here.”

“What, at an antiques store?”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m only here because Aria made me. What are you doing here? Isn’t it a school day?”

”I took the day off.” She smiled. “I’m trying to find a Christmas present.” She sighed heavily.

"Isn't it a little early for that?"

She gave me a smirk. "I have everything done except for this one gift," she sighed, pulling a piece paper out of her pocket and checking it. “It's for my aunt. The woman is richer than God and has everything already. I was hoping to find some sort of antique knickknacks thing, something pretty that won't embarrass me when she opens in front of the entire extended family."

I turned and grabbed the first thing I could find off the shelf. "How's this?" I asked.

She looked down. "That is creepy.”

I looked more closely.  It was an old porcelain doll, very fancily dressed with dull flat dead eyes staring out of its pale, shiny head. I shuddered. "Yes, you're absolutely right."

Brynn got a wicked look on her face. "But then again, it is kind of perfect.”

“What’s perfect?“ Aria called. She came out of the dressing room, and I was disappointed to see that she had a T-shirt on, though the shape of her underneath it suggested she was wearing the corset. My dick sprang to life just at the thought of that lace pushing her breasts upward, the way they’d spill over the top. I turned to the side and coughed.

“Aria Jane, is that you?" Brynn said, with a slow dawning realization. "Holy shit, welcome back? What brings you back to this backwater?"

Before she could stop herself, Aria darted her eyes in my direction. Brynn, always as sharp as a tack, picked right up on it and a grin spread across her face. "Interesting. A long time coming."

"You think so?" I said.

"Anyone with eyes could see how you two looked at each other back in high school."

"We barely said two words to each other,” Aria protested.

"Yeah, but your looks said it all.”

“The way Everett McCabe looks at you?”

Brynn colored. I gaped at Aria, wondering how the hell she’d hit on that immediately. She’d been away for ten years but was already up on the town gossip better than I was. I shook my head, impressed.

“Everett barely has a pulse,” Brynn deflected. But she was clearly flustered. "Are you sticking around?”

It was Aria’s turn to get flustered. The tips of her ears turned as bright red as the flame of her hair. “Seems that way.”

“You’re back and you got this guy out and about,” Brynn said, pointing at me. “That’s incredible.” She moved in for a spontaneous hug. Aria squeezed her tightly, and then Brynn pulled back. “And since you’re staying, you should come to the McCabe’s Christmas party.”

“Don’t they need to invite us?”

“I have an in.”

“Everett?”

Brynn pursed her lips. “Harper,” she corrected, cheeks flaming. She waved her hands in the air like she was trying to erase a blackboard. Such a teacher. "Come here, old man of the mountains." She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me in tight. "It's good to see you again like this," she said softly. “Really good.”

Then she picked up the creepy Victorian doll. “And I'm taking this with me."

She went to the counter and started to pay. I waved then looked over to see Aria watching me closely. "What?"

"I'm enjoying the sight of you acting like a human being,” she said, moving to push against my shoulder.

But as she did, her ankle turned and she stumbled to the side. Without even thinking, I shot my arm out, steadying her. Then I sighed. "Don't you have anything else to wear besides those ridiculous boots?” I asked her.

Aria frowned. "You didn't think they were too ridiculous last night," she teased.

I smiled at the memory. "No, they're not ridiculous in the bedroom. Good handholds,” I growled, loving the way the thought made her blush too. "But for walking around the slushy streets of Reckless Falls, you need something a bit more practical."

"You sound like my father."

"He’s a practical man," I said closing my fingers in hers. “Come on, we can go to the outfitters right up the road. We can cut through the square again.”

“Oh watch out if you do!” Brynn called from the counter. “The town trucks were pulling in when I parked. They’re starting to put up the Christmas decorations.”

“Already?” I scoffed.

But Aria’s eyes were wide and bright. “Are they putting up the tree already?”

Brynn shook her head as she signed her credit card slip. “No, the tree-lighting isn’t til the first Saturday in December.”

Aria clapped her hands together. “Oh, I always wanted to see it.”

“You mean you never did?” I slipped my hand into hers.

She shook her head. “I don’t know why, but my parents always avoided it. I think it had -.” She paused and swallowed. “Something to do with my sister. But we never went and then I left and -.”

“We’ll go,” I promised. I leaned over and kissed her cheek, not even bothering to notice how Brynn and Mrs. Feathergill were blatantly staring. “We’ll watch it together.”

That smile was worth it.