out. For my whole life and probably longer, gossiping’s been the number one hobby in Duvall.
Red Czarsak’s mellow baritone made him my favorite DJ. “And here comes some Lonestar,” he said. “This one goes out to Tammy Jo. The song’s called, ‘Let’s Be Us Again.’”
My heart missed a beat and then sped up. I pulled onto the shoulder. I licked my dry lips and listened to the words. It was about a relationship gone wrong. One that the man thought was worth saving.
While the car idled, I put my head back on the headrest and chewed my lip, anticipation thrumming through me. There was only one person who could’ve requested that song for me. Now what was I going to do about it? I inhaled a deep breath and blew it out.
For a few minutes after the song ended, I sat on the side of the road. I was really good at fighting with Zach and really good at making up with him. The one thing I’d never been able to do was ignore him.
I turned the car around and drove to his house. Keyed up, my heart pounded by the time I parked next to his curb. My arrival turned out to be anticlimactic since he wasn’t even there. Nerves jangling, I pursed my lips. The least he could do was be home to confront me when I showed up without warning.
I probably should’ve left, but I have a spare key and what else is that for but to get inside a house in an emergency? The emergency was that I couldn’t take it anymore. It was okay for Zach to be mad. It was okay for him to want to see less of me while I was involved with Bryn. It was even okay if he wasn’t in love with me anymore—all right, not really, at least not at first. But what was not okay, and never would be, was for him to cut me out of his life like we didn’t have almost twenty years of history.
It was wrong of him to talk to me through the radio station when he wasn’t talking to me in person. And I’d tell him that if he ever bothered to show up.
Because I cook when I’m nervous, or stressed, or pretty much any time I don’t have anything else to do, I went straight to his fridge and started dinner. Twice I stepped back from the stove and asked myself what the heck I was doing.
I turned off the burners and glanced at my right hand. I squinted to see through the concealment spell. The gold band on my middle finger had a row of blue-violet sapphires, symbolizing Orion’s Belt and Bryn’s celestial magic. The white gold band Bryn wore on his left middle finger had vines, a symbol of earth magic and me. When the bands touched, our magical connection intensified, a powerful reminder of our unbreakable bond.
I shifted, leaning against the counter. Zach and I had reminders of what we meant to each other, too. A certain keepsake came to mind. No matter how angry he was, I couldn’t imagine him throwing it away.
Check , I told myself. See if it’s still there. If he got rid of it, that’ll say it all. You can go on home.
I hesitated, then walked into the bedroom and dropped to my knees in front of his dresser. I opened the bottom drawer and dug under the socks. For a minute, I thought the card was gone. All the air seemed to deflate from my lungs, leaving me breathless.
When I felt the plastic Ziploc bag, my heart jumped. I fished out the bag, and there was the small card I’d given him for his fifteenth birthday. I didn’t need to take it out, but my fingers worked without any specific command from my brain. Opening the card, I saw my teenage handwriting.
For your present, meet me under the bridge.
Zach’s not a sentimental guy, but he’d saved that card all through the years. The bridge was where we’d had our first kiss when we were eight. And it’s where we met on the night we made love for the first time. I hear that the first time’s not good for a lot of people, but Zach and I had been together for years by then. We’d played around plenty, the way kids in a small town will on warm nights when school’s out and there’s nothing to do. By the
Red Czarsak’s mellow baritone made him my favorite DJ. “And here comes some Lonestar,” he said. “This one goes out to Tammy Jo. The song’s called, ‘Let’s Be Us Again.’”
My heart missed a beat and then sped up. I pulled onto the shoulder. I licked my dry lips and listened to the words. It was about a relationship gone wrong. One that the man thought was worth saving.
While the car idled, I put my head back on the headrest and chewed my lip, anticipation thrumming through me. There was only one person who could’ve requested that song for me. Now what was I going to do about it? I inhaled a deep breath and blew it out.
For a few minutes after the song ended, I sat on the side of the road. I was really good at fighting with Zach and really good at making up with him. The one thing I’d never been able to do was ignore him.
I turned the car around and drove to his house. Keyed up, my heart pounded by the time I parked next to his curb. My arrival turned out to be anticlimactic since he wasn’t even there. Nerves jangling, I pursed my lips. The least he could do was be home to confront me when I showed up without warning.
I probably should’ve left, but I have a spare key and what else is that for but to get inside a house in an emergency? The emergency was that I couldn’t take it anymore. It was okay for Zach to be mad. It was okay for him to want to see less of me while I was involved with Bryn. It was even okay if he wasn’t in love with me anymore—all right, not really, at least not at first. But what was not okay, and never would be, was for him to cut me out of his life like we didn’t have almost twenty years of history.
It was wrong of him to talk to me through the radio station when he wasn’t talking to me in person. And I’d tell him that if he ever bothered to show up.
Because I cook when I’m nervous, or stressed, or pretty much any time I don’t have anything else to do, I went straight to his fridge and started dinner. Twice I stepped back from the stove and asked myself what the heck I was doing.
I turned off the burners and glanced at my right hand. I squinted to see through the concealment spell. The gold band on my middle finger had a row of blue-violet sapphires, symbolizing Orion’s Belt and Bryn’s celestial magic. The white gold band Bryn wore on his left middle finger had vines, a symbol of earth magic and me. When the bands touched, our magical connection intensified, a powerful reminder of our unbreakable bond.
I shifted, leaning against the counter. Zach and I had reminders of what we meant to each other, too. A certain keepsake came to mind. No matter how angry he was, I couldn’t imagine him throwing it away.
Check , I told myself. See if it’s still there. If he got rid of it, that’ll say it all. You can go on home.
I hesitated, then walked into the bedroom and dropped to my knees in front of his dresser. I opened the bottom drawer and dug under the socks. For a minute, I thought the card was gone. All the air seemed to deflate from my lungs, leaving me breathless.
When I felt the plastic Ziploc bag, my heart jumped. I fished out the bag, and there was the small card I’d given him for his fifteenth birthday. I didn’t need to take it out, but my fingers worked without any specific command from my brain. Opening the card, I saw my teenage handwriting.
For your present, meet me under the bridge.
Zach’s not a sentimental guy, but he’d saved that card all through the years. The bridge was where we’d had our first kiss when we were eight. And it’s where we met on the night we made love for the first time. I hear that the first time’s not good for a lot of people, but Zach and I had been together for years by then. We’d played around plenty, the way kids in a small town will on warm nights when school’s out and there’s nothing to do. By the
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