“I’ll miss you too.” I hugged her fiercely and let a few tears escape as she held me. She would be the only person from this entire state I would miss. “As soon as I get to Oregon and get settled, I’ll get a phone and call you so you’ll have my number.”

She nodded and cleared her throat as her arms left my waist to grip my hands. “You can do this, Kamryn. I just know it. You have the money, you have the smarts, you have the talent, and you have the drive. Get away from here, baby girl, and don’t come back to this life. This life is its own form of prison.”

It was. God, it was.

“Do you have everything packed?”

“I do.”

“All right.” She cleared her throat and her lips quivered as she spoke. “I’m going to call my brother and have him come right over to take you to the train station. I just pulled some cookies out of the oven. You go take some and a glass of milk to your daddy. Your mother is at her tennis lesson and then going to a massage, so she won’t be back for some time now. By the time you’re done sweet-talking your daddy, Ray will be here and I’ll have your suitcase and money waiting in his car.”

I took a deep breath and stood when she did. “I’ll miss you, Barbara. I love you.”

“I love you too, baby girl. Go live.”

1

Kamryn

May 4, 2015

“KC! GIRL, I am definitely going to need some chocolate to get through today.”

“Kinlee, seriously?” I huffed as I came through the double doors with trays of cupcakes. “We aren’t even opened yet. That key I gave you was for emergencies if I wasn’t available.”

“You’re open—I flipped the board for you.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled. I’d met Kinlee almost immediately after moving to Jeston, Oregon, and I thanked God every day for that. I’d never had a friend like her and didn’t know how I would get through day-to-day life without her. “Only you, Lee, only you.” I handed over a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and started stocking my pastry case.

Within two weeks of getting to Jeston, I’d bought an SUV, found a condo, and leased a small space for what would be my bakery. Over the next two and a half months I was overseeing renovations for KC’s Sweet Treats, and that’s how I’d met Kinlee. She was two years older than me and shorter than short, had long black hair and a bubbly personality I’d die for. She and her mom had the boutique right next door to me, and she’d come by asking if I knew what was going to be put in next to her store. One thing led to another, and I was her new best friend because I could bake. Kinlee could be crude, she could be sweet, and she was loyal to those she cared for. And I absolutely adored every bit of her.

Barbara and I spoke at least once a week when Mom and Dad were both out of the house, and though I missed her like crazy, I didn’t regret my decision. I did feel bad, though, for leaving her in that hell-storm. Apparently my parents and Charles’s family had gone nuts when I left, but ultimately they saw my “disappearance” as a chance for more publicity: they twisted it, saying I’d been kidnapped, so they could wind up on a few news stations. I didn’t know what the status with my “disappearance” was, because I really didn’t care. Other than talking with Barbara, I didn’t pay attention to anything that had to do with racing or Kentucky. My life was in Oregon now, and that was all I cared to focus on. If I worried about them looking for me, or having others look for me, it would just make me paranoid. I couldn’t live like that.

And I loved it in Jeston. This city of roughly 15,000 people had an old-time small-town charm to it, and I wondered how it’d taken me twenty-two years to get here. There was no doubt in my mind that I belonged here.

The best part? No one had a clue who I was.

The minute I’d gotten to Jeston and checked into a hotel, I’d found a salon, chopped fourteen inches off my hair, and dyed my golden locks a rich brown. Even with the fourteen inches gone, my hair still brushed the tops of my shoulders. With the thick, black-framed glasses I bought at a drugstore, I looked like a new person. And I couldn’t be happier.

“Oh, my God, heaven!” Kinlee groaned as she hopped onto the counter near the register. “Kace, tell me how you aren’t fat yet?”

I snorted. “Probably the same way you aren’t.”

“You mean you’re having wild animal sex twenty-four/seven? I was wondering why you wouldn’t let us set you up with anyone! You’ve been holding out on me, haven’t you?”

“Oh, God, okay, definitely not the same way as you. Ew, Kinlee, all I’m going to be able to think about when I see Jace is you two having wild sex.”

“Say that again!”

I froze with my arm inside the pastry case. “Uh, all I’m going—”

“No, no. The last few words.” She leaned close and stared at my mouth as I ran over everything I’d said.

“Having wild sex?”

“Wald? For real, where are you from?”

I blew out a heavy breath and shook my head as I smirked at my case. “Just not from here.” I tried to tame my accent—which I didn’t even know I had until I moved here—as much as possible around Kinlee. She and her husband, Jace, were always trying to figure out where I’d moved from, but if they found out they’d want to know why I was here at all. And I wasn’t ready for that.

“One of these days, Kace, I will get it out of you.” She took another bite of cupcake and moaned. “This is better than wald sex with Jace.”

“Okay, your husband is hot and all, don’t get me wrong, but I really don’t want to be thinking about him like that.”

“Just saying.” She held her hands up. “You were the one who asked.”

“Uh, no. No, I didn’t. And back to your original question: I run most mornings. Not all of us can avoid getting fat by having crazy hot sex, especially when we’re not having sex at all.”

She shoved the last bit of cupcake into her mouth and spoke through the bite. “KC, I have been trying to set you up for the last seven months! It’s not my fault you refuse to go on a date with anyone. You’re twenty-three—time to go on a date, woman!”

“Can I remind you that the last guy you tried to set me up with was shorter than me?”

It’s not like I’m an Amazon or anything, I’m five-seven, but I do love heels. Just another reason why I couldn’t stand Charles: he was one inch taller than me, so heels were a no-go. Of course, I wore heels whenever he wasn’t around, but he made me carry flats just in case he showed up anywhere I was. There are only so many flats you can wear before you want to find all the flats in the world and burn them.

“I only know so many single men!”

“This barbecue tomorrow, you aren’t going to try . . .” I trailed off when I noticed her looking away. “Kinlee!”

“I didn’t invite them! Swear to God, I didn’t invite them this time. The guys on Jace’s shift from the department are all gonna be there, and most of them are single, but that’s not my fault.”

Oh, Lord, single firemen.

“But it won’t just be the guys from the department, there will be other people, some couples from the neighborhood, all people you’ve met before.”

I nodded and shut the pastry case doors. “All right, well, you know I’ll be there, not like I have anything else to do on a Sunday. Want me to bring something?” I don’t know why I even bothered asking anymore, it’s not like I’d show up without something anyway.

“Cookies, cupcakes, whatever you want.” She leaned back and blew an air kiss before jumping off the counter. “Jeez, KC, I know you needed help taste-testing and all—what with your lovely faces you make—but you’ve really got to stop keeping me from opening my store. You’re bad for my hips and business.”

“My faces when I eat sweets are a secret, Lee! Only you and my employees know about them!”

With a wink and a saucy smile, she was gone.

Well, they were the only ones in Oregon who knew about them. I was teased relentlessly in pastry school for the faces I’d make whenever we tried our dishes, and Barb used to give a big belly laugh every time as well. Charles wouldn’t let me eat sweets in public because of those expressions, but he sure seemed to like them when we were alone. I shivered thinking about Charles and was glad that for eight months now I hadn’t had to pretend to not be swallowing back bile every time he kissed or touched me. I took a quick glance at the front of my bakery and smiled to myself before going to the back. For the first time in my life, I was exactly where I wanted to be.


Brody

May 4, 2015

“OLIVIA!” WHAT THE fuck is all this?

“Hmm?”

“Liv, come here.”

“What?” she snapped when she got to the living room.

I took a deep, calming breath and planted a smile on my face. “What’s all this?”

“It’s called furniture, Brody.” Her eyebrows rose. “You know, you sit on the couches, put drinks on the coffee table, put your feet up on the ottoman . . .”

“Cute, Liv, real cute. Where did it come from?”

“The furniture store,” she said slowly, like she was talking to a child.

I huffed and gritted my teeth. “Olivia, where did you get the furniture and how much did it cost?”

“Do you not like it?”

“That’s not what I said, please answer my question.”

“These are the exact same couches the Cunninghams have in their house! They had a five-page spread in Better Homes and Gardens last month!”

You’ve got to be kidding me. I could only play this game with her so many times before I snapped. And I only had about another two minutes before I lost the calm tone I was working so hard to maintain. Liv and her parents were obsessed with some family they viewed as royalty, had been since before I’d met them. They were in the same social circles but had never met, considering a good portion of the United States separated them. I didn’t understand it. To be honest, I’d always found it weird how they tried to be exactly like the Cunningham family—and now it was one of the main reasons I freaked out on Olivia when I did. Because just as Liv wanted to make sure she was identical to the Cunninghams’ only daughter, she also thought she needed to blow money the way they did. Money I wasn’t earning fast enough.

“The Cunninghams,” I said, an edge to my voice. “For the millionth time, Liv, you can’t live as if you are them. You can’t live like we have all the money in the world.”

“How could you not like it?” Tears instantly fell to her cheeks, and I bit back a groan. “I bought them for you, it was only seven grand.”

Seven—seven grand. Only seven grand. “Olivia, where did you get seven grand?” Please, God, please say from your father.

She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “You had five thousand just sitting in the savings account, I had to do something with it!”

“Olivia! Are you—are you—damn it! You pulled this shit again?”

Her tears kept falling, but she stopped sniffling. “How dare you! I did this for you!”

“Every time, Liv, every time I start saving money you go and blow it on something we don’t need, all because of some fucking famous family! And now this time you spent an extra two thousand? I have to pay the mortgage in a week.”

“Regardless, it was still a gift. You could at least say thank you! Every time I buy something you get upset. At least I’m giving you something—all you’ve ever done is take from me.”

With that, she turned and stormed down the hall to her bedroom, leaving me crushed, aching, and once again so damn tired of this. I rubbed my chest, where the constant dull ache was now stabbing, and fell into one of the kitchen chairs.

Not more than ten minutes later, she was back and bouncing through the kitchen. “Hey, babe! What do you want for dinner?”

I wasn’t even surprised by this anymore; I’d just been waiting until she came back. “It’s after midnight, Liv. I’m not really hungry.”

“Did you already eat dinner? I’ll heat some of this up.” She murmured the last part to herself as she continued to pull takeout boxes from the fridge.

“Yeah, earlier tonight.”

“Oh.” She slammed the fridge door shut and turned to look at me. “All right, I get it. I can’t have kids, so I’m not good enough to heat up food for you. Yeah, fine, Brody. Feed your damn self.”

And here she goes again.