Sally covers her mouth with her elbow, while my brother and I cough and choke.
I bring my attention to the door the secretary just opened. And what the fuck? How long was I even gone? There are rooms in my vacant house that weren’t as dank and dusty as this.
“Are you fucking serious? A closet?” I hiss at my brother, who’s standing there, seemingly relieved to have found all of my stuff intact. The bastard probably wanted to donate it.
“Oh come on, man. Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here. That’s not fair. I didn’t know you were getting out of jail early.”
And that is part of the problem right there. My entire family carried on without me, like I’d be locked up for life, like they never expected me to see the light of day again.
I don’t plan on arguing with my brother so I grab the floppy cardboard box that contains my picture frames, coffee mugs, my dead aloe plant and the other personal shit that my office collected over my years here. I find a suit jacket—the one I always kept hanging on the back of my office door in case of an unexpected meeting—balled up on the bottom shelf. I hastily grab that, too, and shove it into my mutilated box.
Seriously? I dedicated all of my working years, the majority of my adult life to this place. And I get one box? And they couldn’t even find one that wasn’t falling apart? They couldn’t even water my aloe plant?
Fuck this.
Box in hand, I kick the closet door closed with my boot and storm down the hallway.
“Dammit, Eli,” Cannon huffs behind me. “Don't be like that. You’re overreacting.”
My jaw ticks. “I think I’m taking this very well.” I have to force myself not to say more. If he thinks I’m overreacting now, when I’ve barely said two sentences, well, Cannon doesn’t remember me at all.
I head for the fire escape. After the way this visit went, I’m not in an elevator kind of mood.
“Eli. Wait! Don’t go through there.”
I throw up my hand to salute my brother, not bothering to turn around as I shove open the emergency exit door. Instantly, the security system kicks off.
Behind me, the office erupts into shouting and anxious commotion. Everyone startles out of their desks. Idiots. All of them.
Yeah, it’s spiteful—and petty as hell—but I feel the tiniest twinge of satisfaction at the alarms screaming all around me, at setting Cannon’s perfect little world off-balance.
I take the stairs down to the ground floor and storm out of the building, into the back parking lot. I’m dropping my sad box of belongings in the back of my car when I hear the fire trucks in the distance.
Zero. That’s approximately how many fucks I give.
11 Jessa
High school social studies,” I mutter to myself. “Secondary physical education. Assistant principal. Football coach. Head cook.” I groan and wrinkle up my nose at the screen.
I’m sitting cross-legged on the hard porch bench. I’ve got a dreamy Ariana Grande melody pouring in through my earbuds as I scroll aimlessly through the local teaching job boards.
I’m on the job hunt again and it’s not going too hot. I knew it would be slim pickings finding a teaching job in Crescent Harbor. I just didn’t expect it to be this hard.
That’s the problem with teaching in a small town. You have to be crazy flexible, or wait until someone gets wheeled off to the nursing home to finally get the position you want. It’s kind of morbid, but true. That’s how Rainey Harris got the school librarian position she’d been waiting for.
Expanding my search to the neighboring towns would probably be my best bet but I’ve really come to love this town. My sister, my friends, and Callie are all here. But if my interactions with Eli thus far are any indication, it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume that my new boss could kick me to the curb at any moment. I’ve got to get ahead of that by finding another job.
Sighing, I lift my gaze away from the screen to give my eyes a break. From here, you can see all the way down to the river. The view is spectacular and with the wall of trees around the house, it’s so peaceful. I feel like I’m a million miles from civilization, instead of ten minutes from town.
I get back to work, filling out an online application for a fourth grade position—one I’m not really interested in, if I'm being honest. I prefer to work with the younger students. I like shaping young, innocent minds. By nine or ten, some of those kids are beyond my capabilities.
Just as I’m finishing up the long-winded questionnaire, a rattling car pulls up the gravel drive. There’s rust on the fenders and the clicking noises seem undeniably unsafe. Still, I can tell the vehicle used to be a sleek, luxury car not that long ago. You don’t see many Audi’s around Crescent Harbor, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to sound like that.
My heart pounds when Eli slams the car door and approaches the stairs. Eyes downcast, jaw set, shoulders tight. I can’t look away from him as the large, handsome man bounds toward the house in determined steps. At the mere sight of him, I’ve got a belly full of butterflies. He’s carrying a big box that looks like it might fold in on him at any second. His expression seems disturbed. Bothered. He’s here in the flesh, but his mind is miles away.
The man has hardly been friendly or welcoming to me, still a part of me hates seeing him so gloomy all the time. He has a gorgeous smile. I’ve seen it in pictures. But I want to see it in person. I want to feel his soulful brown eyes on me and feel his smile warming me like the sun. I
