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Chapter 2
Colby knew she was squeezing Nate too tightly, but she couldn’t help herself. He smelled the same—some spicy cologne she’d never been able to identify. He had a well-groomed beard now, which suited him. Hugging him to her, she could feel the muscles in his arms and back, far from the lanky and almost scrawny frame she remembered. Colby was embarrassed by her tears forming, so she held onto him for longer than she should have, hoping they would dry up before she had to face him again.
For the past four years, she had really thought he might be dead. But here he was, showing up right on her doorstep like fate. No—like the strangest coincidence. Colby didn’t believe in fate or signs. Not anymore.
Her friends said she was being overly dramatic when she kept calling and texting and searching obituaries and news articles. “He stood you up,” Liz had said. “It happens.” But Colby knew in her gut something had been wrong.
Not showing up to their date was shocking enough. She spent the whole semester waiting for him to ask her out. By the time he did, she was halfway in love with him and suspected he felt the same way.
When he was a few minutes late to pick her up, she had been a little annoyed, but excused it.
Fifteen minutes late and she texted him. No response.
Thirty minutes and she deflated.
An hour and she was crying in the bathroom, ruining the little mascara she’d put on.
Colby felt heartsick, questioning every little moment they had shared that semester. Each look, each smile, each casual touch as they passed notes back and forth. How could she have been so wrong? He seemed like such a good guy. The idea that something happened passed through her mind, but it made her feel desperate to look for an excuse. Liz was right—he stood her up. Plain and simple. He wasn’t a nice guy after all.
But when he didn’t show up to class on Monday, Colby swallowed her wounded pride and called him. Voicemail. Wednesday came and he still didn’t show. She called again and sent a few texts. Friday was the last day of classes—surely he would show. Except he didn’t. Who misses their last week of classes senior year? Sick people. People in trouble. Dead people.
But here he was, very much alive. Just as adorable as he had been and just as able to send her heart catapulting away from her control.
“Oof,” Nate said.
Colby giggled, then pulled away. He dropped the packages he’d been holding.
“Hope that wasn’t breakable. They’re for you,” Nate said. He bent to pick them up.
“It’s just fabric,” she said dismissively.
When he stood, he was smiling, but with a sense of hesitation. He seemed surprised, but not necessarily happy to see her. Honestly, he looked half-spooked like he might run off the porch right now. Colby sucked in her breath and tried to stuff the hurt down where she couldn’t feel it anymore. As long as it didn’t show on her face…
“I can’t believe you’re standing here. I thought you were—” She clamped her mouth shut.
Clearly, he wasn’t excited to see her. She couldn’t overwhelm him right away by dredging up the past. But it took all of her restraint not to grab him by the collar of his uniform and demand that he explain himself.
He held out the packages, then shifted on his feet. As she took the packages, their hands brushed. People always talk about sparks from a touch, but all Colby felt was a shot of ice to her heart. Here was the only man she came close to using the L-word about and he was acting like she was just some old acquaintance he ran into.
Her emotions had shifted from shock to relief to attraction to hurt and now to anger. Even if he wasn’t thrilled to see her, he owed her some kind of closure. Her friends had been telling her for years that she was hung up on him, sabotaging any of her relationships. Colby had denied it, but the immediate rush of feelings when she saw his face told her they were right. She had never gotten over him.
But maybe now, she finally could. “We could catch up. Come in. I can give you water. It’s hot out. Just for a minute.”
He looked up the street and rubbed a hand through his beard, not meeting her eyes. “I guess I can for a few minutes. The mail can wait for a bit.”
When he stepped inside, she caught him glancing around the house. The house was both beautiful and homey, the kind of place Colby hoped to have one day. She had been house-sitting for her best friend Liz since June. Liz’s husband worked in oil and gas and got offered a year in Aberdeen, Scotland. Not paying rent for a year meant Colby could quit her office job to focus on her small business. The house was amazing, but also a reminder of all the things she didn’t have. Nate standing inside of it only poured salt on the wounds.
Colby pulled two bottles of water from the fridge, trying to work out the right way to ask the question.
So, about that time you stood me up…
What the heck happened to you back then?
You owe me an explanation, buddy!
I thought you died.
Colby swallowed and watched Nate walk over to the long dining room table where she had her sewing machine and all of her supplies. She opened her mouth to stop him, but it was too late. Letting him look at her work felt way too intimate somehow. He hadn’t earned the right. Heat rose to her cheeks as he looked over her designs. Many of them were half-finished. There was an order to the chaos, it probably didn’t look that way to anyone else.
