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“Ah, Princess, don’t be that way. I just… I just worry about you. People have been moving in and out of that place for years - some even get hurt. I just don’t want you hurt, is all.”
He pulls at the ends of my hair like he did when I was freaking twelve. And don’t even get me started about the nickname. Bennet is the only person who ever called me princess. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my name. His own little joke...on me.
This really isn’t the way I wanted to celebrate the fact I’ve come home. Before I can say something, I am pulled from mythoughts when Jayden South, a girl Bennet dated in high school, comes over and steps in front of me.
“Ben, you were supposed to come out to the farm last night.”
And there’s another way I don’t want to celebrate. Jayden looks behind her and down at me. “Oh hi, Aurora. I didn’t realize you were back.”
Then abruptly turns back to Bennet and completely ignores me. I can tell by the way she said my name nothing has changed. I’m still the popular girl’s punching bag. I turn away to leave only to have Bennet call my name again.
“Rory, wait.”
Yeah, I don’t think so.
“It was good to see you again, Bennet, Jayden.”
For all I know they could be married and divorced by now. One of my steadfast rules to Te was not to talk about her brother and not to talk about me to him. It was the only way to maintain my sanity when I was away.
I make a quick stop in the wine section and then check out as quickly as possible, so I don’t run into Bennet and Jayden again. The last thing I want to see is him kissing her. Or worse…they meet here to exchange kids. My heart sinks and doesn’t really return to where it is supposed to be until I pull into the long driveway of my house. My house. Mine.
This is why I came back. Not Bennet Underwood. And not some stupid crush.
Chapter Two
Bennet
Little Rory is back. And no fucking body told me. I'm not sure how I feel about that really. On the one hand, I understand that she’s my sister’s best friend, not mine, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t hang out. Hell, we did everything together until I turned sixteen and started driving. Then somehow, we just seemed to have…drifted into separate spaces.
I still saw her plenty. I drove her and my sister to school damned near every day and then to the ice cream shop where they both worked after school. But slowly over time, I saw less and less of her and then I graduated and went to the police academy in the city. I spent a year there as a rookie and by the time I came back, Rory was gone.
Mom told me Bronte went to spend weekends with her sometimes, but I never got around to going to see her myself. I didn’t really have a good reason either. Again, she was Bronte’s friend, not mine. I had no way of knowing little Rory had grown up until I saw her standing in the aisle at the supermarket. It was like a punch in the gut. I always remembered her as the shy sixteen-year-old girl I last saw at our graduation party.
What I saw at the supermarket today was no sixteen-year-old and if the sass she was giving me with that hand on her hip tonight is any clue, she isn’t shy anymore either. What’s got me more concerned is the fact she owns the Snodgrass house. Everyone in town knows that house is fucking cursed and nowRory is the one staying in it. She’s way too...small, to be that far from Mom and Bronte. Way too small to be in the fucking Murder House.
I have my phone in my hand before I can even try to talk myself down. I might not be able to argue with Rory over this without sounding like a world-class ass, but my sister is another story. Her I can yell at all day long and not feel as bad about it.
“Hey bro, how you doing? Arrest any evil jaywalkers today?”
“Ha, ha, very funny, Te.”
Mom was a huge book nerd and named both of her children after her favorites. And then there was Rory. She fit in perfectly with the name Aurora. Mom took her in and mothered her like she was her own since Aurora’s mom was sick most of the time. Rory’s dad walked away from them when her mom got sick, so it was just her and her mom. They moved here when Rory was ten, I think to be closer to family but I was too young to really pay much attention to what was going on outside of my own family.
“You’ll never guess who I saw tonight in the grocery store?”
Silence greets me. But I can do the whole waiting thing too.
“I assume you are talking about Rory being back.”
“Hell yes, I’m talking about Rory. Why didn’t you tell me she was back?”
“I guess I didn’t think it would be important to you.”
Didn’t think it would be important! What the hell?
“We only grew up with her, sis, gees.”
“Well, it’s been five years since the two of you saw one other. It isn’t like you all were speaking every week and she snuck back, Ben.”
