Page 24 of In Full Bloom
“I thought you were friends with Max?”
He shrugs. “Look, living in a town like this, you have to suck it up and just get along sometimes. But it’s never really sat right with me the way Max treated Katie. He’s never liked her, and no one’s ever been able to figure out why.” He pauses and rubs his jaw, thinking. “I don’t know. But the last time she was back, he was a complete asshole to her.”
“What about other people in town? Are they the same?”
“Some,” he says. He looks like he’s about to say more whenOlivia’s ute crests the hill. It pulls to a stop beside Flynn’s. Olivia and Katie climb out.
“Katie!” Flynn jumps off the fence and rushes towards her.
I study her face, while hanging well back. It’s a bit pale and her eyes look a little red, like she’s been crying, but it’s hard to tell from this distance. She looks wary as Flynn gets closer, but when he grabs her around the waist, picks her up and spins her around, she tilts her head back and laughs.
Flynn sets her back on the ground and Katie wraps her arms around his shoulders. “It’s so good to see you,” they both say at the same time, then burst into giggles.
“Come see the new horse,” Flynn says, leading the two women towards the yards. I’m leaning on the fence trying to look casual.
I catch Olivia’s gaze and she gives me a smile and nod. Katie’s okay then. I try to meet her eyes, but she won’t look my way.
The four of us climb up on the fence and look down at the mare, still cowering on the opposite side of the yard.
“Oh, the poor thing,” Katie breathes. Her arm brushes against mine and electricity shoots through me. I force my attention back to the horse instead of the way Katie immediately moves away from me, but the feeling of her skin against mine doesn’t leave.
“Feel like working with her for a while?” Olivia asks.
“Of course,” Katie says, swinging a leg over the top of the fence and gently dropping to the ground inside the yard. She looks up at Flynn. “What’s her name?”
“She didn’t come with one,” Flynn says. “But I was thinkingAurora. She’s the Roman goddess of the dawn and new beginnings. It felt right for her.”
Katie stops, staring up at us lined up on the fence.
“Aurora,” she says softly. “It’s perfect.” She turns towards the mare, approaching with slow, careful steps.
The horse watches her getting ever closer. Flynn holds his breath beside me and Olivia’s nails are digging into the wooden railing.
Katie’s fingertips reach out. “Aurora,” she says again, voice soft and soothing.
The horse sniffs at her hand and presses her muzzle into it for just a second before snorting, tossing her head and wheeling away.
I catch my breath as the horse spins around. I’m expecting her to buck and kick out at Katie, but she only races to the other side of the yard.
I’m also expecting Katie to be disappointed, but she relaxes against the fence where she’s standing, staring after the horse with a smile on her face.
She looks calm, relaxed, and most importantly, she looks happy.
13
KATIE
“How comeyou didn’t take the manager job?” I ask Flynn as we sit side by side on the yard railings watching the new horse get used to her surroundings, and hopefully us at the same time.
Flynn glances at me sideways, his dark auburn hair falls into his eyes. “I didn’t want it,” he says, and takes an enormous bite of his sandwich.
“Why not?”
Flynn finishes his mouthful, then answers. “Because if I had that job, do you think I could take off surfing for two weeks at a time? Plus, I’d have to manage the staff and while some might not be too bad, there’s this new girl …” He laughs as I scowl at him, but after a moment, I’m laughing too. The job was too much responsibility for Flynn. I should have known.
I haven’t stayed in touch with Flynn, other than the occasional like or comment on each other’s social media posts, and I regret it. What happened wasn’t his fault and when I left Kauri Creek, I didn’t want to leave him, or Olivia.
But I let too much time go past as we both got caught up in our own lives and it felt like too big of a gulf to reach out to him. I should have known better, because being with him now is like I’ve never been away. It makes the regret even worse.
