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“Hunter?” a woman asked, tumbling through the door.
“Amy?” His ex. He barely managed to let go of Cheryse before Amy fell into his arms.
“You haven’t been answering your phone,” she pouted.
Hunter was in shock as he held the woman he’d once thought he would marry.
Amy pulled back and tears streaked down her face. “I’m sorry. I had to come. I don’t know if you wanted me to come, but I had to.”
Hunter didn’t know what to say. He could barely breathe. It’d been almost seven months since their breakup when he’d caught her kissing another guy. She had adamantly insisted that it was the first time they’d kissed, and that it was only because he volunteered with her at the homeless shelter.
“I’m so sorry about Trent. So sorry,” Amy whispered, cuddling up to him.
Hunter couldn’t register her condolences. All he could think about was how much Trent wouldn’t want her here.
“What are you doing here?” Cheryse asked in a biting tone.
Cheryse’s tone knocked the numbness out of Hunter, and he took a step back.
Amy clung to him. “No, let me hug you.”
“Let go,” Hunter said quietly. He had tried to reach out to her only a month ago, and she hadn’t even responded. Now she showed up here today of all days.
Amy didn’t budge. “No,” she said, like a child refusing to accept a parent's chastisement.
He pried her arms off him and stepped back. There was no way he could deal with this right now. He moved to the sliding door. “Amy, Trent would not want you here. You need to leave.”
“Hunter!” Amy called out.
This whole thing seemed like an awful movie. He ignored Amy and found Cheryse. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I need sleep.”
Chapter 4
Cheryse didn’t feel right the next morning as she did her normal routine of opening the salon, clearing out the cash register, watering the plants, and then greeting each of the stylists and customers as they walked through the doors.
She likened the feeling to what she’d experienced one summer when the fair came to town and the beach crew went on a ride called Gravity. She remembered leaning back and holding onto the safety bar for dear life. Of course, Hunter and Trent had been on either side of her. It was their tenth-grade summer. As the twirling ride had taken off and squished them back and then turned them upside down, she hadn’t even been able to scream. She’d been terrified that she would die on that ride. She remembered the blasting music and a sense of being totally out of control.
When the ride was finally over and Hunter and Trent had pushed their bars back while laughing and joking, she had stayed in her seat and kept her eyes closed. It’d taken them several minutes to coax her out of the ride, and she had only done so because they had stayed by her side and allowed her to cling to both of them.
Completely out of sorts; that’s how she felt. Totally ungrounded.
And Trent wasn’t there to hold on to anymore.
Pain stabbed her heart like a dagger. She stood at the front desk and pushed her hand to her chest, trying to relieve the pain.
Trent was gone. She would never see him again.
All night she had tossed and turned with dreams that bordered on nightmares. Hunter’s ex-girlfriend Amy had been in them, yelling at him to come back.
Last night, after Hunter had told her to leave, Amy had called an Uber. Cheryse hadn’t stayed to see her off. In fact, she’d left quickly. She couldn’t deal with Amy.
Her dreams reflected her worry about Hunter getting back with her. Hunter had been kissing Amy. Trent had been waving to her, holding Liberty’s hand, while he’d stood on the beach next to the Stone Family Inn. She’d walked toward the scene, Trent had pointed to the side of the house, and bam! Half of the house had blown up.
She’d woken covered with a sheen of sweat. The dream had to reflect all the crazy emotions in dealing with Trent being blown up and Amy showing up at the house.
Dreams were strange.
Cheryse sucked in a breath and held it in while counting to five. This was part of the therapy her mother had been talking to her about. Breathe in and hold it for five seconds, breathe out and try to relax. She repeated this process twice, and it eased the pain in the center of her chest.
