Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
It’s… complicated. As relations tend to be when towns are this small and people change their minds about marriage.
“Long time, Collin,” Lasher says. “I think you might want to come inside and take a seat. Because Grimm here has something very important to tell you about the woman you seem to be fallin’ in love with.”
Amon looks at me and I just look back at him. I don’t really wanna go inside, but whatever this is, it’s been chasing me all morning and I’d rather just get it over with.
I go first, Mercy at my knee, and Amon follows. Lasher leads us through a very fancy foyer with the biggest crystal chandelier I’ve ever seen, down a hallway, and into a… maybe a library, maybe an office. At any rate, he points to a group of four wingback leather chairs. “Have a seat. I’ll get us a drink.”
I put up a hand. “I don’t need a drink.”
Lasher shoots me a look from over his shoulder, already reaching for a whiskey decanter on the bar. “You’re gonna want this drink, Collin. Take my word on that.”
“OK, what the fuck?” Amon hates riddles and this day is turning into a beauty of a mystery right before our eyes. “You guys need to explain what the hell is going on. I can’t take this fuckin’ tension!”
“Sit down, Amon.” Lasher hands him a drink. “You’re here for moral support.”
Amon, not typically one to take orders from anyone but me, decides he will take the drink and the seat. He sits and I take the chair next to him.
Grimm settles in the one across from me, but he doesn’t sit back. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees.
Lasher offers me the drink and I take it. Just to have something to hold.
Lasher sits across from Amon and he doesn’t sit back either. I notice he didn’t pour himself a drink. Or Grimm, for that matter. Even though Grimm is the only one in the room who really does look like he needs one.
Grimm starts. “Collin, you and I were friends. You remember that? And it wasn’t just some casual relationship, either. We did everything together as kids.”
“Sure,” I say. “Eagle Scouts. Football.”
“Well… just… keep that in mind—"
“Spit it out, Grimm. Just… fuckin’ spit it out.”
He shrugs and sighs. “Lowyn, Collin. She’s… married.”
I just blink at him. Like these words do not make sense.
“Not just married,” Lasher says. I look over at him. “She’s married to Ike Monroe.”
“Who the fuck is Ike Monroe?” Amon asks. Because I don’t seem to be able to talk.
Lasher looks Amon right in the eyes. “My twin brother. He runs Blackberry Hill.” Amon and I both must have blank looks on our faces because Lasher kinda laughs. “Oh. Shit. I forgot. I guess I didn’t realize that the two of you left town before you could be told.”
“Told what?” Amon asks.
“About how there’s a fourth town in the Trinity contract. And Lowyn McBride married the man who runs that town nine years ago when she was just twenty years old.”
There is a turn-off from the highway that leads up to Blackberry Hill. I’ve tried my best to forget about it over the last nine years, but you don’t just forget about a man like Ike Monroe.
I don’t care who you are, male or female, once he walks into your life, he’s an obsession.
Everything that happened to me that weekend—my mama’s very first birthday after she died—was because my little car hydroplaned on the wet road during a thunderstorm and I slid into that little scrap of a road and right into the woods and hit a tree smack-on.
Just a few seconds of time changed my whole life. Because I was stuck there, and I had hit my head, and I didn’t actually know where I was because I was just drivin’ blind. Crying. Everything was blurry. Not just from the rain pelting down on the windshield, but from my tears.
That first anniversary hit me hard. It was tough. The whole season of Revival without Mama. I had to do everything. I had to quit school, and come home, and look out for Bryn, and make sure she didn’t ruin her life in some way. I was exhausted by the time Christmas Eve came. And then it felt like I slept away the whole rest of the winter in a depression.
When I woke up it was spring and the Revival was startin’ again. And I couldn’t take it, I guess. I just kinda lost my mind. I got in my car during the storm and I just drove around the hills. I didn’t have anywhere to go.
These days, if that happened, I would go to Clover. Spend a weekend with her in the spa. But she was still in school. And I didn’t feel like driving all the way over to West Virginia University just to be reminded of all the other things I lost when my mama died.