AudreyI dug through my bag, trying to find some sort of outfit that would be suitable for a bar in Aberdeen. Annabelle and I had snuck out to go to shows in town when we were teenagers, with more or less success, depending on the night. What the hell had we worn back then? Jeans? I didn’t think that I had worn jeans in years now. Surely not in all the time that I’d lived in Paris.When we went out there, I was usually in a dress or slacks and a button-up blouse. But both of those things seemed too formal for wearing around Aberdeen. I didn’t really care about what everyone here thought of me, but I wanted to be comfortable and not look like a snooty rich girl out of her element. If this really was about research, that wasn’t going to help me one bit.“God, I wish I were as skinny as you,” Annabelle said as she came back into the bedroom after her shower with just a towel wrapped around her.I snorted. “You look amazing, and you know it,” I chided. “But if you want to give up on all t

JesseI glanced around as I walked into Gabby’s with Joe. I still couldn’t believe that I had let him talk me into coming out with him. The Long Blue or not, was it really worth it? Sure, this place wasn’t too terrible, all things considered. A bit loud. And probably only going to get louder as the night went on. I recognized nearly everyone in there. It was a pretty good crowd, though, especially for a Sunday night. Not like anyone had anything else to do on a Sunday night in Aberdeen.But I couldn’t help remembering what Joe had said about getting me to dance with someone pretty. I was so not interested in that tonight.We grabbed drinks first and chatted for a minute with Annabelle Buchanan. God, when had she gotten old enough to serve drinks behind the bar? I’d known her back when she was a kid, but she’d been so much younger than me that I’d known her sister better. But Audrey disappeared when she went off to further her ballet career, and I doubted we’d ever see her around town

AudreyOf all the people to run into at Gabby’s, Jesse Miller was probably the last person I would have expected. I had never expected him to hang out around Aberdeen for as long as he had. I would have thought he would be long gone by now. But when he mentioned his dad dying and the fact that he had taken over the hardware store, it suddenly all made sense. Jesse had always been the sort of guy that you could rely on.And plans had a tendency to change.I tried not to be too gloomy, but I couldn’t keep thinking about my own change in plans. If I were back in Paris right now, I’d be asleep, just waiting for the next morning. Then I would get up, eat a light breakfast, do my stretches, and train like I did every morning. Part of why I felt so out of place here in North Carolina was because I was missing my routine. When had I become one of those people who couldn’t live without their routine? Where had my spontaneity gone?When Jesse asked me to dance with him, I leaped at the chance t

JesseI knew that I was going to get shit from Joe on Tuesday morning as soon as he showed up for work. He had been texting me since Sunday night, his texts getting increasingly lewd. My departure from Gabby’s with Audrey hadn’t gone unnoticed, and for the first time, I started to think about what the town would think. Everyone knew that she and I had been close before. Would they think that something more had happened?I felt embarrassed at the thought of it. Not because I cared what they might think of me but because Audrey didn’t need them all thinking that she’d slept with someone on her second night back. She didn’t need to be in the gossip mill already.Joe had had his day off on Monday, so I hadn’t seen him since Gabby’s. Now, I was sure that I would hear about his speculations in person.“There he is,” he said with a broad grin as he came in on Tuesday morning. He clapped me on the shoulder. “You’ve been quiet. You guys go for round two?”“There was never a round one,” I mutte

AudreyI had to get out of the house, I decided. I couldn’t sit here wallowing, or I was going to drive myself crazy. What did I used to like to do around town when I was younger? I thought back.Then, the perfect idea came to me. I headed to Annabelle’s room. I thought about it as her room now, even though the queen-sized mattress had been temporarily removed and twin beds had been put back in, just like when we were kids.I perused the shelf of books that she had on display. There were tons of them. She said she got a lot of them for free for working at the bookstore. I hadn’t heard of half of them, but finally, I found one that I vaguely remembered having wanted to read at one point in my life. I grabbed that, dropped it into a bag, and headed into town. Even with my ankle, it wasn’t far to walk, and I used to do this all the time.I looked down main street, which looked different in the daylight than it had when I had gone out to Gabby’s the other night. I hadn’t really been payin