I stepped down from the tour bus, my boots kicking up a small cloud of dust as I stretched my arms behind my head. Ten long hours on the road was all it took to get me from my last tour stop to my hometown.
Somewhere along the line,everything had changed.
In the six months leading up to that point, I’d turned twenty-one, churned out one platinum album and three platinum singles, toured in thirty-two cities across the country, and drunkenly slept my way into the hearts of more nameless, faceless girls than I could remember.
“You’re young and dumb,” my tour manager, Mickey, said as he hoisted my arm over his shoulder and hoisted me into the tour bus the night of my twenty-first birthday. “It’s better that you get it all out of your system now. You’ve got the rest of your life to make up for being a giant asshole.”
Somewhere along the line I’d lost myself, and somewhere along the line I’d lost the only thing that ever meant anything to me.
My Dakota.
“Hey, Beau.” My older sister, Calista, stood resting against her vintage Jeep Wagoneer. Her face pinched as she scrutinized me the way she tended to scrutinize everyone, but that’s what older sisters were for. Had Ivy been the one to pick me up, she’d have come running, jumping, and squealing into my arms. I loved them both the same.
“Calista,” I said, squinting into the sun. I opened the luggage compartment on the bus and pulled out some bags. I was only in town for a few days, but my daddy said mama was worrying a hole into the floorboards at home and it was time for me to check in and assure her I was still alive and well. “Where’s Ivy?”
“Probably at softball camp with Addison,” Calista said as we loaded up and drove off. The mere mention of Addison reminded me of Dakota, not that I needed the reminder. She lived in my thoughts, safely tucked away there, where I couldn’t harm her or hurt her. My jaw wriggled back and forth as I thought about Dakota and what she’d think if she saw me then. “She’ll be home for supper.”
“Is she bringing Addison?” I asked, shielding my curiosity about Dakota with an innocent, unsuspecting question.
“No,” Calista huffed. “You know how mama is about bringing people over for dinner last minute.”
“Beau!” Ivy said that night as she rushed into the house. Her wild hair was pulled back into a bouquet of curls and her face glistened with sweat. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I hoisted her up, swinging her around as if she were much younger than eighteen because, in my mind, she was still that gap-toothed, freckle-faced, curly-haired kid sister that no amount of time could change.
We finished supper as a family and sat around the living room as I gave my parents the PG-rated version of my life on the road. And when everyone had retired for the night, I went outside to spend a little time with Ruby and my thoughts.
“Want some company?” Ivy’s voice said through the screen in the storm door. “Look like you could use it.”
She stepped out and took the rocker next to mine after reaching down and rubbing Ruby’s thick gold fur until she rolled onto her back.
“What are we thinking about tonight?” Ivy asked. She’d grown up too much, too fast. The last heart-to-heart conversation we’d had was about the Harry Potter series and how we felt about Dumbledore’s death.
“Never thought I’d be away from home this much,” I said, clasping my hands across my stomach and using my right foot to rock me back and forth. “It’s like I didn’t come home to the same place.”
“This place is exactly the way you left it, Beau,” Ivy said. “I reckon you’re the one who’s changed.”
I huffed a smile, shooting a look her way. “Who let you grow up so fast?”
“An old man with a long, white beard and a crooked staff named Father Time.” Ivy stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and rolled her eyes as she snorted.
“How’s Addison?” I asked.
“Don’t you mean, how’s Dakota?” she fired back without pause.
“Busted,” I laughed it off.
“Don’t play games with me, Beaumont.” She stood up and yawned. “I better get inside. I’m nannying for the Janssens tomorrow since it’s spring break. Those little twin tornadoes wear me out something fierce.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” I wasn’t letting her get away that easily. “How’s Dakota?”
“Why don’t you call and ask her?” Ivy said with a shrug. “I honestly don’t know. Addison says she hasn’t come home at all since Thanksgiving. I guess she’s working a lot and taking lots of classes. That’s about all I know.”
“Is she coming home for spring break?” I asked.
“No clue, Beau. Call her.”
I pulled my phone out the second Ivy went inside. It was a new phone with a new number. My old one was dead and long gone, along with all my contacts. But I’d never forgotten her number. With the keypad on my screen, I pressed it in one slow number at a time.
My thumb hovered above the call button for five indecisive seconds before I swiped the screen away and shoved the phone back in my pocket. It was late, and I needed to gather my thoughts anyway.
The next morning I borrowed Old Blue from Ivy and dropped her off at the Janssen farm before heading into town. A quick pass through Sunrise Terrace trailer court told me Dakota wasn’t at home, or at least her car wasn’t there. So I headed toward the gas station to get a cup of coffee.
“Beau Mason!” the woman working the cash register declared as I handed her a five-dollar bill. “Look at you. I watched you on T.V. not too long ago. You’re very talented.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“What are you doing back here in Darlington?”
“Just visiting family, ma’am.”
She gave me my change, and I slipped the coins into the give-a-penny-take-a-penny tray and slipped the cash into a donation box for a local animal shelter before giving her a nod and slipping out the door.
“Beau,” a man’s voice called out. He certainly didn’t sound like a raging fan.
I stopped in my tracks, turning to my left to see a man a few years my senior with white blonde hair and deep brown eyes.
“Hey,” I called back, squinting as his face registered as familiar in my mind. And then it dawned on me. He was Sam Valentine – the guy who went with Dakota’s cousin, Rebecca. “Sam, right?”
He nodded, placing his hands on his sides. “So, what brings you back to town?”
What was with everyone asking why I was back? It was my home. I didn’t need a valid reason other than the fact that a guy got homesick for his kin after living on the road for several months at a time.
“Just seeing family,” I said. “What about you? You still in med school?”
“I am.” He fidgeted like there was something more he wanted to say. “Look, Beau, I don’t want to sound like an asshole here, but stay away from Dakota.”