Barbara and I had spent many nights planning this day, but like she’d said, we weren’t expecting it to happen just yet.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping away some tears. “I’m happy for you, baby girl, really I am. I’m just gonna miss you so much.”

“I’ll miss you too.” I hugged her fiercely and let a few tears escape as she held me. She would be the only person from this entire state I would miss. “As soon as I get to Oregon and get settled, I’ll get a phone and call you so you’ll have my number.”

She nodded and cleared her throat as her arms left my waist to grip my hands. “You can do this, Kamryn. I just know it. You have the money, you have the smarts, you have the talent, and you have the drive. Get away from here, baby girl, and don’t come back to this life. This life is its own form of prison.”

It was. God, it was.

“Do you have everything packed?”

“I do.”

“All right.” She cleared her throat and her lips quivered as she spoke. “I’m going to call my brother and have him come right over to take you to the train station. I just pulled some cookies out of the oven. You go take some and a glass of milk to your daddy. Your mother is at her tennis lesson and then going to a massage, so she won’t be back for some time now. By the time you’re done sweet-talking your daddy, Ray will be here and I’ll have your suitcase and money waiting in his car.”

I took a deep breath and stood when she did. “I’ll miss you, Barbara. I love you.”

“I love you too, baby girl. Go live.”

1

Kamryn

May 4, 2015

“KC! GIRL, I am definitely going to need some chocolate to get through today.”

“Kinlee, seriously?” I huffed as I came through the double doors with trays of cupcakes. “We aren’t even opened yet. That key I gave you was for emergencies if I wasn’t available.”

“You’re open—I flipped the board for you.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled. I’d met Kinlee almost immediately after moving to Jeston, Oregon, and I thanked God every day for that. I’d never had a friend like her and didn’t know how I would get through day-to-day life without her. “Only you, Lee, only you.” I handed over a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and started stocking my pastry case.

Within two weeks of getting to Jeston, I’d bought an SUV, found a condo, and leased a small space for what would be my bakery. Over the next two and a half months I was overseeing renovations for KC’s Sweet Treats, and that’s how I’d met Kinlee. She was two years older than me and shorter than short, had long black hair and a bubbly personality I’d die for. She and her mom had the boutique right next door to me, and she’d come by asking if I knew what was going to be put in next to her store. One thing led to another, and I was her new best friend because I could bake. Kinlee could be crude, she could be sweet, and she was loyal to those she cared for. And I absolutely adored every bit of her.

Barbara and I spoke at least once a week when Mom and Dad were both out of the house, and though I missed her like crazy, I didn’t regret my decision. I did feel bad, though, for leaving her in that hell-storm. Apparently my parents and Charles’s family had gone nuts when I left, but ultimately they saw my “disappearance” as a chance for more publicity: they twisted it, saying I’d been kidnapped, so they could wind up on a few news stations. I didn’t know what the status with my “disappearance” was, because I really didn’t care. Other than talking with Barbara, I didn’t pay attention to anything that had to do with racing or Kentucky. My life was in Oregon now, and that was all I cared to focus on. If I worried about them looking for me, or having others look for me, it would just make me paranoid. I couldn’t live like that.

And I loved it in Jeston. This city of roughly 15,000 people had an old-time small-town charm to it, and I wondered how it’d taken me twenty-two years to get here. There was no doubt in my mind that I belonged here.

The best part? No one had a clue who I was.

The minute I’d gotten to Jeston and checked into a hotel, I’d found a salon, chopped fourteen inches off my hair, and dyed my golden locks a rich brown. Even with the fourteen inches gone, my hair still brushed the tops of my shoulders. With the thick, black-framed glasses I bought at a drugstore, I looked like a new person. And I couldn’t be happier.

“Oh, my God, heaven!” Kinlee groaned as she hopped onto the counter near the register. “Kace, tell me how you aren’t fat yet?”

I snorted. “Probably the same way you aren’t.”

“You mean you’re having wild animal sex twenty-four/seven? I was wondering why you wouldn’t let us set you up with anyone! You’ve been holding out on me, haven’t you?”

“Oh, God, okay, definitely not the same way as you. Ew, Kinlee, all I’m going to be able to think about when I see Jace is you two having wild sex.”

“Say that again!”

I froze with my arm inside the pastry case. “Uh, all I’m going—”

“No, no. The last few words.” She leaned close and stared at my mouth as I ran over everything I’d said.

“Having wild sex?”

“Wald? For real, where are you from?”

I blew out a heavy breath and shook my head as I smirked at my case. “Just not from here.” I tried to tame my accent—which I didn’t even know I had until I moved here—as much as possible around Kinlee. She and her husband, Jace, were always trying to figure out where I’d moved from, but if they found out they’d want to know why I was here at all. And I wasn’t ready for that.