Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) (24 page)

Their days and hours together were slipping away
too fast. And Fiona’s visit cut drastically into their remaining hours. Harper
loved spending time with her sister, loved working with her on a project that
benefited the girls of Sunnyside, loved showing her off around town, but
regretted that Zach considered her presence a signal to steer clear.

Fiona admitted she’d role-played the psycho-nympho
sister a little bit to assess Zach’s level of loyalty to Harper. He’d passed
with flying colors but had been avoiding both of them until Harper texted him
on Wednesday night with an invitation to come over after Fiona had gone to bed.

Dressed all in black, he’d sneaked into the house
like a cat burglar. Harper waited for him in her bedroom, where he pounced as
soon as he saw her. Their coupling was swift, silent, and mind-blowing.

“God, I missed you.” He nuzzled her neck and
breathed her in. “That took the edge off, but I’ve got to tell you, I’m going
to be ready to go again in about five minutes.”

“That long, huh? Thanks for the warning.”

“How long is your sister staying?”

“Until Sunday.”

“That long, huh? Thanks for the warning.”

Harper poked him in the ribs. “She’s not that
bad.”

“She’s fine, but she’s here, kind of interfering
with my time with you. She can have you all to herself after I’m gone.”

The hands smoothing over his back stilled.
“Right.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”

“I know what you mean. I’ve been using this week
as a practice run for your departure. No you to sneak in and cuddle me up at
night. No you to make surprise guest appearances in my life. No you to smooth
my way with the local citizenry.” She rested her chin on his shoulder. “No
you.”

He cradled her face in his hands. “Let’s not make
ourselves crazy about something that’s not going to happen for weeks.”

“Weeks. Yes, that’s oodles of time. If you’re
trapped in an elevator with a rabid gorilla. Or no time at all if you’re using
it to create memories to last a lifetime.”

“There’s no guarantee that I won’t come back
here.”

“And no guarantee that you will. When are you
going to tell the town?”

“The first council meeting in October.”

Her heart spasmed.
So soon
. “Well, good. I’m glad at least one part of your secret
will be common knowledge.” Maybe they’d be so upset about losing him that they
wouldn’t notice their new librarian was distraught as well. “How do you think
they’ll react?”

How would
they react?
Now that the time had sneaked up on him, that’s what Zach kept
wondering, too.

“They should be okay with it but probably won’t.
They’re kind of used to controlling my life.”

“They are, I know. What I don’t really understand
is why. I mean, they are pretty possessive about everyone who was born and
raised here. And you are, of course, the brilliant golden boy who can do no
wrong, but why you? What is it about you that makes them so crazy?”

He flopped over onto his back and closed his eyes.
“It’s complicated.”

“Too complicated to explain?”

“Too eviscerating.”

Her hand clasped his on top of the sheet. “You can
tell me about it if you want to.”

If he
wanted
to? When had he ever wanted to talk about this subject? Who had he ever told
about it? No one after the official reports had been filed.

Exactly no one.

Because everyone who knew him already knew the
story. Every damn detail. So he never had to talk about it. He’d kept it
bottled up inside for eighteen years.

As a doctor, he recognized the harmful effects of
that pattern. As a man, the idea of spilling his guts about his most horrific,
heartbreaking secrets scared the bejesus out of him. How would it help to talk
about it? But then again, how would it hurt? Maybe it was time to find out.

Where would he start? “When I was sixteen, my mom
was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”

Harper squeezed his hand and made a soothing sound
that offered enough support for him to continue even though the harsh memories were
gushing through him with the force of a tsunami.

“It’s a particularly aggressive cancer, and I had
to grow up fast. Going to school, playing football, working on the farm,
helping out at home, keeping an eye on Rachel and Josh, my life was one great big
ball of exhaustion. But you know kids, they think they’re invincible with
unlimited energy. Whatever it took, that’s what I planned to do. I just kept
going at it.”

“Is that why you wanted to be a doctor?”

“Mom was a nurse, and she always encouraged my interest
in the medical field. But when she got sick, that kind of sealed the deal. She
wanted things to be as normal for the rest of us as possible. In high school,
she had been a cheerleader and my dad was a star football player, so she always
insisted I keep playing even though it was the most expendable item on my
schedule.”

“She sounds like a very wise and strong woman.”

“That she was.” Stacking his hands behind his
head, Zach smiled, remembering just how wise and wonderful she’d been. “For all
the home games, Dad would wrap her in blankets, carry her into the stands, and
sit close beside her, supporting her and keeping her warm.”

“I can imagine how proud she must have been of
you.”

“Homecoming was the last game she was well enough
to attend. I managed to play a good game even though she’d had a rough couple
of days and nights before that. At the dance after the game, my girlfriend and
I were named Homecoming King and Queen. I didn’t really care, but Marley was
thrilled. Mom beamed as they put that stupid crown on my head, and that made it
all worthwhile.”

Harper threaded her fingers through his hair and
tugged. “I should have guessed you were homecoming king. And class president
and valedictorian, too, right?”

Rolling his eyes at her guess, he took a deep
breath. “Naturally, Marley wanted to celebrate with our friends afterward. It
was the kind of crisp fall weather that made you want to run and jump into a
big old pile of leaves even if you were too old or too cool to do that.

“All the team and the homecoming court headed out
to party at a cabin at Schafer’s Lake. Kids were drinking and dancing, sneaking
off to make out. That wasn’t really my scene. I didn’t want to drink, smoke
dope, or party since I was exhausted from sitting up with Mom the past few nights.

“Marley and I were fooling around on the beach
because a teenage boy is never too tired to try his luck with a girl on the
happiest night of her life. Despite her pleasure at our king-and-queen status,
she put on the brakes that night, too.”

He’d been almost too drained to care. Even though
he had been madly in lust with her, which meant he had a raging hard-on pretty
much every minute of every day, they were both still virgins. He wasn’t sure he
was up to the task that night of making it as special for Marley as her first
time should be—as special as he wanted it to be for her.

When she removed his hands from under her dress
and wrapped his arms around her instead, she said she just wanted him to hold
her for a while under the stars—
Wasn’t
the moon the most romantic thing he’d ever seen?
Yes, big and bright and as
round as a basketball. But he’d seen the moon before. And on
that
night, with his mom so sick and so
many question marks about his future, the moon didn’t seem all that special. He
fought to keep his eyes open while contemplating how long he’d have to hold her
before he could take her home. Naturally, she didn’t appreciate his lack of
attention, and she said in that snippy girly way, “If you’re not going to be
any fun, I’m ready to go home.”

“When we went back inside. Marley had to broadcast
to all ten of her best friends that we were leaving and she had to talk to each
and every one of them before we left. While I waited for her, I noticed that
my
best friend, Tyler Monroe, was
totally hammered. And that wasn’t like him.

“Everybody was saying that his girlfriend, Natalie
Zimmer, had dumped him earlier, and Ty hadn’t taken the news well. But to prove
to her that he couldn’t care less, he enjoyed more than his share of the weed
and beer being passed around until he pretty much couldn’t stand up, let alone
drive.

By this time, Harper had her arms wrapped around
Zach, holding on tight. At this part of the story, she stirred and lifted her
head. “Tyler Monroe. Kate’s brother?”

“Yeah. I looked for Liam to see if he’d make sure
Ty got home okay, but Liam had taken his girlfriend down to her dad’s boat for
some alone time. No way could I interrupt that, but I couldn’t leave Ty there
to drive himself home either. Over Marley’s protests, I hauled Ty out to my
mom’s Dodge Caravan and dumped him into the backseat. Where he promptly passed
out. Now thoroughly pissed with me, Marley gazed out the passenger window and
gave me her version of the silent treatment, which included a lot of sniffing
and sighing and flipping her hair.

“Which is the last thing I remembered before I
dosed off. Right before I reached Slaughter’s Bend. When the road curved, I
didn’t. We plowed straight into a tree, killing my best friend and injuring
Marley for life.” A derisive snort escaped him. “I was the only one wearing a
seatbelt. Walked away with a gash on my arm and a broken toe.”

He still had nightmares about it.

Shaking her head, Harper wiped tears from her
eyes. “That’s a lot of guilt for a teenager to have to live with.”

“Tell me about it. Especially when everyone in
town kept saying what a good kid I was. Not drinking and driving, they said,
like I deserved a medal for that alone. Trying to take care of my friend by
driving him home. Tired because I’d been up so many nights taking care of my
sick mom, keeping my grades up, and excelling on the football field. They made
me feel like I needed to try harder to earn their respect, to make them forget,
when all I wanted to do was beat myself up and hurt the next person who praised
me for ‘having a good head on my shoulders’.” Which Zach knew to be a giant
load of manure.

“What happened to Marley? Where is she now?”

He’d ruined Marley’s life due to the injuries he’d
caused, but he didn’t want to tell Harper that. Everyone else said he’d saved
it. All because he’d taken a few lifesaving classes at the Y and had been able
to administer first aid before the Life Squad team got there. He barely
remembered that part.

But he clearly remembered the way she yelled at
him when he went to see her at the hospital. The way her parents had shaken
their heads at him, refused to accept his apology, and left for St. Louis where
she could get better care than she could get at County General. The last time
he’d seen them had been at the courthouse after her parents had sued his dad
for the damage to their daughter.

“She always planned to be a professional dancer.
She’d been taking lessons since she was six and was really good. But she’s
still paralyzed. Still in a wheelchair. Lives in St. Louis. Works for NPR. Has
a radio program about people with disabilities.” It was a pretty good show
actually. He tortured himself by listening to it occasionally. Or every chance
he got. He’d checked out her website and followed up on her case a few times.
More than a few.

“At least she’s found a way to put the negative
experience to good use.”

Was that true? His throat closed up as he thought
of all she’d been through. Leave it to Harper to look for a positive spin.
“She’s had to settle for a lot less than she originally wanted. And there’s no
bright side for Ty. It always feels like I don’t deserve my own success.”

“Maybe it depends on the religion you subscribe
to, but I never believe there’s a big balance book someplace where God,
Mohammed, Karma or whatever is doling out special destinies based on what
people deserve.”

“I hope you’re right.” That last year of school
was miserable, made worse—much worse— by the acceleration of his mother’s
illness. Every night he sat by her side, he knew he was watching her die. By the
time she succumbed to her illness in the spring, right before his high-school
graduation, he couldn’t wait to bust loose. If he didn’t get out of town soon,
he’d explode. If he stayed in Sunnyside, he’d always be that kid who’d killed
his best friend.

“I felt guilty about leaving Dad, but I’d already
committed to going to Northwestern, and he encouraged me to follow my dreams.
To do what Mom would have wanted me to do. We turned over most of Mom’s life
insurance to Marley’s family, so I busted my butt working a variety of
part-time jobs, and squeezing every dollar I could get my hands on. With all
that and my scholarship money, I managed to stay out of debt in my
undergraduate years. But worrying about how much money I’d owe by the time I
finished medical school, I made a deal with the devil. You know what happened
next.”

“The town offered to pay for you to go to medical
school if you’d come home and practice here for seven years afterward.”

“There were other provisions and legalities to it,
but becoming their indentured servant was the gist of the offer. Most days I
wake up feeling like they own me, body and soul. That’s the straightjacket I
live in.”

She shook her head and held on tight. “It was
their way of helping you.”

“Or of blackmailing me into coming back here.
Keeping me here.” Thinking of their expectations, he shuddered. “Every time
they look at me, they remember. They remind me of what I did. They’ll never
forget.”

Scooting down in the bed, she snuggled close and
ran a soothing hand over his chest. She kissed his shoulder. “Maybe so.”

“How can you think otherwise? After what I did?”

“Honestly? The way I see it… A long time ago, when
you were half the age you are now, you had an accident that resulted in a
terrible, unthinkable outcome. Sadly, that happens to teenaged boys. Look at
the statistics. There’s a reason that demographic carries the highest insurance
rate. Were you reckless? Were you drinking or speeding? Did you tell your
passengers not to wear their seatbelts? Did you intentionally harm someone or
did you try to help them? You want to leave this town because they are a
constant reminder of that horrible time. They support you and love you. If you
tell them you want to leave for a while, maybe they’ll understand, but you
won’t feel any better about yourself.”

Was she right? What did she know? Had he always
resented the town because they didn’t blame him the way he blamed himself?
Would they understand when he told them he was leaving? He’d find out soon
enough.

The light was shining brightly at the end of the
tunnel. If he could hang on a little longer, he’d be home free. Or
away-from-home free, to be more exact. He couldn’t wait. The excitement kept
building. Except for the dread of telling the everyone his plans. And leaving
Harper. Those two aspects had him breaking out in a cold sweat.