Chapter 6. Love Left Behind

BELLE

Evergreen, Maine, the town’s sign had read.

The most delightful place on Earth.

Yeah, delightful my ass.

I was sitting on the bench on the side of the road, watching people as they walked past. My suitcase sat next to me on one side, and my backpack sat on the other.

Why the hell had I come here?

This was never my plan. In fact, I hadn’t planned to go anywhere, really. When I got on a Greyhound bus back in Minnesota, I had no idea where I was going to end up.

All I knew was I wanted to get as far away from Grayson and my old life as possible.

And I had done exactly that.

I’d sat on that bus for hours upon hours, watching as we passed through city after city—state after state. I’d switched buses whenever we got to a new station, always choosing to go north.

I’d gone as far north as I could without crossing into Canada until, finally, I’d ended up where I was now, in a small town in Maine, as far away from the b