Meet Me in the Blue (Hemlock Harbor, #1)

by A.M. Johnson

It was like everything about this town had turned me upside down. I was Alice, staring through the looking glass, hoping to find a way home. Ever since I was a kid, I’d thought I wanted to live in a big city. I’d thought I’d never be able to have the life I wanted trapped in the confines of my dad’s shadow. I’d thought moving away would be the key to my happiness. But I’d left, and tried to live that life, and suffocated inside my poor choices, inside the memories of this place. I didn’t allow myself to see, to see how every cobblestone and tree branch and the craggy cliff sides had been written inside me and inside Rook. Hemlock Harbor was a part of us, it was a vital organ, attached to our hearts and lungs, and if we left this place, left its memories to fade, then Rook and I would fade along with it. I was sure of it. This wasn’t a panic attack, or an overreaction. I could feel it, slipping away, and we hadn’t even left yet. I wanted a life with Rook, in a place where we had history, more than the inflated childhood dreams I’d clung to because I’d been afraid. Afraid I’d never have what I really wanted. What I thought I’d never deserved.