1214 Bad Boy Ave (Cherry Falls)

And for a young woman, that was heartwarming as much as it was heartbreaking.

But that was all going to change now that I was back at Cherry Falls. I didn’t know what the next step in my life would be, but I knew it couldn’t get any sadder or lonelier than it had been.

At least that’s what I told myself.

2

Tristan

Even living out in the middle of nowhere, the rumor mill was still rampant in Cherry Falls. That’s how I knew the moment Dolly Case stepped back into town.

I’d gotten the call from Ryker, not only a coworker at Blake Brothers Auto Repair where I worked, but also a man I considered a friend. He also ran his mouth more freely than any churchgoing grandmother at Sunday dinner with a purse full of gossip. And therein was my problem—when I’d gotten too drunk three years back, admitted this burning obsession I had for Dolly, and Ryker still hadn’t let me live it down.

And since getting that call, I hadn’t been able to think about anything else. Of course that wasn't saying much when Dolly had been on my mind more times over the last four years than I cared to admit out loud.

I brought the ax over my head and swung it down, splitting the log in half, the two pieces falling away. Although it was December, the sun was out, and most of the snow had melted.

I didn’t need to be chopping wood, had an entire season's worth stacked up in the shed. But I needed something to keep me busy, manual labor that was taxing and that exhausted me.

So here I was, splitting wood I didn’t even need, trying to not think about Dolly Case, and failing fucking miserably.

Dolly was sixteen years younger than me, and I’d never looked at her as someone who I’d ever be with, her age an obstacle I wasn’t about to try and hurdle.

She was too innocent. And to be honest… she was too good for me.

I’d been living in Cherry Falls for the past fifteen years, since I was twenty-two, and never once looked back. My life before Cherry Falls had been hard, and it had mainly been my doing. I’d wanted a fresh start, a new life.

Fighting, drinking, and being labeled the “bad boy” back “home” had worked its way deep into my soul until I’d always felt like I would never amount to anything much.

I’d made my money—good money—doing underground fights, back-alley brawls. It had been the only life I’d known, and I’d embraced the fuck out of it.

I’d been told so many times I wasn’t good enough to be anything more than I was, not just by my deadbeat, alcoholic father, but also from many people who’d been close enough to me to run their mouths.

And I’d accepted it, embraced it until it got to the point that when someone said my name they automatically assumed I was either in jail, had beaten someone up, or was lying in a ditch because my hard life had finally caught up with me.

And it was then, after my father died from a DUI, when I stumbled home after partying for three days straight and looked at myself in the mirror, that I knew it was time for a change. I had no family, no parents, people I associated with who only saw me as the dude they had a good time with, the “friend” who had a short fuse and could beat the shit out of someone just for looking at him the wrong way.

I was tired of being that guy. I was tired of being the bad boy.

So here I was, Cherry Falls the fresh start I’d needed to turn my life around totally. I got a job as the best motorcycle mechanic at Blake Auto. I kept to myself, worked on purchasing land, and finally built a place I could call my own. And I made that my reality not too long after I moved to the small, picturesque town.

I picked up one of the split logs and threw it over with the other pile off to the side. Sweat rolled down my temples, and I picked up the bottom of my shirt and wiped off my face.

I brought my wrist up and looked at my watch, checking the time, knowing I could’ve probably done another handful of logs before heading into work, but there was a strange, buzzing energy moving through me. Fuck… just because I could see Dolly’s car at the shop, just so I could see a piece of her.

I was fucked.

At only twenty-two, Dolly certainly shouldn’t have been on my radar, especially since I had known her since she barely came up to anyone’s knees. But I remember the day I saw her and noticed how she wasn’t a child anymore, but a full-grown woman about to head off to college.