“Don’t leave Tiny Girl. I just got you back in my life. Don’t leave me.” His voice choked.

Tears began flowing down my cheeks. “I love you Finn but I can’t. I’ve never learned to live on my own, to do things for myself without relying on the people around me. I need to go and be a part of this world and live in it. I’m sorry if you don’t understand it, but I need to do this.”

I leaned forward and kissed him softly on his full sweet lips. Lingering a little longer than my heart could have probably tolerated, I got up from the bed, pulled out one of his old t-shirts and a pair of jeans I’d left in the drawer. He remained still on the bed, in a state of shock. Before I left the bedroom, I turned around and looked at him one last time.

“I love you.” I whispered before I turned and walked out the door, leaving my heart behind me.

I drove away from Finn’s house with my two boxes, a broken heart, and a new outlook on life. Heading out of town I hit the interstate heading east, and it didn’t take long for my cell phone to start going off.

“Em, where the hell are you? Ky said you were with Finn, but I called him and he said you left twenty minutes ago.”

“I left Harper.”

“Okay, well do you want me to pick something up for dinner? We can talk about how it went seeing Finn again.”

This was going to be harder than I thought.

“No, I mean I left.” I paused giving her a second to catch up. “I’m not coming home.”

She was quiet.

“Are you still there?”

“What the hell do you mean you aren’t coming home? What’s going on Emilyn?” She was getting worked up.

I sighed. “I’m not trying to be rude or mean Harper, I just think it’s time I had a fresh start. So many places in that town have a memory attached to them. I can hardly turn a corner without remembering something Finn and I shared, or being reminded of my son.”

“Where are you going?”

“Honestly, I don’t know yet. I’m going to head east and probably try someplace warmer than it is here.” The cold didn’t help my mood.

“How long are you going to be gone?” She sounded sad.

I shrugged my shoulders but realized she couldn’t see me. “I don’t know, a while I think.”

“Did something happen while you were with Finn today? If he did something to you I swear to god I’ll remove his nuts through a pinhole!”

I laughed. “God Harper, you’re so violent! No nothing happened, not really.”

I didn’t feel the need to go into detail with her about Finn and I making love, or even our conversation after it.

“Well, is there anything that I can do? Are you planning on calling me, or telling me where you’re at?”

Tears were at the surface again, and I was so tired of crying today.

“Yeah actually there is. Could you tell my parents for me? Let them know that I’ll call them when I find a place to stay. And as for you, of course I’ll call you! But you have to swear to me that you won’t tell Ky or Finn where I’m at. I need to do this and learn to live on my own. I can’t do that if either one of them comes knocking on my door.” I paused again. “And Harper…?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you. I couldn’t have made it through any of this without you. I’m sorry I’m just leaving you high and dry but I know you would have talked me out of it if I’d stayed to say goodbye.”

She chuckled and sniffled into the phone. “Maybe.”

“Listen, I don’t know when I’ll call again, but give me a couple of days and I’ll get in touch, okay?” I said softly.

“Please take care of yourself Em. A girl can go psycho and massacre the whole male population and its hookers if she goes without her best friend for too long.”

I laughed.

“I will. Love you Harp!”

“Love you to.”

Hanging up the phone I set it in the center console and continued my trip east. I felt free; nothing to hold me back but myself. I let go of every bit of my hurt and pain with each mile that took me further from my home town. Cranking up my radio, I put my shades on and started my new life.

I stopped at two small, off the map motels on my way down to Florida. At each of them I couldn’t help but think of Harper’s face and how disgusted she would have been at the décor. But as I was exhausted and only cared about a place to lay my head, a five star hotel wasn’t a priority. I tried my hardest not to think about Finn and the fact that he probably wouldn’t approve of the places I chose either, but his reasons would be because they probably weren’t the safest. Each night though, I locked the doors and slide the safety chain in to place.

I hadn’t intended on going to Florida when I began my road trip. In fact I’d thought Georgia sounded nice. But I came to a fork where the highway split, one way taking me to the east and the other taking me to the south, and so went right and headed south. I drove all along the Florida panhandle waiting for a town that just ‘felt right’. When I drove in to a town called Seagrove Beach, I decided to stop—I mean who wouldn’t want to live in a place named Seagrove Beach? As I pulled into the little seaside town, I saw it had a handful of little tourist shops and not a single stop light. A cute café sat directly off the beach so I decided to pull in and get some lunch. I sat down at a table with an umbrella to shade me from the sun, and my waiter came and took my drink order. After ordering an iced tea with lemon, I sat back and looked out at the water. A girl could get lost out in those waves. Perfect! This place was going to be perfect.

“Ma’am, have you decided what you’d like to eat?” The cute, young waiter asked, setting down my tea.

“Can I ask you a question?”

He took up straight and grinned. He was cute, in a young school boy way. Tall, tanned skin, light hazel eyes, and short brown hair, but definitely still a kid.

“Ask away!” He said.

“Do you know where I could find a rental house around here?” I inquired.

“Actually, there’s a bulletin board inside that you can take a look at. The local people pin all of their ads on it. But if you are looking for something a little bit out from town, I know someone that just finished a remodel of a nice two bedroom right on the beach.”

This kid was going to be more help than I could have wished for.

“That sounds great! Do you have their contact number?”

He went back inside the café to put my order in, and came back out with a piece of paper with a number and the name Reece on it. The waiter flirted a bit longer, which I found flattering considering I was probably ten years older than he was, before I got up; leaving him a very large tip. Getting back in my car, I pulled out the paper with the number and hit send on my phone. It rang three times before I man answered. I don’t know why but I’d assumed the name Reece was a girl’s name, so I was a bit shocked to hear a deep voice on the other end.

“Oh, um yes, I’m calling because I was given your number. I’m looking for a place to rent and I was told you might have something on the beach?” This was a first for me. I’d never had to make any calls to find a place to live.

The voice cleared his throat, “Yes actually, I do. I have a little house that just became available. I’m asking a bit more for it because I just did a bunch of work. I would normally place it as a weekly vacation rental, but if you want it for longer than a few weeks, we could work out a price.”

When I’d started this trip, I made the decision to take advantage of my divorce money. Harper had been right. It wasn’t ‘blood money’, it was money that I deserved. Money that—no matter how I obtained it—was still mine. It wasn’t going to be doing me any favors sitting in a bank account accumulating interest, so I decided that I would use it to get my life back on track. West owed me that, since he took so much from me. I had enough to ensure that if I never wanted to work again, I wouldn’t have too.