Once inside Kelly’s, they headed for the back of the store, passing people in the aisles who were picking canned goods off the shelves. As one of them turned to see them, John grabbed a bag of ice out of the freezer case. For a moment he was shell-shocked. Vanessa Hall. Holy s**t! He hadn’t seen her since the night before she’d left for college. They’d been inseparable the last two years of high school; he practically lived at her house. Her father joked he should’ve been able to claim John as a dependent on his taxes.
But as inseparable as they’d been, their aspirations went in separate directions. Vanessa had her sights set on medical school, wanted to be a surgeon like her father and so she had left him. With her gone, he saw nothing left for him in Oak Creek. Angry and hurt, he struck
