Six Years by Stephanie Witter
Brooklyn and Nolan are best friends and despite the six years that separate them in age, they are as thick as thieves.
Childhood neighbours, they both had their issues growing up. Brooklyn (Little B) was the invisible child her parents never really paid any attention to, especially after they all lost her sister Kelly and I say that because her parents forgot that she too had suffered a loss, they wallowed in their misery and almost made Brooklyn regret being the one left behind.
Nolan (Big No) didn’t have things any better, lives alone with his mother who is little able to care for him, since she is unable to look after herself, she is a drug addict and the parent/child relationship has turned on its head as she is reliant on him rather than her being there to support her son.
The bond between the two of them lasts right up until Nolan leaves home the minute he is 18years old. Brooklyn is left bereft by the fact that the one person she has left that she loves, just like her sister he is now gone.
Nolan has to leave, there is nothing but heartache left for him at home, the situation with his mother is beyond his control and he has the chance to forge a career in New York. I was so sorry for them both at this point – Brooklyn was only 12 but I could feel her heart breaking and Nolan really was between a rock and a hard place when he reached his decision but as hard as it was I think he did the right thing but only time would tell.
The inevitable six years later, Nolan is back in town to take care of his mother who although she is now sober is dying. His parental responsibilities for her are finally coming to an end, but there are more feelings surfacing now he is back than he had every considered and so much more than he understands.
Brooklyn is eighteen now and working in the local diner. She is a shell, he took her hopes and dreams with him when he left her all those years ago and since then despite the fact that she has now grown into a beautiful young woman, she refuses to dream big, in fact she just down right refuses to dream at all. She isn’t living, it is a sorry existence where she allows herself no semblance of feeling or love, she has lived for six years completely heart broken.
Neither of them were prepared for the feelings that would resurface when they saw each other again, Nolan had never forgotten his best friend, the little girl he left behind but that doesn’t compute to the gorgeous woman that he is faced with now, she on the other hand faces her own fight to accept that he is back in town and how that makes her feel.
There is jealousy and emotion that is both foreign to them both but all too familiar in the same respect. They have to work through the pain and hurt that threatens to consume them and to destroy what they had and what they could possible have if they give it a chance.
Could there be more on the cards for the two of them, well I believe there always was, it was just a matter of timing. Their souls had belonged to each other since they were children, no amount of separation would ever deny that.
Had Nolan stayed there is every chance he may have not have been around to be there for her now, he wouldn’t have been able to give her a future, a future that not just she but they deserved. His leaving was the key to their escape, the key to their future together but they have a whole heap of angst to get through before they can see the wood for the trees.
This was a good, easy read that I finished with a sigh and a smile