The Scar

Chapter thirty-two of the Starting After Zero Series

May 28, 2026

Reality is suspended when you finally encounter an individual who has shunned you for months due to the presence of a seemingly insurmountable divide.

This feeling washed through Nadine Nadeau’s mind as she looked into the eyes of Will Northcutt, who loomed over her holding a ladder to his side.

“Can you spare a minute?” she asked, displaying her most winsome smile.

She heard the door slam shut behind her father as he’d retreated inside his office at the Grizzly Mountain Insurance Company. Now only Will, her and the ladder stood together in the silence of the parking lot.

“I suppose,” said Will.

“I’ll make you some hot chocolate,” said Nadine, “if you wanna come up to my apartment.”

Will shifted, looking down at his feet. His hands were cold from patching the roof in this unrelenting drizzle, and a hot drink sounded good. “Lemme put this ladder away, and I’ll be up.”

When he climbed up the metallic stairs to her apartment, he heard her pushing the buttons on her microwave.

She turned around. “It was really nice of you to help my father out with his leak right away, given that you know he doesn’t like you. I’m so glad you found and fixed it so fast.”

Will stood in the middle of her living room. “Wasn’t a leak,” he said quietly, looking her in the eyes.

“Whatcha mean?” Nadine stammered.

“The hole was made by a human,” Will said, pointing a finger at Nadine’s boot. The black smudge of roofing tar implicated her.

Nadine turned beet-red. Her face betrayed her anguish and her voice trembled. “Well whatya expect? I blew it with you. I didn’t trust you because I was jealous of Dane. And I shut you out. And then eventually you shut me out. As you had every right to do!”

She didn’t want to be one of those women who cried her way out of a predicament but her lips were trembling and she was fighting off tears. And Will wasn’t helping by standing there, just looking at her with a stoic expression on his face. What the hell was he thinking?

She put her hands on her hips like a gunslinger and continued. “I didn’t know what the hell to do. I was desperate. I am desperate! I lo…”

She never got the full word out of her mouth because before she could fully form it, Will took a rapid step toward her and kissed her on the lips, bending her head gently backward as he took her in his arms and pushed her toward the couch.

The two passionately made out for several minutes before coming up for air.

“What brought that on?” Nadine grinned, breathing heavily.

“It’s very hot that you feel so strongly about me that you’d commit a felony against your father in a desperate attempt to get me back,” Will smiled down at her.

“Oh, in that case, maybe I’ll plow my RAV4 into his waiting room,” Nadine laughed. “Or turn his roof into swiss cheese.”

“Being without you these past few months made me realize what I was missing,” Will said as he kissed her and started to remove her turtleneck, by beginning to tug at the bottom where it touched her waist.

“Umm, I’m not sure I’m ready for that,” Nadine’s grin turned into a frown, as she backed away.

“Nadine, if we’re gonna have a chance, we need to lower our drawbridges,” he said as he paused, respecting the barrier she’d erected with her statement.

This was one of those decision points where life could go either way. Nadine had feared this moment from the very first date with Will. Humans that develop serious relationships invariably wind up in a situation where they become unclothed. With some, it is within hours of meeting. In Will and Nadine’s situation, they’d started dating nearly a year ago, though they’d not seen each other for several months since the Dane Eastergaard incident. And the farthest they’d ever gone was kissing.

Everyone has secrets but Nadine’s was particularly painful. It had first reared its ugly head in the girls’ locker room during gym class. Young girls are as vicious as they come. Later, when she’d started dating in high school, it happened with the boys. After she became aware of the derogatory name, “Sassplotch,” that they’d assigned to her after she’d reached second base with several of them, she’d eventually stopped dating.

“You may proceed with lifting my drawbridge,” Nadine said softly, trembling.

Will’s hands reached for her turtleneck and slowly peeled it upwards till it was over her head, and he kissed her again as her wavy auburn hair fell back down around her face.

The raised white and reddish tendrils of the massive scar, like the arms of an octopus, started just at the right side of her neck, just above her clavicle. It emerged from where her black brassiere covered her breast and cut an irregular bullseye on her abdomen as it arced northward toward her armpit. Several rays of scar tissue, shaped like lightning bolts, also spread across her upper arm.

Her face flushed with embarrassment as she felt Will’s eyes examine her.

“I was only four and was standing by the grill during a barbecue…”

“Shhhh,” Will raised his right index finger to his lips to quiet her, while his left fingers found the edge of the scar on her clavicle.

He slowly ran his fingers along the undulating edge of her scar tissue, as if he was an explorer tracing his planned route on a map in the captain’s room in a clipper ship.

“The Fourth of July of all days and this neighbor squirted lighter fluid when he was too close to me and…”

“It’s O.K., Nadine. You’re beautiful as you are,” Will said as he reached around to unhook the clasp on her back.

There is no relief quite like being accepted for who you are after others have assaulted you with their unkind comments. When you expose your ugliest secret, and a family member or romantic partner accepts and loves you anyway, it doesn’t get any better than that.

So when Will Northcutt’s attraction to her was unabated by her disfigurement, Nadine felt incredible relief—and passion. And she vowed that if she ever questioned his fidelity again, no matter what Dane Eastergaard or any other woman did or alleged or what the damn context was, she’d drive to the Watson Settlement Bridge, climb up to the middle of its charred skeleton, and throw herself into the gorge below. Because he deserved her unmitigated trust.

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