Page 67 of A Package Deal

My boots clomped across the porch as I fled the conversation. I made a beeline for the guest room and started gathering pajamas and a change of clothes for me and Georgia. Warrick was nowhere to be found when I went back out on the porch with an overnight bag to wait for Gigi to return with my daughter.

Thirty minutes later, they returned, Gigi’s smile instantly falling when she saw the bag at my feet. She helped get Georgia out of the car seat in the back of her car and lowered her voice.

“You okay, honey?”

I shook my head, but steeled my spine. I couldn’t get into it with Warrick’s mom, not when I was so confused. “Yeah, all good. Thanks for taking her today.”

I turned to Georgia, heart aching seeing the happiness that followed her like a shadow. Knowing that my actions could be the reason she lost that smile. “We’re going to a fancy hotel tonight! Isn’t that exciting? Pizza first and then ice cream!”

Georgia latched on to my excitement and ran for my truck. “Wa-wy coming too?”

I almost couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat. “Not tonight, baby. He’s working.”

I helped Georgia climb into my car seat and then shut the door. Gigi stood on the porch, watching us go, a concerned look on her face. She waved and plastered on a fake smile for Georgia.

As we drove down the driveway, I forced myself not to look in the rearview mirror. This was a good thing. I needed space to think over everything that had happened since I moved to Blueball. Everything had happened so fast and taking time to think it all through was simply prudent.

This was a good thing.

This was a good thing.

Not even the constant repetition helped me actually believe that thought.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Warrick

The childhood scent of hay and dirt filled my head, but did nothing to heal my aching heart. I huffed out a breath and let my head drop with a clunk to the wall of the barn. Thistle, who had plopped right down in my lap the second I sat down in the barn, reared her head and swiped her rough tongue across my cheek.

I petted her back, but tried to stay out of tongue range. There was only so much comfort I would accept from a damn goat. I’d been out here for over an hour now, letting my wounds fester as I thought about every interaction with Em and Georgia. Every conversation that had gone wrong. Every argument that had Em tightening the wall around her heart. What I could have done to make things better instead of worse.

I’d never been in love before and these feelings were confusing as hell.

“Bessie Baby’s gonna be jealous.” Mom’s voice floated over from the doorway.

I rolled my head in that direction and saw her picking her way across the barn, wrapped in a robe I’d gotten her a few years ago for Mother’s Day. She had two pairs of readers jammed onto the top of her head. Cleveland ran over to her and gazed up at her longingly, acting like he hadn’t left several bruises on my backside while Mom had been on her cruise. If the devil took animal form, he’d look a hell of a lot like Cleveland.

“I think Bitchy Bessie will be just fine without me.”

Mom acted shocked at the nickname, though we both knew that cow hated me and the feeling was mutual. “Well, she hated your father too.”

“Really?” That was news to me.

Mom scratched Cleveland’s head and had a seat on an overturned bucket. “Oh sure. Wouldn’t let him near her. I think she just has an issue with men in general. Don’t take it personal.”

I snorted. Thistle nestled further into my chest. “Wouldn’t be the first female to feel that way.”

Mom hummed acknowledgment but didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Bessie shuffled over to the pen we were in, popping her head over the fence and eyeing Cleveland like she just might stomp on his head for stealing Mom’s attention.

“You want to tell me what had Em and Georgia leaving with a packed bag?”

I looked over at Mom and she lifted an eyebrow. Considering I’d moved two strangers into her house and she didn’t blink an eye, she deserved an explanation. Keeping a steady stroke down Thistle’s back, I laid it all out there, best I could. I didn’t know everything about Em’s situation with Cayden, but enough to do the story justice, I hoped. I ended with our current spat, her accusation that I was controlling and my defense that she just refused to accept help from someone who loved her because of her prior wounds.

Mom winced as I finally wound down. “That’s some heavy stuff, son.”

“Guess that’s what happens when you’re dating at my age. Everybody comes with extensive baggage.” I shifted, my butt sore from sitting in the dirt for so long. Thistle bleated, then snuggled up tight again as I got situated. “You know, I used to hate that women would use me for what I could buy them. They’d throw my feelings for them in my face, only there for the payout, you know? And Em has done something similar. She’s thrown my feelings and my gifts in my face. She just won’t accept them, and quite frankly, I don’t know how much longer I want to keep putting my heart out there just for her to stomp on it and retreat.”

“Her distrust runs deep,” Mom said, nodding.

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