Page 40 of Broken-Hearted

He nods, surprising me when he drops the issue just like that. He said he’d overstepped last night and didn’t intend to do it again. It looks like he meant what he said.

“About anything interesting?”

“Mostly the views. It’s beautiful here.”

“It is,” he agrees with a smile. “Nothing feels as good as coming home.”

I know.

“And I was thinking about something else.”

“Yeah?”

I study him. “Regan warned me about you.”

“She did, did she?” A hint of a smile pulls on the corners of his lips.

I recall my conversation with Regan when she told me who would be coming to Dawley to take me to Hardin. “She said you were the joker. I was curious.”

“About?”

I turn in my seat to fully face him. “No one is ever just the joker. What else is there to Nathan Blackshaw?”

"There’s nothing more than what you see.”

I don’t believe that.

I must miss seeing the town of Hardin itself. That or we don’t pass by it, because after driving up-hill for several minutes, Nathan slows and swings off the main road and down a well-trodden path between trees just wide enough for a car to go down it.

He pulls to a stop outside a pretty white farmhouse.

It’s mid-afternoon, and after hours on the road, my ass fell asleep a while ago. I forget all that as I study the Blackshaw home, and how cozy it looks from a distance.

Lights are on in the house. The hum of conversation, laughter, and the sound of a baby crying drift from its partially open windows.

Nathan cuts the engine, but neither of us moves to get out.

“But?” I prompt.

He unbuckles his seatbelt. “But what?”

“It felt like there was a but.”

“No buts,” he assures me.

I wait for him to crack a joke about my butt, given not that long ago he was calling me peach. It doesn’t come.

A brief pang of something hits me in my gut. Disappointment? Confusion? Guilt that I’m the one responsible for hurting Nathan Blackshaw by making him feel unwanted? I’m not sure what this feeling is.

The front door swings open and a woman yells, “Nate! What are you doing sitting out there?”

Nathan’s smile is faint. “That’s Hallee. How about I introduce you to everyone?”

“Sure,” I say, when I’m not really interested in getting out of the car at all. Nathan says there isn’t much more to him than being a joker, but I know that isn’t true. It can’t be.

Meeting everyone all at once would be a hell of a lot more overwhelming if they weren’t all smiling, clearly pleased to see me.

A model-handsome man with shoulder-length blond hair lifts his right hand. “Keys!”

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