Page 20 of Secret Southern Promises

Once I was inside, I sat behind the wheel and stared out at the quiet street in front of me. I hadn’t planned on running into Boone. I hadn’t planned onanythingthat had happened today. Seeing him again had stirred up emotions I thought I’d buried a long time ago, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with them.

I let out a long breath, finally allowing myself to process what had just happened.

Friends with Boone West.

What the hell had I gotten myself into?

Friends? Friends didn’t look at each other the way Boone had looked at me. And friends didn’t make your heart race the way mine had when I saw him sitting there looking at me.

A simple bagel was what I had wanted, and instead, I walked out knowing Boone still had the same phone number, and he wanted to be my friend.

Freaking wild.

Chapter Eleven

Boone

I stood in my kitchen and stared at the fried egg sandwich on the plate in front of me. It wasn’t much—just two eggs slapped between some toast—but it was about the only thing I could make that didn’t come out of a box or the freezer. I grabbed a beer from the fridge and leaned against the kitchen island, taking a swig. The cold liquid slid down my throat, but it didn’t do much to cool the mess of thoughts swirling in my head.

All of my new furniture had been delivered the past couple of weeks—couch, dining table, even the damn bed I’d been waiting on. I was officially moved in. The place still felt too new, like it wasn’t really mine yet, but I knew it would settle in time. The house had been empty when I bought it, just waiting for someone to turn it into a home. Now, it was supposed to be my home. That was a strange concept.

For fifteen years, I hadn’t had a place I could call my own. The road had been home. Rodeo circuits, hotels, couches in other riders’ houses—that was my life. I hadn’t needed much. During the off-season, I’d bounce around from one place to another, always moving, never staying in one spot for too long. I had friends from the rodeo, and we all had an unspoken understanding that if you needed a place to crash, there was always a couch somewhere. But now, standing here in this new kitchen, in a house that was mine, it hit me how different everything had become.

I set the beer down and stared at the sandwich, but I wasn’t hungry anymore. I wasn’t sure what I was. Maybe it was the quiet that was getting to me. No sounds of the road, no hustle of the circuit, just the steady tick of the clock on the wall. I pushed away from the island, grabbed the beer again, and wandered into the living room. The new couch looked too perfect, like a piecein a showroom that hadn’t seen any real life yet. I sat down on it, trying to get comfortable, but I still felt restless.

My thoughts drifted back to this morning, to Dolly and the way she had said “friends.” The word echoed in my head like it didn’t belong there. It wasn’t what I wanted—not by a long shot—but it was what she had offered, and right now, I’d take anything she gave me.

Friends.

It felt like a step backward after all these years. Back when we were teenagers, there hadn’t been any questions about what we were to each other. We’d been together, plain and simple. The kind of love that made sense as teenagers. But now, after everything, she was cautious. I couldn’t blame her for that. She had a life, a kid, and I was the one who’d left. I was the one who chased dreams that took me far from Magnolia Grove and from her.

I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes for a second. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until I saw her again. All those years on the road, I tried not to think about what I’d left behind, but now it was all rushing back. Being near Dolly, even just sitting across from her in that bagel shop, had stirred up everything I thought I’d buried.

But friends? That wasn’t enough. Not for me. Still, I couldn’t push her. I had no right to. I left her behind once, even though she had urged me to, and I couldn’t walk back into her life and expect things to be the same.

I took another swig of beer, letting the bitterness fill my mouth. If I was honest with myself, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Moving back here and buying this house, it all felt like a leap in the dark. After the accident, everything changed. I couldn’t ride anymore, at least not like I used to. And with no rodeo to fall back on, I didn’t have anything pulling me away from Magnolia Grove.

Hell, maybe I was hoping that coming back here would give me a chance to fix things—to fix us. But now, seeing her again, I realized just how much time had passed and how much we’d both changed.

I got up from the couch, walked to the window, and stared out at the quiet street. The sun was setting, casting a golden glow over the neighborhood. It was peaceful here, the kind of peace I wasn’t used to. But as nice as it was, something was missing. Dolly was missing. I drained the rest of my beer and sighed.

I thought about her standing behind the counter at Magnolia Mart, the way she had hesitated when I asked her to teach me how to cook. She was keeping her distance. I couldn’t blame her.

And now? Now, I wasn’t sure what the hell I had besides this house and a fridge full of food I didn’t know how to cook.

I grabbed my phone off the counter and scrolled through the contacts until I landed on Dolly’s name. I hadn’t deleted it after all of these years. From phone to phone, I had kept it. My thumb hovered over the screen for a second. I wanted to text her, to reach out, but I didn’t know what to say.

Friends.

I wasn’t going to push her, but damn it, I wanted more. I put the phone down, frustrated with myself. What was I expecting? That I could just come back into town, and everything would fall into place? That Dolly would be waiting for me, ready to pick up where we left off?

I cracked my neck and opened the fridge again, grabbing another beer. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe I just needed to give her some space. Let her decide what she wanted.

I took a long drink, the cold liquid doing nothing to settle the knot in my chest. As much as I tried to play it cool, I wasn’t. I wanted her back. I wanted us back, but that wasn’t something I could just snap my fingers and make happen.

I walked over to the sliding door that led out to the small backyard. It wasn’t much, but it was mine. I stepped outside, and the evening air felt cool on my skin. I leaned against the railing and stared out at the quiet.

A part of me wondered what Dolly was doing right now. Was she thinking about me, too? Or had I become just another chapter in her past, something she’d moved on from?

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