Page 223 of Beautiful Collide

“You can’t be serious. You want me to eat raw sugar?”

“Yeah, what of it?” he says, holding a sugar cube out to me. “You know you want to.”

I hesitate, narrowing my eyes at him.

He’s a pain. He’s fully aware I won’t back down when he words it like that. I pluck it from his hand, the tips of my fingers brushing his.

It’s a small thing, that touch, but it lingers more than it should.

I place the cube on my tongue, my brows furrowing as it dissolves. It’s sweet.

Very sweet, but it makes me feel giddy.Must be having a sugar high.

“See?” Hudson says, his grin widening. “Not so bad.”

“Not bad,” I admit.

We fall into a comfortable silence, sharing the slices of apple.

I glance at Hudson out of the corner of my eye. The sunlight catches on his face. He’s beautiful.

Something about him makes me ache in a way I don’t want to name.

How does he do it?

How does he do this to me?

For a second, my heart races, but then I take a breath.

It’s funny. I would never expect Hudson to be so comfortable here. I wonder if he misses Redville. Or is this enough?

“You ever get tired of this?” I ask suddenly, the words spilling out before I can stop them.

Hudson blinks, turning to look at me. “Of what?”

“This.” I gesture broadly at the barn. “The quiet, the farm . . . everything.”

“Never,” he says without a second’s hesitation, leaning back on his hands. “It’s home.”

The word hits me hard, and it’s difficult to keep steady.Home. The word feels foreign. I drop my gaze to my hands, the weight of the word pressing into me.

I’ve never had that.Not really.Home isn’t a place for me. It’s just . . . somewhere I end up. That’s not true. I have Dane.

Had.

He now has Josie.

Must be nice.

Where does that leave me?

But for a second, I allow myself to believe—just a little—that maybe I could have this.

Hours later,Mason jars still in hand, Hudson shows me the rest of the property. Eventually, we stop to sit down and drink our lemonade.

“Pretty great, right?” he says, tilting his chin toward the horizon. The sun is currently a beautiful shade of pink as it dips low into the sky.

I smile faintly and let my eyes follow his. The fields stretch endlessly. It’s green as far as the eye can see.

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