Page 50 of Harvest Moon

There, upwind from me, Alexis Mena stood outside the diner, chewing his lip, his arms crossed. He looked uncomfortable, maybe upset about something, and for a second, I worried it was me that’d upset him, but he wasn’t looking my way. I didn’t think he’d seen me at all, or if he had, he was determined to pretend he hadn’t.

I hung back, unsure if I wanted to rush up and catch his eye just to get a better look at him or turn the other way before I got pulled into a conversation I wasn’t ready to have. I’d called him, and he hadn’t called me back. What more did he need to say?

Right then, he even pulled a phone out of his pocket and scrolled the screen. That settled it—he didn’t want to talk to me.

All thoughts of a sandwich slipped my mind, and I swung my leg to turn the other way when I heard someone call a name. Not my name.

“Alexis!”

I looked over my shoulder, sinking into the shadows under the awning of an old barber shop, only to see a big, tall, broad guy come up the sidewalk toward Alexis, smiling.

From where I stood, I couldn’t hear what they were saying once he came close, but Alexis smiled up at the guy. He was clearly an alpha—big muscles, had that energy, quick to touch.

Way too quick to touch.

His hand settled on Alexis’s back, and my heart gave a jolt in my chest.

No wonder Alexis wasn’t getting back to me. He’d met somebody else.

Of course he had. He was beautiful, smart, kind, and had the warmest, sweetest smile of anybody I knew. He was the complete package, and I’d missed out.

There... there wasn’t anybody to blame for all this but my own lousy self. I watched the two of them disappear into Chadwick’s, and I tucked tail. No way I could come by their table, say a polite hello, and act like everything was normal.

I’d work on it—come to terms with the fact that Alexis wasn’t mine and wasn’t ever going to be. I’d finally told him the truth, and he didn’t even want to call me back.

So maybe all these years, I’d been holding onto the idea of a thing that wasn’t there anymore. And that was fine. As long as Alexis was happy, that was what I cared about.

Not farmhouses and weekend hikes, not taking him around in the dirt, showing him the things I found. They were all garbage anyway, trinkets I could give him because I couldn’t afford what he deserved.

And that alpha he’d gone into Chadwick’s with, he looked older. He wasn’t exactly a fancy man, but he could provide.

Shit, I felt like a kicked dog as I stuffed my hands in my pockets and went back to my truck, head low.

The drive home was full of the sense I’d be sick any minute. My stomach was rolling, and I didn’t think it was hunger. I got home and when I’d started unloading the back, Barbara came out on the porch.

“You still hungry, hon?” she asked from up there, her hands on her hips, bean strings on her apron.

The tools and supplies from the hardware store could wait, but I hefted the flats of jars up in my arms, the bags of groceries hanging from my elbow.

“Ford could come help with all that,” she offered, scowling.

“I got everything, Mrs. Hill.” I forced a little smile. My heart hurt something fierce, but there was nothing for it but to get on with things. “I actually didn’t have a chance to grab lunch, ma’am, so if you’ve got any leftovers around.”

When I came up onto the porch, she reached up and patted my cheek. “Saved you a plate, just in case.”

And that was so darn nice that I realized even without Alexis, I could have a place to belong in Grovetown. So he could have his big, strong, best-ever alpha mate, and I’d—I could figure out how to get by.

I could.

Just wasn’t looking forward to it.

29

Alexis

Claudia’s phone was too damn big.

Yes, I know, she needed all those cool smartphone features and used it constantly, but the damn thing was almost the size of a computer. A “plus,” she called it. Plus extra weight in my pocket, I guess.

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