Page 39 of Peaches

I make sure to stay only a couple rungs below her so that if shedoessomehow manage to fucking fall and the cage around us doesn’t break it, I will. She must realize how safe she is because she climbs with confidence, even as the ground beneath us gets smaller and smaller.

The caged chute opens through the floor of the five-foot balcony that wraps around the whole water tank, and Olivia clears through it with ease. “You know we’re trespassing, right?” she asks, pointing to a sign bolted to the railing as I climb onto the balcony behind her.

I give her my best smirk. “Highly doubt Sheriff Joe is pulling any kind of surveillance on this thing. I’ve been up here probably a hundred times and never run into anyone.”

She eyes the bag still clutched in my hand. “What did you bring?”

“Hungry?”

She nods. “Starving.”

“Ranch work will do that to you.”

“I mean, if you call hanging out with your cute nephew and petting a few horses ‘ranch work,’ then, yeah, I get why it’s so hard.”

I laugh. “We like to pretend it kicks our ass, but really it’s just cuddles and kids.”

“And here I thought it’s where all that muscle was built.”

I cock my head. “You like my muscles, peaches?”

She rolls her eyes as she sits on the floor of the balcony and dangles her legs over the edge. “I think we’ve established that I do.”

I sit next to her, tryhardto pretend like that doesn’t light up every nerve ending inside of my body. “Here,” I say, handing her a burger.

“Where did you get these? The only burgers we have in town are from my mom’s café.”

“There’s a greasy hole-in-the-wall in Foxborough I like.”

She eyes me. “You went to another county to getburgers?” I nod. “Why didn’t you just get them from June’s?”

“I would bet at least ninety percent of your meals are from that café. And when I take you on dates, I want to make sure you actually enjoy the food. Plus, as a general rule, I try to find what I like in places thatdon’texist in Saddlebrook Falls.”

I watch her take a bite, see the pleasure of it splash across her face. “Oh my god, this is so good.” She takes another bite, this time bigger, and it leaves a smear of mustard on the corner of her mouth.

I swipe it away with my thumb.

Put it in my mouth.

Her eyes track the movement, but she shakes her head as if to clear it. “You really hate Saddlebrook Falls, don’t you?”

I shrug, turning my attention to my own burger, unwrapping the paper around it. “The history between my family and this town is long as hell and pretty fucking messy. But yeah, I guess you could say that I hate it. Or at least what the people in it have done to us.”

“What have they done?” she asks, genuinely curious.

I can’t help the anger that flares. It’s alwaysrightthere, just waiting for the tiniest reason to ignite. “Those sons of bitches have been trying to dig my father’s grave foryears, Olivia. People have wanted to see him—us—fail, for as long as I can remember.” My thoughts trail to the lawyer this morning, the unease on Kasey’s face. I have half a mind to think it might be something Mayor Moore is up to—he’s been trying to chase us out of town since he was elected, even when his son was Wells’s best friend. “Look. Bringing me into your life in any public way is something you won’t be able to take back when shit hits the fan. And trust me, itwillhit the fan. People around here hate me too. It’s bad blood that runs both ways, and I don’t want to see you get caught up in shit that has nothing to do with you.”

“I don’t care what people think, Rhett. I only care about the truth.”

“What truth is it that you’re looking for?” It comes out harsher than I mean it.

She shrugs. “You haven’t exactly been a real likeable guy.”

I scoff. “Understatement of the century.”

“Well, then you can’t be mad that people have opinions.”

My gaze snaps to her. A light breeze dances through her hair, her face glowing in the sunlight that remains. She’s a force of nature. So brutally honest in the way she effortlessly calls me out.

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