Page 60 of Peaches

I laugh. “It’ll be our little secret,” I promise. And I mean it. But a sudden want formoretears through me so violently, I feel it sting like kerosene in the corners of my eyes.

“A secret between friends,” he murmurs.

When we hang up, I stare at my phone with a pulsing ache in my chest, guilty that I ever second-guessed him or his intentions with me. Hedoesneed a friend, and despite what he believes about himself, this soft and vulnerable side of him matters. More people should know about it, should care about him. I want him to know he doesn’t need to hide behind a mask, that his deeper layers deserve to be seen.

Tomorrow, I think. When he comes to see me at the café. I’ll make sure everyone in that building knows how happy I am to see him.

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

RHETT

The day starts as normal as any other: a late-winter sunrise that bleeds oranges and pinks across the horizon, the whinnies and chuffs of horses in the barn as we move in to clean their stalls, the firm grip of the saddle between my thighs while a young stallion lets out his restless temper. We don’t have any new horses scheduled to come for a few weeks, and it’s a break we all need. Kasey takes the morning to catch up on admin work in the makeshift office while Wells and Layla take turns brushing and tacking the horses before letting them loose in the corrals.

Melody’s even having a good day—one of the best in weeks. Other than our meeting with Dad, I’ve mostly stayed away from the main house to give Brooks and his family the space they need to feel and process what the doctor had said on his last visit, but I almost wonder if he’d been wrong as I watch Brooks help her out to a rocking chair on the front porch where she can enjoy some fresh air. She’s pale and skinny and she looks tired as hell, but she’s smiling, and it breathes hope into me.

Especially as I catch the way Brooks beams at her.

Liam and Noah are at school, but James doesn’t start till September, so Mom brings him to the long driveway to help him practice riding his bike. It gives Melody a chance to see him sun-kissed and happy, and there’s so much pride and love in her face as she watches him fight his fear of falling. By all accounts, it’s a damn good day—the kind where peace swells and a steady calm takes hold, giving nothing to indicate the way it’ll end.

I suppose it’s no surprise when my thoughts turn to Olivia. Sometime around early afternoon, I catch Wells draw in close to Layla, sharing something that’s just for her. She tips her head back and laughs, open and carefree, and my chest tightens. I imagine an alternate reality where I take Wells’s place and Olivia takes Layla’s. Imagine the light of the sun on her face during golden hour, when the sky explodes into a roaring fire. I picture her hazel eyes watching me with tenderness and trust, and it lights me up.

I’d be so careful with her, so opposite of everything I’ve ever been.

I’d do anything to show her how much she’s beginning to mean to me.

Christ. I dig into my eyes with both thumbs until the pressure becomes painful. A few nights and a damn phone conversation with this girl and I’m already planning an entire fucking future, one that plants her smack dab in the middle of it.

“You good?” I hear Kasey call over the distance, and I look to find him in the open doorway of the tack shed, eyeing me with concern.

“Yeah,” I holler back. And then I tilt my head toward the house where Brooks and Melody sit, and watch Kasey do the same. When he looks back at me, he’s grinning. “It’s been a good day,” I add, just loud enough for him to hear.

He nods. “I see that.” He gives the porch another quick look before his grin grows, then he shakes his head and disappears back inside.

I wonder if he’s thinking the same as me—that maybe we can still be okay.

The kernel of hope inside my chest only grows as I finally head to my cabin to wash off the sweat and grime from the day. I have a lady to see, a smile to earn, and it might be my guilt over leaving her the other night while she slept or just the progression of my own tumble into the unknown, but I’ve never been more excited to get out the door and see someone in my life.

It’s when I finally jump on the bike and make it out of our driveway that I notice the dark clouds in the distance. There’s no mistaking the storm they’re going to bring, and it’s the first hint of the changing tides. I almost wonder if I should turn around to park the bike in the shed and borrow Mom’s Suburban, but I don’t have it in me to wait any longer.

I make it to June’s in less than ten minutes, instantly noticing another problem: the sheriff’s car is parked in the front row of the café. For a few long minutes, I sit on my rumbling bike and stare at it, trying to figure out what the fuck I should do. Seeing Sheriff Joe is the last thing I need. I don’t want to give him any damn reason to heckle me the way he loves to do. But I want to see Oliviamorethan I want to avoid him, so with a harsh exhale to blow the frustration from my lungs, I back my bike into an open spot and turn off the ignition.

The café is a warm relief from the dropping temperatures outside. I scan the dining room, the anxiety I always feel in town spiking harder than usual, and I deflate a little when I don’t spot Olivia. I do, however, lock eyes with our town’s finest, still dressed in his dark uniform after a day spent protecting Saddlebrook Falls from our overzealous senior community and maybe a stray cat or two. I watch him rise from his chair, an instinctual alarm clearly tripped from my mere presence. He angles himself toward me, mouth tipping up with a spiteful grin as he takes the first step away from his table where he’s eating dinner alone.

But then Olivia bursts through the swinging door from the kitchen and I forget about everything around me except for her golden hair and the freckles that splash her cheeks and the way her mouth breaks out into a surprised, uneven smile that shakes my whole world. I’m paralyzed by the force of the way she moves, my boots rooted to the ground in front of the café’s door, unable to do anything but watch her close the distance between us. This sweet girl, who makes mefeelandwantandhope, moves toward me with determined, confident steps, and I brace myself for her.

“Rhett,” she says through a crooked smile. It’s one I haven’t seen before, and my pulse leaps.

“Peaches,” I breathe, heart pounding like the fucking sucker I am.

“You look . . . good,” she says, pink tinging her pretty cheeks as she takes in the pearl-snap button-down I usually save for rodeos.

My mouth pulls wide. And I want to tell her she’s the best looking thing in this whole damn town, but movement over her shoulder distracts me, and I look up to find the sheriff frowning.

“Bennett,” he says coolly. “What a pleasure.”

It’s all it takes to shut me down as I frown right back at him. “Can’t say it’s ever a pleasure to see you.” I throw him a cold smile. “There a reason you’re competing with the staff to welcome me in for dinner?”

I notice Olivia’s expression change in my periphery, but my gaze is locked with Sheriff Joe’s, and I refuse to be the one who breaks. “I don’t know. Is there a good reason for you to be here?”

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