Page 166 of Come Back to Me

As I turn off the road and toward the three McAllister lakes that I took her to that first night, I mutter, “We fell out because of a girl.”

She tenses. “What happened?”

“His ex preferred my bank account to his and she tried to imply...”

“That you wanted her?! Wait, is this that skank, Samantha?! I heard all about her from Nonna. She flounced around town like she owned the damn place.” A shocked gasp escapes her. “You’rewhy!”

“No, I’m not. I only met her a handful of times when I was in Saskatoon and I hung out with Bast. She was there as his girlfriend. Next thing I damn well know, she’s claiming we’re having an affair!”

Her eyes widen. “No way.”

“Don’t salivate. It’s rude.”

“Honestly, you Korhonens have the best stories.” Unsurprisingly, she’s chewing on one of the sandwiches. “Go on.”

“Nothing. I told him that I had about as much interest in fucking her as a rattlesnake and that she was the deluded one. He dumped her but thought I encouraged her.”

“That’s so unfair!”

“Yeah. It was. Ricky’d died?—”

“You didn’t mention him that much.”

“Couldn’t talk about him,” I rasp. “He was the first of my graduating class to…” Her hand flitters over my knee when I struggle to get the words out. That alone is a comfort. “Then, Paulie, you remember him from our letters?”

“‘Course I do. You watched him...”

Burn alive.

I manage to bite out, “Paulie and Ricky were an item so things were rough.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Paulie was messed up at the end. After we lost Ricky, morale was so bad. I came home for a visit, and everything fell apart with Bast. It was a real clusterfuck. It should be better today with Bast, though. We’ve texted a couple times. Broken the ice some more.”

Not as much as I’d have liked, but I get it. He’s running himself ragged on the ranch.

“I-I wish you’d told me about your injuries,” she mutters, plucking out some more ham for Brogan. “I’d have come to you in the hospital.”

“I couldn’t have stood that. I learned something about myself as I had to go through that long, intense healing process, Tee. I’m a proud man.”

“You’re an idiot, is what you are.”

“That too. There was... I didn’t know if... The second I sent the letter, I regretted it.”

“As you should have.”

“I had to send?—”

“Why?!” she growls.

I hesitate over my answer. “I saw you when you came to the BBQ. You were fucking furious at me. And hurt. So hurt. I had no way of knowing I’d see the fallout from the letter with my own eyes. Not when I’d sent the damn thing months earlier. I was left missing you and wishing I’d never sent it, all without realizing you didn’t know I’d cut ties.

“I was so fucking happy to see you. You’ve no idea. But I couldn’t… If you’d known I was Butch, you’d have tossed me in the BBQ?—”

“You were scared I’d hurt you?!”

“No! Hell, I can duck. Even with a fucked-up leg and a crutch. What I’m saying,badly, is that I didn’t want you to deal with the fallout of my own insecuritiesormy stupidity, so I determined to let you go for your own sake.

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