Page 109 of Beat of Love
“And they asked you again to join them?”
He nodded. “But … I can’t. I just can’t. The idea …” He shuddered, memories pressing in, cold and alive under his skin.
“Then don’t.”
“Does it make me a coward? Not wanting to go back into that hellhole and finish this?”
Another long look passed between them.
“No. It tells me you’ve changed.” She placed a hand over his heart, her palm warm through the fabric of his Henley. “Right here … there’s no room for the darkness you think still lives in you. Because you’ve felt the light. And now you have something better to live for than revenge.”
Her touch was brief, but it left a searing trail. His chest rose on a slow, shaky breath, like his lungs were trying to catch up with what her words had just done to him. A knot in his throat threatened to choke him, not from pain — but from how much he wanted to believe her. “You’ve got a lot of faith in me.”
“I see you.”
This time, those three words sank even deeper, hitting harder. He had to look away, jaw tightening as he tried to steady the sudden rush of emotion.
He wasn’t ready.
Not yet.
He sighed, gaze dropping for a moment before he met her eyes once more, unable to stay away from their quiet pull.
“Red.” He said her name with a mix of exasperation and quiet desperation, her name catching in his throat.
“I know.” Her voice was soft, understanding. She stepped back, giving him space he hadn’t asked for but needed all the same. “You know where I live.”
He didn’t say anything. Just watched her walk away, through the gate, and across the grass toward the stable yard. Her shoulders were steady, her pace calm, but something about the way she left made his chest ache.
How many more times could he send her away before she never returned?
*
The call came in just as Brandy-Lyn was setting the coffee to brew, that brief lull between getting up and waking the kids for school. Richard’s name lit up her phone screen. Staring at it for a moment, thumb hovering over the decline button, curiosity — or maybe habit — won out.
She answered with a neutral, “Hello?”
“Hey.” His voice sounded different. Tired. Not beaten down, exactly — but dulled around the edges. “I, uh … bought a vet clinic in Lubbock.”
Her brows lifted. “Another one?”
“Adding it to the chain. But I’m moving there. Next week.”
“You’re moving toLubbock?”
“Yes.”
She leaned against the counter. “Guess you’ll be closer to the kids.”
“That’s the idea,” he said.
She didn’t say anything for a beat, but then curiosity won out. “How does your girlfriend feel about that?”
A pause. “She’s not coming with.”
Brandy stared at the steam curling up from the coffee pot.
She didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to be pulled into his mess. But they shared kids, and the fallout of his actions inevitably affected her. “Why?”
