Page 49 of Home Sweet Home

“Is that why you took the steroids?”

When West sighed, Evie knew she’d hit the mark.

“It was a mistake,” West said. “The stupidest thing I’d ever done. I know you think I was talking out of my ass when I said the same thing to the reporter from theTimes, but I meant every word. I was taking a long time to heal, longer than the doc had said I might. Rich suggested the steroids might hurry things along.”

Fury tore through Evie, and she decided the next time she saw Rich, she would shove a pie into his stupid face.

West must have seen her expression, because he added, “He suggested it, but I’m a grown man, Peach. I make my own decisions. And I decided to do it. My only defense is that the few months before that had been hard. I was in bed for weeks, all cooped up, when I’m used to being outside all day, moving my body. There was a lot of time for thinking. Too much. And even though I tried to keep myself busy, I kept hearing my dad’s voice in my head. For hours, every day. Telling me I was worthless for anything else.”

She tried to imagine Rex Hawthorne in the way West was describing him, but it was almost impossible. Whenever she’d seen him, he was always smiling, his eyes twinkling, and quick with a wink. She couldn’t find the right words to describe the dismay she felt at anyone making West, the nicest person she’d maybe ever known, feel so small. And she felt a burst of guilt for how she’d treated him when he first showed up in Creek Water. He’d been hurting, and she’d only made it harder on him. “I’m so sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry.” West jostled his arm against hers. “Trust me, you made it a lot more bearable, even if you didn’t know.”

“I did?” Evie found the courage to meet his gaze, and he was looking at her with such warmth, it was a miracle she didn’t melt into a puddle and sink into the lawn, which she realized she still needed to ask Josh to mow.

“You never expected me to be anything other than myself,” West said. “We never talked about baseball.”

“I can hardly take credit for that,” Evie said. “It was out of pure ignorance. I knew literally nothing about baseball.”

“I more meant I think I could have been a rodeo clown, and you would have looked at me like the sun shined out of my ass. It made me think maybe, just maybe, he was wrong.”

The wind picked up, rustling leaves in the trees, and when their eyes met, Evie had the most overwhelming urge to lean forward and kiss him, like she’d wanted to do so many times when she sat across from him in his Jeep. Instead, Evie touched his upper arm. He tensed so quickly, she wondered if she’d hurt him, if there was some bruise she couldn’t see. But his skin underneath hers was warm, and after a second, the muscle of his bicep loosened.

When he looked at her, the corner of his lip drew up, and it might have been the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. “How about a walk, Peach?”

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

The best andworst thing about Creek Water was its smallness. It was suffocating when everyone knew her business, but sometimes, it could be freeing. As she walked with West, the road was empty and quiet, illuminated by streetlights and the full moon.

“So,” he said, as they walked in no particular direction. “About this crush.”

Panic took over Evie, tightening her chest. Of course he knew how she felt. It wasn’t like she’d hid it very well. She could have kept it to her daydreams, but she literally couldn’t stop touching him. “The one you used to have on me.”

At the wordsused to have, she let out the breath she’d been holding.

“Tell me about it,” he said.

Evie gave him a look, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “It was like ten years ago.”

“Come on, Peach. I just bared my soul to you. Least you can do is boost my ego a little.”

How do I explain what those ten minutes in the car with him used to mean to me?She used to have a hard time falling asleep, knowing that when she opened her eyes, she would be so close to seeing him again, being alone with him. Those ten minutes had felt like the most exciting in her life, shiny with the magic of millions of possibilities. Not that any of them had ever played out.

“You made me laugh. You ate things I baked like Della hadn’t been feeding you, even though I know she had.” Evie hesitated, a current of nervousness running through her, then she added, as quickly as she could get the words out of her mouth, “And it’s within the realm of possibility that I thought you were cute.”

“Is that so?” His hip bumped lightly against hers. “What caught your eye? My golden locks? Chiseled body?”

Evie snorted. “Your humility, actually. And not fair. You said you were flirting with me too. Your turn.”

“What do I like about Evie Cauley?” West said, hands in his pockets, his head tilted up toward the sky like he was contemplating a bigger question.

Evie’s heart jumped at the worddo, in present tense.

“You bossed me around a lot. I liked that. Still do. You’re a damn good baker. I like eating. Especially things that taste good. And those freckles. I used to wonder how many there were. How close I had to get to count them.”

Evie brushed a finger across the bridge of her nose, feeling the spot where they stretched across her skin.Don’t make him wait so long for the armor to come down.With Kayla’s advice in mind, Evie opened her mouth to blurt out how she felt, but then she looked around and noticed where they had walked to. “Why are we at the baseball field?”

An impish grin spread across West’s face. “Why don’t we go and find out?”

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