But was I right to keep going down this path? If I wasn’t what Rhys ultimately wanted, who was I to question it?
When I was finished in the bathroom, I went into the guest room to put on some fresh clothes. I closed the door and set my toiletry kit on the dresser. The box of memorabilia of me and Rhys was on the edge.
Smiling, I grabbed the image from the top. Our prom picture. I was wearing a dress that had a fittedskirt that glittered like a mermaid tail. Bethany had said she wanted her hair dyed to look like that.
Since I’d told them not to wait, I dug farther into the box, beyond where we’d rummaged through when Wren had first returned it to Rhys. I found pictures of us from middle school. Some pictures of us with his 4-H animals. At the very bottom was a small paper rectangle. A ticket.
I knew that logo.
I pulled the ticket out. The Grand Ole Opry.
When had he?—
The date on the ticket was when I’d first performed. Shortly before Summer had told me that Rhys and Kirstin were divorcing.
Confusion swirled in my brain. He hadn’t been there. Had he gotten this ticket from someone who was? No, the only people I knew who’d come that night were my family, who’d flown out. I hadn’t recognized anyone else.
How had he . . .
He’d run me off from the funeral, and then he’d attended my dream performance?
I wanted to be there when you walked off the stage.
I wanted to kiss that big smile on your face.
My surprise gave way to anger. He’d been there that night. He’d supported me like he always had, and he’d hidden it. Like he was a toxic cloud that would taint my success.
I stuffed the ticket in the pocket of my skirt and returned all the pictures and article clippings to the box.
I’d always been told that, despite being adopted, I possessed a lot of Bailey stubbornness. It was time to find out just how stubborn I could be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Rhys
I pulled into the parking lot of Copper Summit and parked. Not many cars were in the lot. June had invited us when the main employees were gone.
The building sat in the middle of a stretch of trees. The land behind the place had once been mined for copper and silver. Now it was decorated with grass and trees. One of the Bailey grandparents had started with moonshine in the old mining headquarters and eventually mastered bourbon, turning it into a thriving spirits industry and tourism for the town.
The building itself was a work of art. In high school, June had taken me to Bozeman and shown me the bigger distillery that made much of their popular commercial lines. The facility was large and impressive, but the location in Bourbon Canyon was the apple of Copper Summit’s eye. Large windows decorated the front. A portion of them framed Copper Summit neon signsfrom the bar, but the rest offered a stunning view of the interior, with copper piping and large metal stills arching behind the glass.
I jogged to catch up to the girls, who sprinted toward the door of the distillery. June was standing outside the front door, waving. The breeze caught her long rainbow skirt around her legs and fluttered her loose top high enough that I caught a bare strip of stomach. Instant lust pumped through my veins.
It’d been over a week since I’d been inside her and it was like missing an appendage. I wanted to turn my head while lying in bed and tell her about my day. I thought of texting her pictures of when the goats were standing on random objects in their pen. Or of Goldie when she was eating her dog food with a commentNo blankets consumed today.
I’d been with her since yesterday, but I missed her. I missed us.
Leaving my bedroom this morning had been the biggest fucking punch in the gut. June had been curled up with Bethany. My daughter had opened up to her about something she hadn’t talked to me about. Then Hannah had joined them, and June had accepted her.
What would it be like to wake up to that every morning?
I wanted it so goddamn bad my heart nearly disintegrated in my chest when I thought that maybe...
“Hey!” June gave each of the girls a hug like she hadn’t just spent the morning with them. “My sisters are so excited to have you. You might see my brothers too. Don’t worry, they can look as grumpy as your dad, but they’re just as harmless.” She shot me a smug grin that made me want to haul her to the closest broom closet.
Fuck, I needed to get control of myself.
The girls rushed inside and went straight for the merchandise displays.
