“I’m not opening Flatlanders.” I was going to burst. Into tears, into a cloud of nothingness, I didn’t know. I wanted so badly to cling to Teller, to everything he’d given me. To all his kind words and his big, sweet heart. Terror clogged my throat. What if I lost him too?
I backed up a step, out of Teller’s shadow. Out of his ring of protection. Because I shouldn’t need it. I hated that I did. I didn’t want to hang around wondering when it’d all get yanked away. “I’m selling it.”
My mouth was working before my brain could catch up. I hadn’t planned to sell. Ever. Until now. Because I didn’t need this place. I didn’t need to keep it going for some attempt at filial duty or a feeble legacy. I didn’t need to stay here. I could go anywhere.
I was a millionaire, after all.
Teller
I tracked Madison through the bar. My family watched us. Even the kids stayed quiet. She charged right to the hallway, strands of her dark hair fluttering behind her.
“Selling?” I asked as anxiety stacked high in my chest. She’d closed herself off from me. I saw it happen.
She pushed out the back door. In the quiet alley, she inhaled, long and deep, and tipped her head back. A flurry of voices and car engines were audible from the street on the other side. Sirens from the police. But Madison ignored it, like she was stealing a morsel of peace where she could.
“I’m not staying in Bourbon Canyon,” she said barely above a whisper.
“What does that mean?” My heart stuttered. The meaning couldn’t be clearer. I was in Bourbon Canyon. She’d just announced she wasn’t staying.
“I have nothing,” she said hoarsely. “No one.”
“What about me?” I loved her. I’d told her she didn’t have to say the words, but had I been wrong? Didn’t she feel what I did?
Her expression crumpled. “Would you still love me if I wasn’t convenient?”
“How are you convenient?”
“What if I wasn’t stuck in Bourbon Canyon? What if I was able to go live my dreams and travel? Then what?” She lifted her arms and dropped them. “Because I can. For once in my life, I don’t have to be tied to anyone or anything. The sale of the house is nearly complete. Cara will make sure I get a good deal on Flatlanders. I can goanywhere. Doanything.”
She said it like a challenge. I was in a competition I didn’t know how to finish.
“You want a family to go with that perfect house.” Her eyes shimmered. “You want a quiet life where you get lost in work and then go home to your perfect wife.”
“Don’t you want the same?” My question wasn’t helping. It made her sound like the convenient partner she feared she was. Just more obligations for her.
“I never wanted to run a bar. To get sworn at because I won’t let someone drink and drive. To clean piss off the bathroom walls. You know those boys in the pickup? They hated Scott for turning them into the cops for trying to use fake IDs. Scott’s been gone formonths. How long am I going to pay for what people thought about my family?”
“You don’t have to open Flatlanders. You can still sell and be with me.”
Indecision flickered through her gaze, but she lifted her chin. “I never had the choices you did, Teller. I never had options. Someone’s wants and needs always came before mine, and with us... You would come before me.” She blew out a hard breath. “I promised myself I would never be like my mother. I thought I meant how she acted, but it’s also her circumstances. She got mean trying to put herself first. You’ve treated me well. So good. But for how long? When push comes to shove, what are you going to choose? Your family’s legacy, a family that cares for so many others? Or the girl who has no one else?”
I’d always choose her. “I’m sorry. About them. About Logan. You didn’t deserve any of it.” I wanted to go to her, to hold her, but she wrapped her arms around herself.
“I know,” she whispered. “I can’t stay here. I want more, Teller.”
Yet she didn’t think I could give it to her. The fear was scrawled into the lines of her beautiful face. “You can still have more. We can figure this out.”
“What if I want to move? What if I want to travel for years? Would you give up your part of Copper Summit and follow me? Would you leave Bailey Beef?”
I clamped my teeth together, hating the gut punch of my initial response. No. I’d never leave. The work I loved was here. My family was here. They were my foundation. They were what made meme. I had been born and raised in Bourbon Canyon and I’d die here. But my happily would be her prison.
“That’s what I thought,” she said quietly.
“I love you, Madison.”
“Do you love me, or do you love the idea of me?”
“The idea of you was a girl who told off anyone who pissed her off.” I had fallen for that girl too. “Someone from the wrong side of the tracks who acted just like everyone expected her to because that’s all they looked for. Then I got to knowyouand I fell hard. So goddamn hard, Madison.”
