I tell myself not to look when I pass Will’s bar.
I try. I fail.
He’s standing out front, leaning against the rail, arms crossed. When he sees me, he lifts a hand in a slow wave.
I smile.
And then I press the gas just a little harder.
The wind tangles in my hair. The sun warms my face. And Broken Heart Creek fades into the dust behind me.
Olive sounds shocked as hell when I call her, asking if she can pick me up in Wichita. It was risky not warning her I was coming, but I had a feeling she might be in the same emotional state as Liam. Barely hanging on.
After grabbing my suitcase from baggage claim, I head outside to wait.
The moment I spot her light brown hair bobbing toward me in the crowd, my chest tightens and just like that, the tears come. Not soft, graceful ones either. Full-on sobs the second she wraps her arms around me.
I’ve missed my friend more than I even realized.
Olive whispers against my shoulder, “You’re really here.”
“Yeah,” I say, voice cracking. “I’m really here.”
We pull back and I study her. She looks different. There’s something about her glow that isn’t just from seeing me. I chew on my bottom lip, trying to find the right words.
“Olive please don’t take this the wrong way, but are you pregnant? Because your stomach feels a lot like Charlie’s did.”
She blinks. “Liam didn’t tell you?”
Suddenly, everything makes sense. The missing piece that clicked the whole picture into place. How I kept expecting her at Liam’s side during Sam’s wedding, and instead he showed up alone, looking like he’d lost the moon and refused to admit it.
“That freaking idiot!” I explode. “You told him, and he still let you go?”
Olive nods, rubbing the swell of her belly. “It was terrible. He asked for proof, Phern.”
I stop in my tracks. “He what?”
She flinches a little at my volume, but I’m already shaking my head.
“Oh, I’m going to kill him. I swear to God, Olive, I will wring his neck, and I’ll do it with a smile.”
Olive laughs, even though her eyes are glassy. “Come on. My mom’s dying to see the newest ultrasound pics. I’ll catch you up on everything on the drive.”
And she does. She starts from the moment she boarded the plane to Broken Heart Creek and unspools the whole messystory, word by word. With every detail, my urge to call Liam and verbally light him on fire grows stronger.
But I know that won’t help anything.
So instead, I tell her the truth.
“He’s not doing any better,” I say gently. “I don’t know if you want to hear this, but he’s looking rough, Olive. He’s been at Will’s bar almost every night.”
Her eyes widen. “Will opened a bar?”
Right. That happened after she left.
“He did. Called itFlowers End. Opened right after Sam and Charlie’s wedding. It’s doing well, too, especially since Buck and Sherry finally split and Sherry turned Knot and Spur into a boutique.”
I give Olive more of the updates as we drive, but I know it’s not really what she wants to hear. Not the businesses. Not the baby showers. Not the bar names.
