“Me.”
Her eyes bulge in their sockets. “What? You’re going to leave?”
“Well, not tomorrow. But eventually I’ll be ready to go.”
Sutton flails her arms out in front of her. “You have a slice of paradise. Where else will you find this?”
I dig the toe of my boot into the dirt. “I hear Minnesota has a lot of lakes.”
“And cold ass winters.”
“Doesn’t bother me.”
I can feel her penetrating stare on me. It takes all my strength to continue avoiding her.
“I figured you’d be a lifer,” she whispers.
It would kill me to stick around, have a front row seat of her settling down and raising a family. I’m not strong enough to face that type of torture. Bile burns the back of my throat. “Nah. There’s nothing locking me down here.”
She flinches. “Oh. Guess that makes sense.”
“Let’s not pretend I have a reason to stay, Sutt.”
“But what if you did?”
I comb through my shaggy hair. “I don’t want to find out.”
“Maybe you’ll find one anyway.” Her soft words attempt to revive a semblance of belonging inside of me. It would be easy to agree with her. I could beg her to be mine. She’s capable of healing the hurt, being my one and only happy something. We would be whole, at least for a bit. But eventually she’d start resenting me.
I can’t look at her. There’s no doubt that hope is reflecting in her sky-blue gaze. “Doubt it. This town doesn’t have room for me. Nothing has changed.”
“I’d argue the opposite. Clearly we’re different people.” Sutton points at my bike parked in the driveway.
I squint at her. “You’re right. We’re practically strangers.”
Sutton turns to me. “I wouldn’t go that far. The boy I grew up with is hiding in there. I’d like to know the man you’ve become.”
“That kid is long gone. He took everything decent with him,” I mutter.
She’s quiet for a moment. I’ve ruined this, mostly on purpose. There’s no point pretending we can have anything together.
Sutton’s focus returns to the shore. “I’d like to be the judge of that.”
A grunt doused in disapproval is all she gets in response.
“Well,” she blows out a heavy breath. “Your property is beautiful.”
The snarl of pressure calms as we veer onto safer ground. I try not to let the sag in my posture show. This I can handle. “But not the house?”
Sutton twists to glance behind us. Her lips part, but nothing comes out. She flounders with wide eyes and knotted fingers. I can almost hear the potential niceties she’s trying to dredge up.
With a snort, I let her off the hook. “Just fucking with you. I know it’s a mess.”
“It looks more like a work in progress. And to be fair, I’ve only seen the outside.” She quirks a brow.
I scratch the back of my neck. “Guess we should eat. Do you wanna come in?”
She’s already treading backwards. “Thought you’d never ask.”
