The timeline clicks into place. “You and Beau packed up right after you left me?”
“Yeah. Met him on the circuit. He was dealing with his own shit, I was dealing with mine. We just… clicked.” He squeezes my hand. “Charlie joined not long after. Maybe six months later?”
“And that’s when you realized you both knew me?”
“Yeah, that’s when we realized we had you in common.” He grins sheepishly. “Charlie talked about you sometimes. His best friend’s little sister who was too smart for her own good and could outride half the ranch hands.”
“He said that?”
“He said a lot of things. Took me a while to connect the dots that his Willa and my Willa were the same person.” His voice drops on “my Willa” in a way that makes my stomach flip.
“I didn’t know I was everyourWilla.”
“You were. You are.” He says it with such certainty. “I just didn’t deserve you then.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I change the subject. “Charlie’s out of town, right?”
“Yeah. Some benefit thing in Tennessee. He’ll be back tonight, though.” Jake watches me carefully. “You haven’t talked to him yet. Really talked, I mean.”
It’s not a question. “How did you?—”
“He’s been moping around the ranch like a kicked puppy. And you get this look whenever his name comes up.”
“What look?”
“Like you’re trying to solve a complicated math problem and all the numbers keep changing.”
I huff out a laugh despite myself. “That’s… actually pretty accurate.”
“So what’s stopping you?” He steers us toward a bench, and we sit, the bag of chestnuts between us.
“I don’t know.” I pick at the paper cone. “Charlie and I were close once. Best friends, practically. And then I left for college, and we just… lost contact. And now he’s claiming we’ve been courting, and I don’t know if he did it because he had to or because he wanted to.”
“Both,” Jake says simply.
“What?”
“Both. He had to because you were about to lose your job, and he couldn’t let that happen. And he wanted to because he’s been carrying a torch for you since you were kids.” He pops a chestnut in his mouth. “He told me once, back when we first packed, that he pushed you away because he couldn’t handle what he felt for you. Said it wasn’t right, you being his best friend’s sister.”
My chest tightens. “He never said anything.”
“Charlie’s not great with words. But he’s loyal and protective, and he doesn’t do anything halfway. When he commits, he commits.” Jake nudges my shoulder. “Talk to him.”
“Maybe.”
“And your brother.” Jake’s expression turns serious. “You haven’t talked to him either, have you?”
My stomach drops. “No. Not since I got back to town.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I know I should. But every time I think about calling him, I just… freeze. What am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, by the way, I haven’t talked to you since I left, but check this out, I’m fake courting your best friend?”
“How about ‘hey, I’m back in town, and I miss you’?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It could be.” He stands and offers me his hand, “Come on.”
