Nash couldn’t muster up a single word as his dad turned around and walked to the front door. He paused with his back to Nash, his hand on the doorknob. “I know I don’t deserve another chance after all you’ve given me. But I’ll be here just the same.”
His dad quietly closed the door behind him, and Nash could only stare, relief and gratitude and shock surging through him. Nothing could ever erase the years of frustration and neglect he’d felt at the hand of his dad, but this… Knowing his old man was staying when he’d had the chance to leave—and hearing just how much that’d cost him? Well, maybe this was the bridge they needed to make it to the other side.
Nash rubbed his chest, swallowing down the tightness in his throat. Without thought, he plucked his phone from his pocket and cued up Rory’s name…all before remembering the only person he wanted to share this with wasn’t all that interested in speaking to him.
Rory’d liketo say she’d lost track of how many days it’d been since Nash had last been at her house, but that’d be a bald-faced lie. She could probably count it down to the minute if someone pressed her on it.
Sure, she’d seen him several times while working on their current project. Their business partnership hadn’t changed much since their breakup. He still spoke to her in that voice that made her insides melt. Still met her gaze with desire he didn’t even try hiding. Still made her body flush in the way he caressed her skin with only his eyes. But he never pushed. Never overstepped.
And she both loved and hated it.
They might’ve only been seeing each other for a short time, but her heart still felt like it’d been ripped in two. And only a day had passed after he’d stepped off her front porch before she’d realized it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d ended it then or twenty years from now—she never would’ve escaped the pain.
Because she loved him.
Not the love she’d thought she had with Sean. The kind that just slipped into place because it was the easiest solution. Nope, what she felt for Nash was messy and inconvenient and mind-boggling. It was complicated and frustrating and tumultuous, and she wouldn’t change a second of their time together, even if it’d save her this heartbreak.
“Momma, can Mac drive me to Mimi and Papa’s in the cart tonight?” Ella yelled from the living room.
“Me too!” Ava called. “I wanna ride!”
Mac had been right—the girls loved that damn thing and begged to use it every chance they got. Rory was pretty sure she’d caught Mac giving secret driving lessons to Ava in it the other day, too.
“One of y’all bring me my phone, please, and I’ll ask her,” Rory said, changing out her hoop earrings for the pearl studs.
As was the way with children, it was five minutes before Ella came strolling into Rory’s bedroom, phone held up to her ear as she giggled. “Okay, I will. Here’s Momma.”
Rory grabbed the phone from Ella and called after her as she shot out of the room. “You need to get in the shower before we go over there, Ella Jane! You smell like a swamp.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Blowing out a sigh, she tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder as she bent to grab her ankle boots. “Hey, the girls wanna ride with you on that godforsaken cart again. You mind swingin’ by and grabbin’ ’em before supper?”
“That might be a bit difficult, seein’ as I’m in Portland right now.”
Rory snapped upright, her boots clattering to the wood floor. With wide eyes, she pulled the phone away from her face and stared at the name shown at the top of the screen.
Nat.
She blinked a couple of times and shook her head, but nope. The three little letters never changed.
“All those messages, and I don’t even get a hello?” Nat said, her voice coming through even though Rory held the phone in front of her like it was a bomb.
She jerked it to her ear. “Nat. Um…hi. Did you mean to call me?” No other explanation made sense. The two of them hadn’t done more than acknowledge the other’s presence with a simple nod when Nat had visited for Gran’s party, so there was no reason she’d suddenly crave a long conversation.
“Unless someone else in town is responsible for breakin’ my best friend.”
“Breakin’ your…” Rory shook her head, her brow furrowed. She felt like she was underwater, trying to make sense of a conversation happening on land. “I’m not followin’.”
“Nash,” she snapped. “I get that you think you’re so high and mighty and that’s worked real well for you.”
“I donotthink—”
“But he doesn’t deserve that.”
Rory huffed. “I’m not suggestin’—”
“And I don’t know where you get off thinkin’ you’re so much better than him.”
