Maybe, after Daddy came back to his role, he’d see my contributions as valuable and seek me out for advice or input—ask about my ideas. Maybe then I could broach some of those things. It’d no doubt be better received by the good old boys if the orders came from a good old boy, right?
Until then, I just had to stay the course. Not rock the boat. And focus all of my attention on making sure I finally succeeded at something.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MAC
I followedAsher’s SUV as it turned down the path leading to our homes, honking twice when they turned off at the main house and I continued on to mine.
I’d wanted to go to town hall and get in a few more hours of work, but Avery must’ve put the word out, because Nat said she’d spill secrets to our momma—namely that the dent in our car when we’d been younger hadn’t been caused by a runaway cart but rather me running into a dumpster—if I so much as drove past there before tomorrow morning. And my sister was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
Despite the niggle in the back of my mind that I needed to be at work, I was looking forward to the time off to decompress. Finally allow myself the brainspace to think about what I’d been avoiding all day—namely Hudson and the handful of texts he’d sent me while I’d been at the hospital.
He hadn’t asked where I was or what I was doing. Hadn’t pestered me or demanded my attention. He’d simply let me know he was thinking of me. Texting random, hilarious observations of people milling around the Square, or a picture of a tiger’s-eye marble he must’ve found at the gift shop, or of CB rolling around in a pile of leaves.
I’d tried not to read too much into it. Mostly because I couldn’t. I didn’t have that luxury, because despite what Iwanted, I knew I couldn’t make Hudson stay.
He was leaving, whether I liked it or not. And besides, now wasn’t the time to start a relationship. Not when Havenbrook was resting on my shoulders. Not when my parents were counting on me. Finallybelievingin me.
Two cars were parked in front of my house, and I froze, my Jeep coasting down the driveway without any instruction from me. Hudson’s old truck sat beside Lilah’s newer sedan. She was nowhere to be seen, but Hudson sat perched on my roof, cleaning out the gutters and tossing the dead leaves to the ground where Caleb was gathering them.
And no.No. My stomach absolutely should not be fluttering, nor should my heart be soaring. Not like this. Not because of a man who might as well be a ghost in Havenbrook. But, dammit, both were true.
It was so easy to picture myself coming home to this. Something so utterly mundane, but I suddenly ached for it.
It’d been a long time since I’d allowed myself such fantasies of a life with Hudson, but sometime since he’d been home, they’d crept in and taken up residence in my heart. A heart that skipped a beat when Hudson lifted his head and his eyes locked on mine.
I parked my Jeep on the other side of his truck, gathered my things, and had one leg out my door when my phone went off. I’d been paranoid since the whole Ridge fiasco, so I pulled it out of my bag without a second thought and found a text from Edna.
My momma could barely say hello via text, but I got messages from Gran and Edna almost daily. They were the most technologically savvy senior citizens I’d ever met.
Edna:
You were the talk of the town today. Folks went on and on about what a great job you’ve been doing. Rumor has it your little friend Hudson had something to do with that…
And just as fast as my heart had soared, it plummeted as I read the last sentence. I frowned down at my phone and typed out a reply.
Mac:
You’re sure it was Hudson’s doing?
Edna:
I said RUMOR, didn’t I?
Narrowing my eyes, I dropped my phone back into my bag and slid the rest of the way out of my car. That was something I’d unpack later when I wasn’t walking toward Hudson and Caleb, trying to come up with something quippy to say.
All that came out was, “I didn’t ask you to do that.”
Hud laughed and tossed down another handful of leaves. The last of it, I assumed, since he climbed down the ladder and joined me on solid ground. “Hello to you, too.”
Without hesitation, he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. Soft and sweet, but not casual. Not friendly. Heated and intense and…loving.
I didn’t even close my eyes, darting them to Caleb, who wasn’t paying us an ounce of mind. Why I worried about that, I had no idea. It wasn’t like half the town wasn’t already talking about me and Hudson beingback together. And wasn’t that just going to be a punch in the boob when he left?
“Hey,” I said on a sigh when he pulled away.
Without a word, he lifted my bag from my shoulder, just as an exuberant CB barreled toward me. The tiny dog jumped up when she got to me, bouncing on her hind legs until I squatted to be closer. CB took that as an invitation and leaped right into my lap, not stopping until her front paws were on my chest and the dog was doling out puppy kisses like candy at a parade.
