Cash snorts, a smirk breaking out across his face. “Yeah, we did, but it was different with you and her.”
Different in the sense that I never would have acted on it. I only ever wanted to protect Ella and back then, I knew I was no good for her.
“She’s Wyatt’s sister. I never would have tried to pursue anything with her.”
“I know,” Cash says, nodding, although he doesn’t look fully convinced. “That was then, though. Things are a lot different than they used to be.”
“How so?” I question him, raising an eyebrow before I look back at our older brother. Cade doesn’t look at me, keeping his attention on the road as he drives us closer to the ranch. “She’s still Wy’s little sister.”
“She’s not a kid anymore, Cole. She has a little girl of her own now.”
My breath catches in my throat.
Her daughter.
Wyatt told me about her, but with how sporadic our conversations have become over the years, we never really got the chance to talk about her. He mentioned when Ella moved back to Silverspur.
My heart picks up its pace inside my chest. “Wyatt told me she has a kid,” I admit. “How does she seem like she’s doin’?”
Cash lifts his shoulders. “Good.”
“Yeah,” Cade chimes in. “We see her around town sometimes and she always seems to be in a good mood. She lives on Iris' property, in that guest house she has.”
“Oh yeah?”
I knew her and Wyatt sold their family home to pay off some debts that were left behind after their parents’ accident.
“Yep,” Cash confirms, popping thePsound. “You know, I think she’s single. I haven’t seen her with any other guy.”
Heat creeps up my neck and I slowly turn in my seat, directing my gaze back out the window. My stomach quickens and a lightness flutters inside my chest. “Hmm.”
“Welcome home, brother,” Cade says with a soft laugh.
Keeping my gaze out the window, I blow a breath through my nostrils and slowly shake my head back and forth. My brothers aren’t always the most reliable source of information and I’m sure neither of them talk to Ella enough to know what’s actually going on in her life.
She could be seeing someone and keeping it private. Neither of them would ever know, so I can’t put a lot of weight on the things they say.
Cade pulls his truck onto our lane and we drive between two massive fields on either side of the driveway. As we reach the ends of the fences, the lane splits into three different routes. The one to the right is the main house where Cash and Cade live, the one in front of us leads to the barns, and to the left is the secondary house that I’ve moved into.
Cade starts to turn the truck left, but I hold my hand up to stop him.
“Just go to the main house. I’ll walk to mine.”
Cade glances at me, raises an eyebrow, and then simply lifts both shoulders before they relax. Whipping the truck to the right, he heads over to the main house, parking his truck right out front of the detached garage, next to Cash’s.
The three of us say goodnight and I don’t bother hanging around as my brothers head into the house. Dust kicks up from beneath my feet as I walk along the gravel driveway, following along the fence line. I make my way back to the end of the main lane, to where the intersection is.
The cool mountain air drifts around me and my eyes adjust to the darkness of the night. We don’t have many lights out here and the only ones that shine are the ones near the entrances to the barns. All the other lights we have on the buildings are either controlled by switches or motion-sensor.
Absentmindedly, I kick at a few rocks, my eyes traveling along the planes of our property. My shoulders relax, mybreathing evening as a lightness engulfs me. This is everything I’ve been missing and exactly where I need to be. Texas was not for me, not in the slightest bit.
I pause in the center of the intersection, tilting my head back to stare up at the night sky. You can see so many stars out here—so many more than you see within any city limits. I let my eyes wander, drifting over the infinite number of stars twinkling in the darkness. The moon is only a small sliver, poking out from a stray, wispy cloud that drifts through the sky.
I know there’s nowhere else that calls to me like home and I can’t help but wonder if it’s the same for Ella.
She left Silverspur Springs long before her and Wyatt lost their parents. She moved away, got married and started an entirely new life. Something happened that made her come back home after the accident, but I don’t know why. Wyatt never told me the specifics, other than her ex was an asshole and that Ella left him.
Did she come back here because she had nowhere else to go?
