Theo’s uncertainty deepened. “Oh, sure. Right.”
She flapped her hand. “But I’m sure you can handle an upturned tractor.”
Theo swallowed.
Skye’s mother let the silence linger, her smile making a panoramic move around the room until it landed on her daughter. “Although even the hardiest of farmers would no doubt appreciate a second pair of hands for the job.”
Skye’s eyes narrowed.
Do not say it. You do not have to say it.
You are a grown woman who is perfectly capable of not saying it.
“I’ll help.” Skye shut her traitorous mouth the second the words flew from her lips.
Her mother gave a short nod, as though she was the conductor of this little play and her flautist performed the solo right on cue. “Terrific. Now that it’s settled, Theo, I went ahead and turned up the heat in the cabin and slipped an egg casserole in the fridge for you in the morning. Let’s be off, then, shall we?”
Theo’s startled gaze turned from her mother to Skye, and Skye did her best to avoid his eyes.
If Skye wasn’t so peeved at the turn of events, she would’ve laughed.
Instead she followed her parents and Theo outside and stood on the gravel driveway, watching her parents’ truck swing onto the road and the taillights fade until they disappeared. Her all-consuming thought was that she was exactly in the one place she had told herself she never wanted to be.
Alone. On a mountaintop. Beside the man who broke her heart fourteen years ago.
Chapter 3
Theo
She was exactly as he remembered.
Her hair was shorter now, the thick auburn waves curling around her chin instead of trailing long past her shoulders. The loose sweater ornamented her natural attributes; the olive color offset her brown irises. She used less eyeliner now, but the subtle black line framing her almond-shaped eyes highlighted her best feature in a more refined way than it had in those days of oversized plaid shirts and ripped jeans. She looked... positively radiant.
Skye stood in the driveway watching the road, both hands tucked in the back pockets of her slim jeans. That stance. Another thing that hadn’t changed about her.
The full moon and a thousand stars hung directly overhead. A few were blocked by the occasional cloud, but the sky was free of light pollution and the air was thick with dew from the rainfall. Theo inhaled, feeling as though his lungswere being purified. The gurgling creek on the other side of the road was the only sound for miles. Nothing but forest lay behind them. The single road in front of them took the occasional traveler up and down the mountain on either side, and to Evergreen Farm ahead.
Where rows and rows of Fraser firs and white pines glinted in the moonlight.
A rush of wings overhead caused Theo to wonder if the pounding in his chest was so loud it had caused the bird to flee.
He took a step forward. “Skye.”
Skye dropped her head and turned. Smiled, but it looked forced. As though he was blocking her way. As though she had been trapped and now she had no choice but to converse. “So. Exploiting a man’s weakness for his own good. Nice play. Tell me, are you actually planning on building a new shed?”
Theo smiled slightly as he kicked at a piece of gravel. “We are now.”
Everyone knew Mr. Fuller was one of the most hardworking men around, but he had a classic weakness: he always worked alone. This worked splendidly as he single-handedly managed “his farm” throughout the year, but during the Christmas season, the very presence of part-time staff—with their jingle-bell hats and ho-ho-ho attitudes—was enough to give him hives. Theo couldn’t count the number of complaints he got each year about the “cranky old man getting in the way” while the staff tried to sell trees and hot chocolate. At this point, the complaints were practically a Christmas tradition.
A genuine smile drifted like a whisper across her face, then a cloud seemed to cover her again. She started moving toward the trailer.
Theo slipped both hands into his own pants pockets. He waited for several seconds as the creek filled the silence and the distance between them grew. But his question grew, too, with every second that passed. “So . . . I can’t help noticing it’s not a holiday and, unless I’m mistaken, there’s no memorable occasion going on at the moment. What brings you back to Virginia?”
Skye paused, her hand on the door handle.
For the first time that evening Skye’s eyes brightened as she looked back at him, and she tipped her head toward the dilapidated stone cottage bordering the farm across the road. The old, abandoned shack held quite a few of their childhood memories—
Theo frowned.
