Pane rubs a hand down Stella’s nose. “Stella.”
“Stella,” I confirm.
“So where did the unicorns come from, exactly? How did the ley lines become ... I don’t know”—he scrubs a hand up the back of his neck—“activated?”
“Ah, that. Well, about fifty years ago Mystic Meadows was a logging community. When the industry started to die, the town council decided to find something else that would bring in money. They were going to do a German-themed town, but when they started building, something woke up the ley lines, I guess.” I shrug. “No one really knows exactly what caused it, but soon after that the first unicorns were discovered, and then my grandparents found the piggycorns, and the rest”—I splay my hands—“is history. My parents bought the house and farm from them, and had me.”
“So it was a happy accident,” he murmurs, studying me as if looking for cracks in my facade.
“Right.” I don’t want to talk about the farm, though, not after what happened today. So I nudge him. “Back to Luke’s cheating. How’d you find out about the mane?”
“Now, thatisstrange,” Pane says in a low voice.
“Oh, there’s something stranger than sticking unicorn hair in your pants?”
He smirks. “The mint in my drink showed me.”
My brows stitch tight. “What?”
“The magic came into the drink.” He rests both hands on the lip of the open Dutch door and considers something. “But there’s not magic in town.”
“There isn’t.” I pull my hair over one shoulder and start braiding. “But the day that you worked the chain saw, the magic helped you out, too. By lifting a log.”
He drops his hands and faces me. “And you weren’t going to tell me that I only won because magic helped?”
The annoyance in his voice makes me grind out, “In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been busy. Besides, Coleman Barrier didn’t know, and that’s what counts.”
He winks. “I’m joking. It’s fine that you didn’t tell me. I’m just surprised that it happened.”
“Me too.”
When Stella nudges him, he pets her again. “What do you think’s going on?”
“I think the land realizes that you’re going to save the farm, so it’s helping you however it can,” I joke.
“I agree,” he replies, serious.
Our gazes latch again, and my heart expands, inflating inside my chest. This feeling, this longing, thissomethingbetween us, it’s impossible to ignore.
But I must.
After a moment of quiet, he says, “My dad.”
Thisis a change in topic. “What about him?”
Pane pats Stella’s neck but keeps his gaze trained on me. “That’s why I want to win the Maddox Group. I want to be a better man than my father has been.”
Oh.
A tiny seed of possibility sprouts in my gut. This is the seed of friendship, of openness, of the fact that Pane Maddox just told me the one thing he said earlier I wasn’t privy to.
This is a gemstone—a rare, precious piece of information that’s not to be mocked or ignored.
And it’s taking a lot for him to say this, because his voice is raw, as if telling me this is like scraping the truth right out of his throat. I’m not sure how to respond, because my dad wasn’t someone I wanted to be better than. He was someone I wanted to make proud.
“Ever since I was a kid,” Pane explains, “I told myself that when I got the company, I would be better than him. I wouldn’t abandon myfamily, using the name to get what I want. I would be a Maddox who left a legacy, one that inspired instead of destroyed.”
My heart shatters into a million pieces before the vacuum of my chest yanks it all back together.
This is the suffering that Pane Maddox has endured, and I understand it. I understandhim. He was abandoned, too, and so he wants to be better than the man who destroyed his life.
I turn toward him and he pivots to me. We each take a step in as if we’re tethered to opposite ends of a rope that’s being pulled tight.
I touch his arm and he immediately responds, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I lick my lips and say, “For what it’s worth—”
“Rowe, I know you’re in there!”
My eyes widen as Sally Ray’s voice sounds from outside the barn door.
“And when I find you,” she continues, “I’m gonna have you arrested for trespassing.”
