“Nico Daugherty came by?” Owen asked.
Tate chuckled. “Wasn’t that the guy you punched in the face for makin’ Chelsea cry?”
Stone purposely didn’t look at Brady. He was the only person at the table—at least that Stone was aware of—who knew about what happened that night in the hay loft. Brady didn’t have specifics, but he’d been pulling into the driveway the next morning and had seen Stevie and Nico leaving. Considering Stone had been shirtless and barefoot, the guy didn’t need a map for his suspicions to find a home.
Because of that ill-timed exit, Stone had ended up on the wrong end of Brady’s good intentions two days later when Brady blasted him for being a dumbass. He could still hear Brady’s disappointed voice all these years later.
“Chelsea’s fuckin’ boyfriend, Stone? You couldn’t find someone … fuck,anyone else to screw around with? You realize he’s Stevie’s best friend’s brother, right? You could’ve lit a match up in that loft and not caused as much damage as you’ve done to more than one relationship. For what? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re serious about either of ‘em.”
That conversation with Brady, which was more of a one-sided shouting match, had sent Stone into a tailspin. Up until that point, he’d spent two whole days walking around in a hazy fog of satisfaction. But as soon as Brady called him to the carpet, he’d been riddled with regret. While he hadn’t appreciated Brady going postal on him, he couldn’t deny the man was right.
“I thought you wanted to make somethin’ of yourself, Stone. D told me you’re lookin’ at workin’ on a ranch. Why the fuck are you stringin’ along a coupla high school kids? You should be out there, figurin’ out what the fuck you wanna do with your life.”
Brady had single-handedly planted the seed of doubt, watered it, and made it grow from there. The more Stone had thought about it, the more he’d realized that he had no business thinking about a future with anyone. Definitely not Stevie. She had her whole life ahead of her, and the last thing he wanted was for her to end up hating him. She would’ve because if he stuck around Coyote Ridge, there was no way he wasn’t going to insist on a repeat of that night. He figured it wouldn’t take long for her to end up feeling used, and he would’ve ended up wallowing in a shit-ton of regret.
So he’d decided that chasing a dream was the best option. For everyone.
“Remember Chelsea walked around for a week feelin’ sorry for the guy?” Reilly asked.
“But not sorry enough to take him back,” Owen noted.
“She did take him back,” Brady said, his gaze sliding past Stone. “For a minute.”
“It was routine for her at that point,” Deborah said with a wistful smile. “But she had her sights set on bigger things.”
“You think they might move down here one day?” Reilly asked.
Stone wasn’t paying attention, so he didn’t hear his mother’s response.
His only thought was that he needed to seek out Stevie. At the very least, she deserved an apology.
Whether he could tell her the truth—that he’d been in love with her, but that night had changed him—was still undetermined. Deep down, he knew he’d made the right decision by leaving because what he’d wanted was not something she had signed up for.
To this day, he couldn’t see himself settling down with one person. Fifteen years ago, that had seemed like a ludicrous idea. Then again, being out and proud had been reserved for only the most determined. Luckily, that wasn’t the case anymore. For a lot of people, anyway.
But it wasn’t until Stone learned about his cousin Travis coming out and admitting that he was in love with Kylie and Gage that he realized it wasn’t as crazy as he’d thought. Difficult, yeah. Because it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Finding a soulmate when you were looking at a one-to-one ratio was hard enough. Finding someone who understood and wanted the same thing didn’t happen easily, so finding two was next to impossible. Yet somehow, Travis had found a way to make it work.
With that said, Stone wasn’t going to give up. Now that he’d had a taste of the best life had to offer, he would settle for nothing less than genuine happiness. Even if it meant he would be single for the remainder of his days.
***
“So what was that look you gaveStone earlier?” Reilly asked Brady on the drive back to their house.
They were sitting in the backseat of Donovan’s truck since they’d all ridden together to her parents’ house for dinner. They had the illusion of privacy, but she knew her brother and Tate were listening to every word.
Brady continued to gaze out the window. “I didn’t give him a look.”
“Yes, you did.” Reilly tapped the back of Tate’s seat. “You saw it, right?
He didn’t respond.
“I think you’re seein’ things,” Brady told her.
She huffed. “They don’t call me the all-seeing, all-knowing one for nothin’.”
“No one calls you that,” Donovan and Brady said in unison.
“Yes, they do,” she countered.
