Fuck, it makes so much sense now. No wonder Summer doesn’t want to pursue Sunnie’s. They broke her. They took away her dream.
But doesn’t she know that this town would rally around her until the end of the earth? That her father would do anything to see her succeed? Doesn’t she realize I would do the same?
I’m not quite sure when that became the truth, but it did. And fuck if that doesn’t scare me like it should.
“Why are you telling me this, Sheriff?”
“Because Sunnie’s is for sale.”
I swallow the knot in my throat. “I know.”
“So you’ve already talked to her about it?”
I want to deny it, because that would imply that Summer’s been spending time with me that she shouldn’t be, but I don’t think it matters at this point.
“I have.”
“And?”
“And she said no. She’s scared. She doesn’t believe in herself.”
“So believe enough for her.”
I do.
The weight of those two words is heavy, and even more so because of how honest they are.
The sheriff grins, and it’s one of those annoying kinds of grins. Theknowingkind.
“What?” I snap at him.
He just laughs, and it pisses me off.
“Stop it.”
He rolls his lips together in an attempt to stop, but it does nothing to quell the irritation clawing at me.
I don’t know what he thinks he knows, but he’s wrong, whatever it is.
I push off the boards, my hip throbbing. “Is there anything else you needed, Sheriff?”
“Nah, son. That’s all. Just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to my daughter and her dreams.”
I nod. “We are.”
“Good. So don’t let her blow this. Don’t let it pass her by. Don’t give up on her. She might try to push you away or run, but don’t let her. She’s done it once already, and it damn near broke me to see her so down about it. She’s my little girl, and I want the world for her. Her happiness comes first for me. It has since the day her mother died. The only way that’s going to happen is if someone is there for her. Someone she trusts. Someone she cares about. Someone like you, Ezra.”
His words are heavy, made even heavier by the fact that I feel the same way. I trust Summer, and I care about her in ways I never expected to.
“Don’t let her walk away from her dream,” he says. “And don’t let her walk away from you either.”
When I get back to the cidery, not even locking myself in my office and burying my head in work seem to help distract me from my conversation with Sheriff Turner.
Don’t let her walk away from her dream. And don’t let her walk away from you either.
We parted ways after that, and all it did was leave me in a sour mood.
What the hell was he getting at? Why did he keep giving me that look that saidI know something you don’t? Why did he have to tellmenot to let her walk away from her dream?
