Come Back To Me (7C’s: A Pigeon Creek #2)

Prologue - Cody

A week after the family BBQ…

Arcade - Duncan Laurence

T he second I heard the words ‘Butch Cassidy’ being screeched across the ranch, I knew who was doing the shouting.

Except…

There’s no way that the T I’ve been writing to for years and the Tee who’s friends with Colt’s wife are one and the same.

That’s just impossible.

Improbable.

Im- damn -plausible.

Like being killed by a shark in the middle of the Canadian tundra.

Or winning the lottery without a ticket.

Right?

But then I kept an eye on her. I listened. Okay, eavesdropped. And I watched her with Zee. Who has to be the friend ‘Z’ she always talks about.

“This isn’t happening,” I mumble to myself, watching Tee beat Callan in some sort of battle scene in The Witcher .

Yet the impossible, improbable, and implausible is happening.

She’s here.

In my kid brother’s gaming room.

Eating popcorn.

Literally keeping up with Callan, the know-it-all.

In fact, she’s whupping his ass.

And God, is she pretty.

I cut ties with her because I thought she lived in New York and I was making my home in Saskatchewan.

Now, I find out she’s moving into my house .

“Cody! You going to play with us? I have another controller,” Callan calls out.

I shoot him a tight smile that grows tighter when Tee flashes me a look.

Her gaze is piercing.

Direct.

Just like the woman I came to know.

Just like the woman who got me through that fucking mess in Vladivostok without even knowing it.

Just like the woman I didn’t want to say goodbye to but who I wanted to protect.

Regardless of this revelation, nothing’s changed. Not really.

My goodbye will have to stand.

Even if she’s sitting so close to me, I could tangle my fingers in her hair and kiss her like I’ve wanted to for years.

Even though she smells like popcorn and I want to taste it on her tongue.

So many words I left unwritten…

…and I regret each and every one of them.