Chapter 27
aria
I’m still in my work clothes—dust on my jeans, sweat clinging to the back of my neck—when I hear an SUV’s engine wind up the drive.
Celine and Hudson are home.
My stomach clenches.
Maverick left an hour ago. I wish he were here with me so I could lean on him.
The fuck?
I’m shocked at how much I’ve come to depend upon him in such a short period.
Maybe it’s a good thing he’s not here, I decide. I need to stand on my own—not get used to leaning on someone who might not stay. Because when things fall apart—and they always do—I’ll be the one left behind. And the last thing I need is Celine sinking her claws into Maverick just to make a point.
Afraid she’ll take him from you, Aria?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Vera comes in from the front hallway onto the porch. “They’re here,” she states unnecessarily.
She hands me an iced tea. I drink it down. “Yeah.”
Celine floats up the stairs onto the porch, sunglasses perched on her head, her lipstick perfect for someone who’s been on the road all the way from Aspen.
She’s in spotless white, tight jeans and a gauzy blouse that somehow doesn’t get dirty like everyone else’s clothes around here.
“Aria,” she says with sugar in her voice, “you look…industrious.”
I arch a brow but don’t respond.
She tosses her bag on the bench by the front door and glances around, eyes sweeping around like she’s taking inventory.
She’s looking for Maverick. I know it.
This is Wildflower Canyon—gossip moves faster than spring runoff. Word’s out about me and him. People have seen us together.
Is that why she’s back? To take him from me?
Stop being so damn insecure, Aria.
Hudson walks past us, not even bothering to greet me, which I’m fine with. He’s scowling. Angry. “Vera, can you and Tomas bring our bags in?”
I bristle. The entitlement on this son of a bitch!
“No,” I reply before Vera can say a word. “Vera is on her way home to Benji, and Tomas is busy getting the herd prepped. Carry your own bags.”
Hudson glares at me. “Tomas doesn’t just work for you. He works for us.”
I fold my arms, give him the once over, surprised—again—that I ever loved this man. This weak, petty, snot-nosed man.
Compared to Maverick? Hell, he’s not even in the same league. He’s a boy playing dress-up in a man’s world.
“No, he doesn’t. Tomas works for the ranch and therefore for me.”
“God!” Celine drops into one of the chairs with a dramatic sigh. “Hudson, just take the bags in, will you? Vera, can you fix me a drink?”
Vera glances at me. I give her a nod, and she heads inside.
“I just told you Vera’s on her way home,” I say evenly. “And yet you ask her to make you a drink? That a power play, Celine?”
She smirks, all gloss and poison. “No, honey. What you’re doing is a power play—telling Hudson off, standing there in your old boots and wearing your dust like it’s pride.”
“Christ, Celine.” I laugh without humor. “Didn’t you used to say that exact line back when we were teenagers? All these years and you never picked up any new material?”
Celine groans. “Why do you have your panties in such a bunch?”
Hudson makes a show of carrying their bags in. We both ignore him.
This is what he’s been reduced to—luggage boy, errand man, a shadow of importance clinging to scraps of pride.
He tries to show off, but Celine quickly corrals him with a look, a word.
For a brief second, I feel a flicker of sorrow for the man he might’ve been. Instead, he stayed behind, tethered to Longhorn like a dog on a short leash—became the son-in-law, the drunk husband, the man who never grew up.
“I ran into Bree in Aspen,” Celine murmurs as she looks at her nails. They’re painted pink. “She mentioned you’ve been…busy.”
“And how would she know?”
“Haven’t you been busy?” she counters.
I arch a brow, amused. “Sure. Planting the orchard, getting the fieldwork going, vaccinating the herd…you know…ranch stuff.”
Celine gives a breezy little laugh. “Well, don’t overdo it. The ranch, from what I hear, is barely breathing. Might be best to accept that it’s circling the drain.”
I smile sharply. “I thought you didn’t care what happened at Longhorn.”
“Of course I care, darling,” she coos. “It’s our inheritance.”
Vera comes out with a drink—it’s pink like Celine’s nails. A fucking cosmopolitan in Longhorn seems just as inappropriate as all the French-antique shit she’s got all over the house.
“Thanks, darlin’.” Celine takes a sip and makes a humming sound.
“Vera, go home, yeah?” I instruct.
Vera looks at Celine pointedly, and when I glare at her, she wiggles her eyebrows and reluctantly leaves. My guess, Vera and Nadine have made a deal that one of them will be around the house when Celine is there to keep me from killing her.
“You know Mav and I were together for a while,” Celine drops the bomb casually.
It hits its target, but I don’t let her see it. The thought of Maverick doing what Hudson did is all but crippling.
“No, really?” I say sarcastically. “Does Mavrick know?”
She glances at me, the corners of her mouth tugging up in pure contempt. “You think he’s really interested in you?”
As steady as I felt with Maverick before my sister came back to town, one cutting remark from her threatens to unravel me. The old reflex stirs—doubt, shame, that gnawing voice that says I’ll never be enough.
Stop letting her control you with your insecurities, Aria. Celine doesn’t hold your worth. Every time she tore you down, you let her. You handed her the blade and braced for the cut.
Not anymore.
I stand in my boots, covered in sweat and dust, and know I’ve earned every inch of the ground beneath me.
She doesn’t get to take that from me. No one does.
I smirk. “Considerin’ he’s in my bed every night…yeah, I think he’s interested in me.”
Her eyes flash anger. “He’s using you.”
“What makes you think I’m not the one using him?” I lean against the porch railing. “Not that you’d know ‘cause he never went there with you, but he’s damn good with his hands.”
There’s a strange lightness in me—I wish I’d known, back when I was a child, how freeing it would feel not to fear the damage Celine could do because this liberty is delectable, almost as good as a Grand Cru Burgundy.
“Oh, please! Is that what he told you that he and I haven’t had sex?”
I don’t let her see that she’s making me doubt Maverick, despite myself.
You know him, Aria. He won’t have an affair with a married woman. He has morals. You’ve seen them. Trust him.
“Doesn’t matter who he fucked in the past. I’m the one he’s fuckin’ now.” My words are bolder than I feel.
Hudson comes out then, his face like thunder. “Celine, we have dinner with the Adairs in a couple of hours.”
Celine sets her half-drunk glass of cosmopolitan down.
“Lovely reunion. We should do it again!” She claps her hands together.
“Well, I’m going to change. Hudson”—she calls over her shoulder as she walks into the house like she fucking owns it, which she doesn’t—"I’m going to need you to zip my dress up, baby. ”
“I’ll be there.” Hudson picks up Celine’s drink and sniffs it. Then knocks it back.
I guess it’s happy hour somewhere!
I straighten, but before I can walk away, Hudson grabs my arm. “Please…can we talk?”
I look pointedly at his fingers. He loosens his grip and then drops his hand away. “Talk,” I instruct.
He sighs, runs a hand through his over-gelled hair, and locks his eyes with mine. “This is long overdue.”
I give him a look that says, ‘Get on with it, this is borin’.’
“I’m sorry.”
“For?” I ask, though I can guess. And it’s not long overdue, it’s so past due that it’s unnecessary. Also, considering how he turned out, he did me a favor by getting my baby sister pregnant.
That thought doesn’t hurt like it used to. In fact, I feel nothing but pity for Hudson.
“For?” He gives me a puzzled look.
“Yeah, what are you apologizing for?”
He grimaces and then nods. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness.
I know that. I’m not expecting it, either.
I just want you to know that I regret what I did.
Hated how I treated you. If I could go back…
.” He shakes his head. “But we can’t go back, just move forward.
I was a stupid kid. She told me she was pregnant, and I panicked.
I thought…maybe it was the right thing for me to do. ”
I don’t bother to point out that she didn’t get pregnant all on her lonesome. He fucked her fair and square and that, too, without protection. So, his apology and explanation are both bull-fuckin’-shit.
“Is that it? ‘Cause I got a shit ton of work to do.”
“She wasn’t, Aria,” he continues as if I didn’t say anything. “She wasn’t pregnant. It was a lie.”
I never suspected that. Never. “Hudson, I—"
“But we were already married, so…. We told Rami she had a miscarriage. Broke his heart.”
These two deserve each other, I think, as I feel nothing but relief. Celine was the dog who caught the car. She wanted my fiancé, and she got him and now…she can fucking keep him.
“I loved you, Aria.” He looks at me with his red-rimmed, alcohol-laden eyes. “I still love you.”
Unbidden, genuine laughter bursts out of me.
He looks stricken.
“Oh, come on, Hudson. You don’t get to rewrite history because your life turned out to be a mess.”
He flinches.
“Look. I don’t want your apology, sad and pathetic as it is. I don’t want your love or…whatever the hell you feel ‘cause I don’t think you know what love is. I don’t think you’re capable of it, and neither is Celine.”
His expression folds in on itself, quiet, raw. “I know what love is, Aria. You taught me that.”
“And in turn, you taught me what betrayal is.”
He smiles like it hurts. “I’ve paid…no, I’m still paying for that, Aria.”
“Are you?” I snap. “You live in a big fancy house. You throw around money you don’t earn on luxuries. Come on, Hudson, you’re livin’ the life.”
“You know that’s not true.”
His eyes are pleading for something…redemption? Like hell he’s going to get that from me.
“Hudson, I think you did me a favor,” I finally tell him. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
“I’m glad you’re happy, Aria.”
He’s sincere. He means it.
“You were always better than me…better than her. Rami, when he used to drink, would tell me that I was the reason he lost you.”
“He’s the reason he lost me,” I correct him.
There’s something broken in his eyes. “I’m glad you’re fighting to keep the ranch going. Rami was hoping you would.”
“I thought you wanted to sell so you can pay off your big debts to bad people?” I can’t help the snideness in my tone.
“I want you to have the ranch,” he tells me. “I want…I want it very much for you.”
With that cryptic comment, he walks away.
Yeah, I got damn lucky that Celine stole him away from me!