Chapter 5
Nash
The soft patter of rain hits my shoulders and the exposed skin of my arms as I bolt from the bar.
Why the hell did I say yes to a family dinner at the Hughes house?
I’ve been there countless times, especially during senior year, and even in the first few years of college, when Beckett and I remained close. He’d been my little protégé back then. A kid himself, he looked up to me, and I was proud to be that role model.
Then, life just changed. Katherine and I moved in together.
I was finishing college and then building my consulting business.
I still saw the Hughes family around town while I was visiting.
They still asked after me to my family, but damn, I don’t know the last time I saw them.
For years, they were such a fixture in my life, and only now am I realizing that they’re not.
How am I going to look into Georgia Hughes’s eyes and smile, knowing I’ve thought about fucking their daughter so hard she won’t be able to walk after?
I’ll come up with an excuse. I’m needed in Montana, or I’m not feeling well. Too tired. Not hungry.
Mumbling to myself as I climb into my truck, a damp hand on my forearm stops me.
I’m half-seated as I look over at those beautiful doe-brown eyes.
“Uh, Beckett said you were going to bed.” Betty’s wide eyes look up at me through her lashes, her fingers flexing slightly against my bare skin, searing my flesh.
“Yeah, tomorrow is a big day. I’m tired.” Averting my gaze, I focus on climbing all the way into the truck and starting the engine, ignoring the raindrops hitting the interior door. Ignoring the way she still grips my arm, every muscle flexing as if trying to expose more of me to her touch.
As if burned, she quickly yanks her hand away. “Right. Well, uh, some of the guys were planning to bring the party back to the cabins. You can take my room in the main house.”
“Don’t you stay there?” I ask, shifting my body in her direction.
The rain starts to fall faster, large droplets hitting her cheeks. Her damp lashes flutter as I reach out to touch her jaw, my thumb stroking the moisture across her skin.
Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t pull away.
She doesn’t avert her gaze, her chest pumping quickly the way it often does around me. My thumb swipes over the apple of her cheek before she pulls away, taking a step back.
“Only when I need to,” she whispers.
“And you don’t opening weekend?” I question sliding out of the truck, closing the distance she just put between us. It makes no sense how much I need to be close to her. It’s as if I need to be circling her orbit to get a view of her.
“You can take my room,” she says again, taking another step back.
I can’t help but reach for her, my hand finding her waist, while the other cups her face again.
I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. It’s wrong to take advantage of my jumbled feelings for her, but I can’t help but be attracted to her.
It’s not like I suddenly became a saint and stopped sleeping with women after my divorce.
I just don’t date them. I don’t have the time or the desire to put myself out there seriously.
Not when I am one man in public and another behind closed doors.
Her soft lips part, those eyes never leaving my face.
“Betty.”
“Please don’t, Nash. I am trying to keep my distance and not make this weird.” Her whimper nearly shatters my heart. Of all the people I’ve crossed paths with in my entire life, Betty has been the kindest. She’s the last person I’d ever want to hurt.
“You don’t have to avoid me.”
Her gaze casts down to her feet, her hands knotting in front of her stomach before she looks up at me again.
“Yes, I do. If you’re staying at the house, I can’t.
I always knew you would never see me like that, but then that night, at the party, I remembered how much fun we were having, and my fantasies got away from me.
I guess that’s why I told you. A part of me thought maybe now I could have you the way I always wanted. But I can’t, can I?”
“Betty,” I sigh. “I’m not the type of man you need.”
“That’s what I thought.” Her sad smile wobbles, and I would do anything to go back in time to the days when I would be at her house and she would giggle over documentaries.
I wish I could go back and have been invisible to her then.
I hate that she’s carried this flame for me for so long, and I can’t give her a damn thing back except a meaningless fuck.
“You have the code to the main house. The sheets are clean. Have a good night.”
There’s nothing to do but watch her walk away. I tell myself it’s for the best. Hopefully, she’ll never look back. I can’t stand breaking that woman’s heart any more than I have.
The scent of fresh linen and eucalyptus envelops me as I roll over in bed. Not the bed I was supposed to be sleeping in, but Betty’s.
Staring up at the ceiling, I can’t help but replay every moment with her since the night she told me she’d been in love with me.
Since then, very few of our interactions have been one-on-one.
I regret not having tried harder to talk to her.
Instead, I let her avoid me as much as she wanted, while I lingered in the shadows, learning everything I could about her.
It surprised me that she’s very much the same Betty I always knew. Organized, funny, charming, and witty. The way she latches on to facts and can spew them back to you as if it’s nothing always impresses me.
Had she not been so much younger and Beckett’s little sister, would I have ever considered her?
Before Betty confessed to me, I couldn’t recall a single moment I so much as looked at her as anything other than that ten-year-old girl staring up at the stars.
I met her as a kid, and that’s where I kept her.
She remained that young, curious mind I could sit back and listen to ramble about everything and nothing for hours.
My phone suddenly buzzes on the nightstand, a groan leaving me as I snatch it off the surface.
“Hello.”
“Sleeping in, I see?” Hunt chuckles from the other line—my right hand in business.
We met in college, freshman year. He wasn’t my roommate, but lived down the hall. It didn’t take long for us to forge a bond. Neither of us cared for our assigned roommates and found refuge in each other.
When I first told him I was going into the distribution business with my father, but also consulting on the side, he was the first to cheer me on.
His experience in corporate America and prestigious business degree made him my best resource.
He’d supported me from afar and then at my side when he quit his soul-sucking job. We’ve been a pair ever since.
“It was a long night,” I groan, digging the heel of my palm into each eye, clearing the sleep.
“Is she still there?” His voice drops as he whispers, but I can hear the laughter in his tone. After my divorce, Hunt has called me plenty of mornings and found me whispering as I stumble around trying to redress after yet another fling or one-night stand.
“It was opening night. You know that,” I grunt, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. “Why are you calling me so early?”
A soft hum sounds through the phone as if he’s contemplating the mysteries of the universe. “The Langley deal might fall through. Turns out the purchaser can’t come up with the funds.”
“Shit!”
The soft tap of his finger on a tablet screen fills the brief silence.
“Yeah, not ideal. But another buyer will pay almost double if it does.” That’s Hunt.
There’s always a Plan B, C, and D. It’s not enough to trust someone at their word.
He’ll be prepared for every scenario and then prepare additional favorable outcomes for the plans we didn’t need to use.
“Then why are you calling me?” I groan, ready to fall back into Betty’s soft pillows and pretend they’re her soft body.
“There’s no deal unless they can meet with you in person next week,” he sighs.
I want to scream. Heading home to Montana wasn’t part of the plan. I’d planned on staying in Cole County for a week or so. It was a perfect excuse to catch up with the family and ensure we’re prepared for our event next weekend. Then, maybe, I could spend time with…
No, Nash. No, you’re not going near her like that.
“I’ll be there.”
“Figured as much,” Hunt chuckles. “Safe travels, man.”
The line goes dead, and I just sit there.
It was my choice to stay in Montana after Katherine and I ended our marriage. When you grow up in a place like Cole County, you either can’t wait to get out or you never want to leave. I always felt like something was wrong with me for wanting both of them.
Guilt nearly swallowed me for wanting to see the world, while never wanting to leave my family’s farm. I wanted to hike to waterfalls, but not miss my nieces and nephews running around the same land I did as a child—not that we ever get to witness that.
After I graduated, Katherine and I decided to stay in Montana.
We’d grown comfortable there. It was affordable to purchase a large amount of land and build the massive modern house she desired.
We could live off the map in the silence, but still jet set wherever we wanted because we were at the top of our fields.
We were an unstoppable couple—the best of friends.
Funny, after she walked out the front door for the last time, I was convinced the call of Cole County would bring me home. In my mind, I just knew Montana couldn’t still feel like home, but somehow it did. A part of me still belonged in that massive house all alone.
Montana had become home as much as Cole County always would be.
Only, for the first time, I’m finding more reasons to stay in this small town. Perhaps the call has finally come, and it’s in the form of a woman I never even took notice of.
Fuck me.