Chapter 12
My hands had gone to the brunette’s waist instinctively. But I knew if I dropped them or shoved her away now, it would look so much worse.
Besides, this girl? I had a history with this girl, and Mallory knew that.
“Miss me?” the girl in my arms asked as she leaned back enough to search my face. I had no doubt her ever-present, playful smile was in place, but I couldn’t look away from the girl across the street as my mind raced and heart wrenched . . .
As I took in where she was—only a booth away from where she’d originally left me, as if she’d expected me to follow her and had quickly gotten swallowed up in the vendor’s crowd instead, when I’d thought she’d bolted . . .
As I once again reconsidered every snide remark and defensive expression Mallory had thrown at me over the years.
Because the anguish on her face matched the agony I’d been living in for the past three months. The resignation I could see in her eyes echoed the bitter pill I’d swallowed over a decade ago—that she’d never be mine.
In the next second, shield after shield slammed into place until Mallory’s grief was replaced with that ice-cold aloofness and irritation I was so used to.
“You think hitting on every woman in sight doesn’t hurt her? You think picking up countless women in front of her doesn’t hurt her? You ever think maybe she was saying it out of self-preservation? You ever think she needed for you to mean it?”
I hadn’t . . . until yesterday.
I hadn’t been able to figure out why she hadn’t immediately annulled our marriage . . . until yesterday.
For so many reasons, I’d been sure there was no future for me and that infuriating woman . . . until yesterday.
And I refused to waste another eleven years or months or even days.
I struggled to swallow past the shards of glass in my throat, my stare never leaving Mallory as I finally managed to respond. “Tessa.” Her name was a rasp as I carefully but firmly removed her from my body.
Not that she let that deter her—not that I’d thought she would.
Her hands slid back to my arms and up my shoulders, squeezing as they went. Not seeming to notice when I automatically reached out like I might be able to stop Mallory when she actually left.
“Where’ve you been?” Tessa bounced up on her toes, bringing herself closer to me, even as I tried shifting away to go after Mallory.
“I mean, Emberly said you’re here all the time, but it’s been months since I’ve seen you in the shop.
And even then, you’re usually with that girl.
You know”—Tessa waved a dismissive hand through the air—“that quiet, brooding one, who looks like she might kill everyone she sees.”
“Wouldn’t put it past her,” I mumbled. Starting with me.
I once again tried extricating myself from Tessa, but she somehow remained obliviously attached to me.
“You know,” Tessa began in a suggestive tone that had me gritting my teeth, “I was hoping you might stick around tonight, so we—”
“Stop,” I said over her and turned my attention to her for the first time.
Grabbing her upper arms, I kept her in place so I could finally remove myself from her, and held her dark stare that seemed so much duller than usual, but I didn’t have time to focus on that.
“We can’t, and we won’t. I’m sorry, but we never should’ve in the first place, because that girl?
The quiet, brooding one? She was everything to me long before you and I started or ended, and now she needs to know it. ”
Something like panic slid across her features, and if I hadn’t been so determined to leave, to rush after the girl my heart was desperately trying to get to, I might’ve noticed it.
I might’ve noticed the way Tessa’s shadowed eyes quickly darted around us as she reached for me again, clinging tight. “There’s something I—”
“Tessa, stop.” I once again held her in place as I removed myself from her grasp, barely sparing her a glance as I said, “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
I didn’t give Tessa another chance to respond, I just took off again in the direction Mallory had gone. Only this time, it felt like everything was on the line.
By the time I finally caught up with her, she’d made it away from the festival and was heading toward my cousin’s bed and breakfast like a beautiful storm of wrath and pain.
“Years,” she scoffed when I was within earshot, all without ever turning around. “You just told me you’ve been spending almost every weekend here for months, and I know what she is to you.”
“Was,” I corrected. “Years ago. And, yes, it’s been years since anyone at all.”
“Every interaction within those years says differently.”
“I’m sorry.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop, braving her icy stare. “Monroe, I’m sorry for every time—”
“Good night you walk fast,” a feminine voice cut in from just beside us, sounding playfully out of breath. “Little legs here.”
I glanced to the side out of habit, my lips already parted to continue my apology to Mallory, when I realized the irritatingly familiar woman was actually speaking to me.
“Not now, Em,” I muttered to another one of my cousin’s wives, my attention already shifting back to Mallory when Emberly smacked my arm and let out a little laugh.
“You’re funny.” Glancing at Mallory, she muttered, “He’s funny. Anyway, from what I heard, you’re headed out to the ranch, and I left my Jeep there this morning. I also need a ride there in about . . . oh, ten minutes ago. So, yay for you! You get to drive me. Let’s go.”
My jaw worked as I studied the indifference Mallory was so easily portraying, then loosed a frustrated sigh as I focused on Cayson’s wife. “Seriously, Em. Not the time.”
Emberly arched a dark brow, letting me know she was keenly aware of what she’d walked up on and didn’t care. “Ten minutes ago,” she repeated firmly. “Try keeping me from my kids even longer, Hudson. See if I don’t mess up that pretty face.”
“Well, he wouldn’t want that,” Mallory murmured as she turned to continue toward the bed and breakfast.
I grabbed Emberly’s forearm to keep her in place and watched Mallory until she was out of hearing distance before turning on her. But before I could get a word out, she beat me to it.
“You’re welcome,” she said, complete with a bright, cheesy smile.
A stunned huff burst from me. “Not what I was going for. The last thing I needed right then was you running up and interrupting.”
“Oh, I could tell.” She slipped her phone out of her back pocket with her free hand and began tapping on the screen, talking as she went. “We all could. But anyone with eyes could see that the last thing she needed was you trying to talk to her right then. Your girl needed time.”
“Not my girl,” I unconsciously corrected before realizing what she’d first said. “What we?”
She glanced up from her phone long enough to use the device to make a circle in the air, as if the people she was talking about were all standing just behind her.
“All of us. I’d just slipped away from my booth to check on the orchard’s when the whole thing between you, your girlfriend, and Tessa went down. ”
“Not my girlfriend,” I reminded her.
Emberly just gave me a deadpan look before forcibly pulling me toward the bed and breakfast as she continued.
“Now, I love Tessa as much as the next person—clearly, I hired her—but that was a whole bunch of yikes, and your girl needs a minute without you trying to fix it. Which is where I come in. Again, you’re welcome.
” She gave me another bright smile before skipping out of my hold and practically dancing away. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
I was absolutely worried.
I loved Emberly. I wasn’t sure I had one memory in Amber that didn’t include her. When she’d married my cousin, Cayson, it’d just solidified that she was family. However, her version of helping sometimes had a way of making things so much worse.
Dragging my hands through my hair, I followed her. Easily erasing the distance and stalking the rest of the way to the house.
By the time I made it to my truck, Mallory was perfectly composed. Unaffected. Disinterested.
Until Emberly spoke.
“I didn’t even get to say hi to you,” Emberly said excitedly as she bounced up to Mallory. “How’ve you been? Where’ve you been? It feels like it’s been forever since you’ve come here.”
Mallory’s eyes snapped to me before falling away as uncertainty and a whisper of that earlier pain slipped through the cracks in her fortress. “Been busy.”
Emberly made an acknowledging hum and returned to her phone. “Story of my life,” she said noncommittedly as she climbed into my truck.
I studied her suspiciously, then caught Mallory’s gaze before she could do the same. Lowering my voice, I informed her, “We’re talking when we get to Hunter’s.”
Mallory opened the passenger door. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said softly but firmly before pulling herself into the cab.
Gripping the door, I forced myself to take in a deep, calming breath before shutting it behind her.
But when I made it around the front of the truck and opened my own door, I stilled and my eyes slowly closed when the unmistakable sounds of heartbreak-fueled country music filtered out from my back seat.
When I finally opened my eyes again, the confusion marring Mallory’s beautiful features, and the tense way she was holding herself, were all I could focus on.
If this was Emberly’s version of taking care of it, I was even more tempted to leave her behind.
“Em,” I began once I was in the driver’s seat, then glanced at her from over my shoulder. “My radio works just fine.”
“Oh, no, thank you,” Emberly said as she turned the volume on her phone even louder. “The Chicks fill my soul.” When my lips parted again, she gestured to me with her free hand. “Babies waiting. Drive please.”
A smile that was pure frustration and promised so much wrath tugged at my mouth, but I just faced forward and cranked the engine.
With another glance at a victoriously smirking Emberly in my back seat, I side-eyed Mallory’s too-still form and pulled away from the bed and breakfast.
None of us spoke the entire way to the ranch. But during the short drive that seemed to take forever, one song bled into the next. Same band. Same general feeling of sorrow.
I was never letting Emberly anywhere near Mallory after this.
Once we finally made it to the other side of the crowded town and had pulled onto the gravel drive in front of Hunter’s place, I put my truck in park and twisted in the seat, fully prepared to have it all out with Mallory right there.
But just as quickly as Emberly slipped out of my truck, she was there. Opening Mallory’s door and practically dragging her out.
“Madison’s gonna die when she realizes you’re here,” Emberly said as if she was totally oblivious to what she was interrupting. She wasn’t. “She’s been so worried she’d be the last one to meet you.”
“No, she hasn’t,” I argued from where I was glaring down at the tiny girl.
Emberly shot me the same glare in return. “And how would you know, pretty boy?” she countered before finally succeeding in pulling Mallory out of the truck. All while Mallory tossed me a desperate look, like she would rather do anything than go with my cousin’s wife.
Even have that conversation.
Then again, she knew there were kids inside the house we were about to enter.
With an aggravated sigh, I dragged a hand through my hair and hurried after them. Latching onto Emberly’s arm, I pulled her back to hiss, “What exactly are you doing?”
One of her dark brows arched as she stared me down. “Trust the process.”
Another one of those frustrated smiles stole across my face as my attention flashed to where Mallory was eyeing my truck like a haven before falling to Emberly again. “And what process would that be?”
Emberly waved her phone in front of my face before letting it fall to her side.
“The Chicks work wonders. Trust me. Trust them. Trust the process. Also, you can’t be trying to force your way into the process during it.
Wait until it’s done. Now, run along.” She shooed me with her phone.
“Go . . . I don’t know, do something useful.
” Her eyes lit. “Go entertain the kids while I save your non-relationship, relationship.”
With that, she whirled around and practically danced in that Emberly way of walking, to where Mallory waited, her blue eyes silently pleading with me to get her out of here.
I don’t know what it said about me that I just watched them walk away for a few seconds before following.
I told myself it was because I’d promised Hunter we’d be here. But I couldn’t help but wonder if I wasn’t a little curious about whatever Emberly was trying to do.