Chapter Four
Cormac
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I forced my attention back to the woman across from me. “Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew.”
Someone I’d known a long time ago.
I’d been braced to see Zara Vasquez again—this summer, sometime, inevitably—but not tonight. Not like this. Not sitting in Gray’s Diner, across from a woman who’d said yes when I’d asked her out, doing my level best to give her the courtesy she deserved.
Victoria lifted one perfectly shaped eyebrow, her glossy lips curving. “Was it a ghost?”
I huffed out a quiet laugh. “No. A friend of the family. From years back.” Reaching across the table, I took her hands, her skin warm against mine. “Nothing to worry about. Please—finish your story.”
Victoria resumed talking, her voice animated as she picked up where she’d left off. I nodded in the right places and smiled when she smiled, wanting to be present. I owed her that.
She was good company. Lovely, sharp, easy to be with.
We’d met a couple months ago on the resort side of my family’s ranch.
I managed hospitality operations, and she worked in the spa.
I usually avoided dating anyone I worked with, but our roles didn’t really overlap, so it had felt safe enough to take the chance.
She was great. Beautiful and lively. Amenable. She hadn’t complained about a casual dinner at the diner, even if her designer heels looked wildly out of place on the scuffed linoleum.
I should have been paying attention.
Instead, all I could think about was how wide and startled Zara’s eyes had been, more than halfway to panic. The way she’d bolted the moment our eyes had met.
Was that how it was going to be? Was she planning to spend the entire summer ducking corners and sprinting for exits to avoid me?
Maybe it would be better if she did.
I smiled at Victoria as she spoke, my gaze drifting to the corner booth. Our booth. The one Zara and I had claimed so thoroughly, we’d carved our names into the underside of the table, laughing as if we were doing something scandalous instead of stupid.
“Now it’s ours,” Zara whispered, eyes shining.
My heart thudded so hard I worried she might hear it. “Gray will kill us if he finds it.”
She laughed and kicked my foot under the table. “Tell him it was my idea. I’ll take the blame, Maccie.”
I shook my head. “No one would ever believe that.”
Everyone loved Zara. It was her fifth summer in Wyoming, and each time she showed up, the town became brighter and more alive.
Or maybe that was just me.
She shrugged. “I’m leaving in a couple weeks. What are they going to do, ground me when I’m back in Oregon?”
I nudged her foot with mine. “Do you really need to remind me you’re leaving?”
She poked her bottom lip out. “Don’t be sad. You know I can’t stand it when you’re sad. You’re only meant to be happy.”
“How am I supposed to be happy when my best friend is going to be a thousand miles away?”
I winced inwardly, sure I’d revealed too much. But Zara only smiled, resting her foot fully on top of mine.
“I like when you say I’m your best friend.”
Heat rushed to my face. “You know you are.”
Her head tilted, that familiar, knowing smile playing on her lips. “Yeah. Besties for life. To the river and back.”
“To the river and back,” I echoed.
If Gray had ever noticed, he’d never said a word. Not then. Not in all the years after.
Then again, I didn’t even know if they were still there.
That summer had been the last time I’d sat in that booth.
And the last time Zara Vasquez had set foot in Sugar Brush.
Nothing had been the same since.