by Claire Cain
“Well, first I destroyed my shoulder in a spectacular show of human frailty, and then I moved back. I never planned on football as something that would last forever, but I damn sure hoped it’d last a bit longer. But I got a ring, made some money, and spent very little, so it gave me options. But you could say even years later that I’m still finding myself.” He batted his lashes.
“I’m sorry about the injury. That’s really difficult.”
“It was. It threw me for a loop, and I spent my time mourning, for sure. And Wyatt was there every step of the way.” His eyes jumped to mine like he wanted to impress that upon me.
“He seems like a good man. Very devoted to his family.”
“He is that.”
“I’m glad you have each other.”
I wasn’t sure what the look meant. Maybe he thought I was after his brother, or maybe he wanted me to go for him. No idea. Neither was an issue, so I just smiled and popped the last piece of cinnamon swirl into my mouth.
“Well, I’ve gotta head out. Enjoy your time in town. I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”
I waved since my mouth was full. He tossed a “Gentlemen,” to the group at the longer table as he sauntered to the exit. They returned with farewells, many of them saying his name, so clearly the small-town effect worked here. He winked at one of the men. “And I’ll talk to you soon, right, sir?”
The older man with crystal blue eyes and white hair, but a strong jaw, nodded. Warrick returned the gesture, then scuttled out the door with a jingle of the bell.
I watched him go, then my eye snagged on a tall figure in jeans and a familiar brown jacket shaking a woman’s hand, then pulling her into his arms for a hug.
Huh. I hadn’t heard that Wyatt had a girlfriend, but that looked suspiciously like one. His mother certainly didn’t know about her. He smiled widely at the woman, and something in my stomach dipped. I hadn’t seen a smile like that on him, so free and genuine and wow. Then he placed a hand on her back and gestured to the door of Guac.
Well, that’s a bit awkward. Maybe I should ask Warrick for a drive back up to the house? But Wyatt would’ve said something, and he certainly wouldn’t have outright offered. I doubted the date was something that popped up all of a sudden—no way Wyatt was spontaneous enough for that.
No. It’d be fine. I’d enjoy my time in town and head back up to the ranch later, and no one needed to mention the date. If he didn’t think it was weird, I didn’t need to either. We weren’t dating, nor would we. Nor did I want anything from him, so… see? Yeah. No big deal.
TWELVE
Wyatt
Pulling Sarah into another hug, I held her tight, then released her. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
She chuckled and nodded, her cheeks bright with embarrassment. “I won’t.”
“And next time, you’re not going to set up a date to try and see me, right? Promise me?” I said, ducking my head to look her right in her bright blue eyes.
She rolled those eyes and shook her head, just like she used to. Just like when she’d been Wilder’s first love, who I’d thought might end up being his wife and my sister-in-law. That was over a decade ago, though, and she’d gone from sweet, genuine girl to beautiful, mature woman. Not for the first or tenth time in the last hour, I wished Wilder were here to see her.
“Promise.”
I nodded, then stepped back to leave but collided with a body.
“I’m sorry, I—”
“It’s fine. Really. Don’t worry about it.”
Aw, shoot. Of course it’d be her. “I’m sorry, Ms. Rice. I didn’t know you were behind me.”
“I shouldn’t have been standing so close. I thought you were saying goodbye. I didn’t mean to intrude.” Her eyes flickered to Sarah, who stood a few steps away watching the awkward exchange.
“No intrusion. No problem. I didn’t mean to run you over.” And I really didn’t need to keep apologizing, but I didn’t know how to move on. Sarah wasn’t a date—well, not really. And now that I knew who she was and how not a date she was, I felt suddenly far more awkward with Calla.
“Hi, I’m Sarah.” Sarah, ever the friendly, sweet woman, held out her hand.
“Calla. Nice to meet you.”
Oof. An odd impact hit me, worlds colliding. Sarah, a woman who was essentially a surrogate little sister to me for years when she and Wilder were together in high school, and Calla, a woman I… well. I couldn’t quite finish that sentence, but she was certainly someone new and surreal.
“You seem familiar to me for some reason,” Sarah said with a tilt of her head.
Warning lights blinked in my head. If she recognizes Calla, then others will too, and she’ll leave.
It didn’t make sense—I’ll be the first to admit, it didn’t—but in this moment, I couldn’t stomach the thought of her having to leave early.
“She grew up here but has been gone a long time. Anyway, we have to run—back up the canyon. You know how it goes.” My words were rushed, and I set a hand on Calla’s back to guide her away. She glanced at me like I was a crazy person but didn’t say anything. “See you around, Sarah.”
Sarah bid us farewell and went her way, and we went ours, tromping down the sidewalk, across the street, and around to the parking area where I’d parked hours earlier. My heart beat quick in my chest, which didn’t make sense. Still, I moved us along until we’d arrived at the truck. I swung the door open, then offered her a hand.
Her dark eyes hit mine, and my stomach dropped. She looked at me like I was a puzzle instead of an oddly flustered man holding her gloved hand.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice low and soft.
I nodded, though the impact of those words hit me like a gust of icy air, almost cutting in their strength for some reason. I shut the door after her, blowing out a breath and all the insane tension that’d piled up in the last few minutes over absolutely nothing.
No. Not nothing. Over the prospect of Sarah recognizing Calla and that somehow making this totally out of my league woman have to leave. That’s not something I’m going to think about. Not the hammering, sudden response to Sarah’s potentially recognizing her, and most especially not how much I didn’t want her to leave.
The truck rumbled to life, and I cranked the heater, then pulled out and headed home. In any other situation, I’d try to talk to the person next to me in the cab. But talking with Calla just didn’t come easily to me. It was like that with some folks, and I’d long accepted I wasn’t a chatty man. Not like Warrick, though Wilder made me look downright loquacious.
But with her, I wanted to pry. I wanted to know what she’d done today and how she felt about the town now. I wanted to know about her life as a musician and how she was doing with her mom’s death, and if she was still with that popstar. But I had no right to any of that.
“So…” she said on an exhale, breaking into my thoughts.
“So?”
“How was your date?”
I glanced at her, then back at the road. “My date?”
“Weren’t you on a date just now?”
I dared to peek at her again, but she’d fixed her attention out the passenger window. Debating whether to tell her the truth of what’d happened, I took a moment. Evidently, I took a little too long, because before I could speak, she did.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to pry.”
“I was just thinking how to describe it. It’s an odd situation, but to make a long story short, Sarah was Wilder’s girlfriend in high school. We all thought they were going to get married.” And it went so far south, got so messed up, that he hadn’t been back to Silver Ridge for more than a few days at a time in over eighteen years.
“And you just went out with her?” She didn’t attempt to mask the disgust in her voice.
I chuckled. “Might sound that way, but I didn’t realize it was her. Her photo isn’t clear, and the app doesn’t give last names. Plus, she hasn’t lived around here in years. Or so I thought. I guess she
recently moved back. It never occurred to me it might be her, since Sarah isn’t exactly a unique name.”
In fact, I’d been out with a Sarah and a Sara in the last two months alone.
“She had to have known it was you, though. A Wyatt up here, around your age… that seems more unique. Plus, you’ve got a big name around here, right?”
“How do you know that?”
She cleared her throat. “I may have Googled you.”
“Oh really?” I couldn’t hide the smile. Didn’t make any sense for me to like that she’d looked me up, but I did.
“You haven’t searched my name?”
I felt the force of her stare and the consequential burning in my cheeks.
“I did. Well, I searched your stage name.” Damn, but my whole face had to be glowing red.
“Hmm. As suspected.”
She was quiet then, and I wondered if she guessed how that’d affected me. As if to confirm my thoughts, she said, “Was that when you started talking to me like I was a drug dealer?”
Had I not been driving, I would’ve shut my eyes against my own idiocy. Because yes, that was exactly what happened. “I was a jackass. I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t trying to—whatever. I guess by now you’ve figured not everything you read is true?”
“I already knew that, which makes it worse. Warrick reamed me over that one, trust me.”
He’d made the same point again and again, and he’d been right. My nonsensical reaction to this woman still had me confused, and the consumption and belief of all those headlines was just one part of that.
“I do like that brother of yours. He’s a good one.”
“He is,” I agreed. He was. And it spoke well of her that she recognized it.
Quiet settled between us, and since I wasn’t used to talking to anyone other than Mom and War, I welcomed a moment to arrange my thoughts.
“So she wanted to go out with you even though you were like an older brother to her? Or was she secretly always pining for you?”
The tone of her voice made it sound forbidden and sexy.
“Heck no. She wanted to apologize for some things.” I shifted uncomfortably at the memory of her apology—she hadn’t ever owed me one. “And I think maybe she wanted to know about Wilder. She didn’t ask, but I gave her the gist.”
“And what’s that?”
“He’s been active duty Army for the last eighteen years. Pretty much since he left here. Always said he’d come back when he retired, and he’s always said he’d be getting out right at twenty.”
It’d be good to have him home… I hoped. He’d never been easygoing like Warrick. But after everything with Sarah, and years of crazy crap happening in his military life, he’d become more intense, harder, and somehow darker.
Maybe that was wrong. Hopefully, it was. But I couldn’t help the feeling that whenever he did end up back home, he’d have a lot of work to do before he could be comfortable. Both here, and in the civilian world at large.
And I wanted to be ready for him. I wanted to help him and make up for the ways I hadn’t been able to these years he’d been gone. I just had to figure myself out first.
Maybe helping Calla could be like a test run of sorts. I could help her in some way, and maybe it’d pull me out of this funk I’d been in. Doing something for someone, thinking about them before myself, it’d be perfect practice for whenever Wilder came back.
“Wow. So Jane will have all her little ducklings back home.”
I chuckled. “Yes. And having met her, you can imagine there’s nothing that’d make her happier.”
She snorted, and I glanced over to see it. She had a look I couldn’t decipher. “What’s that about?”
“Even I know of something that would make Jane Saint happier than anything else.” She raised her brows and gave me a meaningful look.
“Oh. Right. Yeah, she desperately wants all of us to be married and cranking out grandkids. Woman’s got a hunger for babies I’ve never known the likes of.”
Laughing, she responded, “I believe it. Last night, she strategically let slip that both you and Warrick are single.”
My cheeks heated yet again. “Damn. Not okay. I’m sorry. I hope you know it wasn’t because you’re... uh, you. More just that you’re of a certain age, beautiful, and seem to get along with everyone well.”
Crap. That wasn’t the best explanation. But I didn’t want her to think Mom was trying to set her up with us because of her wealth and fame.
“Well, I’d hate to think it was due to me being me.”
I cringed. “You know what I mean.”
She seemed to think on that before answering. “I guess I do. Don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with any untoward advances from me.”
For some stupid reason, those words sent a flash of warmth through me. To distract myself from that, I offered, “Well at least there’s that.”
“There is. I told her I just broke up with someone, so… not on the market.”
I hummed, not sure how to respond to this. Maybe because I found the statement confusing. She’d broken up with someone, so her being single, that sounded good. But then hearing her say she wasn’t on the market sent a cold wave of disappointment through me. And none of that made sense, since this woman wasn’t an option for me anyway.
“What’s that? What’s the ‘hmm’ for?”
I snuck a look over at her, the adrenaline knocking through me as I felt the words coming before I could stop them. “I remember reading about a breakup. That part of the headlines was true, huh?”
THIRTEEN
Calla
Well, crap.
I shouldn’t have said anything about that, but I couldn’t just let it hang out there. Especially not with this strange draw to him that’d compelled me to press him for answers. And to admit I’d looked him up.
It wasn’t embarrassment, exactly, but something that felt a little more raw. So I’d made sure he knew I wasn’t interested. But now, I could feel it. I could tell I was about to do something with him I had never done, and it didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t have stopped the words for anything.
“Not really. First, Brian was never my real boyfriend.” I let out a long breath, nerves churning. “It was a publicity move—a favor, really.”
“That was nice of you.”
I laughed. “A favor from him to me.”
His brows rose high on his head, and this told me he really didn’t know much about me. That was both rare and delightful. His admission that he’d looked me up and that what he’d seen had influenced his impression of me should’ve disappointed me. Maybe somewhere deep down it did, but mostly, it made me feel glad we were cutting through that. He’d apologized thoroughly and genuinely last night, and even before. People so rarely did that and meant it, so he’d had my forgiveness immediately.
With his attention on the road, I took the chance to study him, and immediately, my stomach dropped. He was ridiculously handsome. A trimmed blond, brown, red, and just a touch of gray beard shaded his cut jaw. His features were all proportionate and pleasing, and his lips were just… kind of laughable. He was this big, strong man with a bottom lip so plush, I’d thought about it. And I was not in the business of thinking about men like that.
“Forgive me for asking, but why would it be a favor to you?”
He sounded genuinely perplexed. Yeah, definitely has no idea what a screeching pile of failures my life has been in the last few years.
“He’s an old, good friend. He has a great reputation and is hugely successful. He wanted a little bad-boy edge because he was going for—well, none of that matters. The point is, dating me could give him a little less golden-boy aura and a little more edge. And for me, being with someone whose star has done nothing but rise in the last decade, was one of many last-ditch efforts to salvage my career.” Even I heard the bitterness ring out in my voice.
“I don’t see how it needs salvaging. You’re one of the biggest na
mes on earth. You’re… I mean, you’re an A-lister, right? I don’t… I guess I know nothing about all that.”
His hands shifted on the steering wheel, and it hit me that this might be the first time I’d noticed them without gloves on. They were large and nice-looking, long fingers with clean, trimmed nails. I bet they’d be calloused, and maybe kind of rough in the palms. But something told me Wyatt would only ever touch a woman gently.
What in the what are you thinking about?
I shifted my body so I could study the passing scenery of the canyon and not continue that futile train of thought. Then I remembered he’d said something and I should respond. “I guess, technically, yes. But my last few albums have tanked. Everything with Candy has put me in a place to be on the defense. The whole ‘Mayhem’ thing has taken a dark turn lately.”
I’d never felt the bone-deep need to escape my life until the last few months. Right after Candy’s death, I’d been in a fog, so escaping hadn’t even occurred to me. But things with Rad had gotten more and more problematic during the last six months, and his guidance felt like the first in a long line of issues I just had to escape.
So I did. But talking about all of it brought it right back and only bolstered my desire to stay away as long as I could. To be here as Calla, not Miss Mayhem. I could be this version of myself, this girl who’d grown up in a small town and chatted with chap-wearing ranchers. Wanting that wasn’t so wrong, was it?
Yet, if I’d ever needed more evidence that wanting things was pure poison, I needed only look at my life these last few years.
“So this popstar kid was helping you, but now you’re broken up because of some story even though you were never together?” He sounded… irritated. “Doesn’t that hurt you more than help?”
“It’s a good breaking point. The fact that the illicit affair I was supposedly having was a lunch with my manager didn’t seem to matter to the reporters. I called Brian and told him it was a perfect opportunity for him to split with me and look good doing it, and he actually objected, the idiot.”
