Hometown Hope: A Small Town Romance Anthology

by Zoe York

  Her daddy twisted toward her, his lips turned down like he was concerned. “The money.”

  “What money?” Honestly, if he didn’t get to the point, she was going to walk away. Just turn and walk straight over to Finn and ignore her daddy—

  “The money I gave him to leave town. Now, I know it wasn’t my best move, honey, and I’m sorry about that. I truly am. But that boy…well, he wasn’t ever good enough for you. Wasn’t ever good enough to be attached to a Haven. Since you were too blind to see it back then, I had to take matters into my own hands. Had to get that boy out of town before y’all did somethin’ you’d come to regret. And you would regret it. Of that I have no doubt.” He reached out and gripped her shoulder. “I did it for your own good, you see.”

  Her father’s lips were still moving, words coming out of them, his expression proclaiming concerned parent, but she couldn’t pay attention to what he was saying. Her pulse thrummed too loud in her ears, years’ worth of memories flipping through her mind.

  The day she’d woken up and Finn had been gone.

  Running to the tree house, hoping to find a note, a message, something that’d tell her why he’d had to leave. Why he couldn’t say goodbye.

  Falling asleep with her cell phone in her hand, just hoping and praying he’d call her or text her. If not to tell her why he left, then at least to tell her he was okay.

  Lying in her bed weeks later, the night she’d finally accepted he wasn’t coming back. That he’d left her, despite their plans, and Havenbrook was no longer his home.

  Then months later, withdrawing her admission to Tennessee State University. Because she wasn’t the girl she’d been with Finn. He’d stripped that from her, had taken every ounce of fire she’d had and blown it out as he’d flown from town.

  Her father squeezed her shoulder again, pulling her from the fog. “Sorry to have to tell you like this, Will. But I couldn’t watch you go down that path again. Just wouldn’t be right for me to sit by and say nothin’.”

  She nodded as if she understood. As if everything she’d put back together wasn’t cracking at the foundation. After her daddy’s show earlier at the baseball diamond, she certainly couldn’t trust what he said as gospel. But the seeds of doubt he’d planted were enough of a push to get her to finally have that conversation with Finn. Much as she’d worried about the answer, it was time to find out once and for all why he left all those years ago.

  Finn wasn’t sure it’d have been possible to have a better day than today. By the time he, Drew, and Nola had finished up serving in the square and closing up, they’d been sure of one thing: this business of theirs was actually going to succeed.

  And wasn’t that a fine revelation to come to when only hours before the town’s mayor had disparaged them in front of everyone, claiming they weren’t worth the dirt beneath his feet?

  Just went to show Dick didn’t know shit. Not about Finn, and not about Havenbrook. And he certainly hadn’t had the majority of his town’s interests at heart when he’d thrown up all the roadblocks for them to start the business. Havenbrook was thirsty—pun intended—for a gathering space. Somewhere they could kick back with friends and hang out without having to drive thirty minutes to do so.

  Finn was damn glad they were the ones providing that to the people who’d once looked down upon him and his brother, but now saw them as equals.

  His main focus all day had been finding Dick and taking care of the little matter of that cashier’s check still in his pocket, but by the time they’d gotten cleaned up long after the last firework had gone off, the square had been empty. Besides, he didn’t want to waste his time with Dick right then.

  He wanted to see Willow.

  While they hadn’t made plans, Finn figured her show on the baseball diamond was invitation enough for him to knock on her door. Even if it was after midnight.

  He pulled up to her and Mac’s place, thankful to see lights still burning behind the drapes. Maybe, if he were lucky, she’d make his fantasies come true and let him stay the night. Wake up with her in his arms. He didn’t figure Mac would mind too much. When it came to Willow’s younger sister, she didn’t seem to mind too much at all.

  At his knock, the door flew open, doesn’t-mind-much-Mac’s face as red as a fire hydrant, her glare aimed directly at him. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “I—what?” Finn furrowed his brow as he scratched his jaw and looked over Mac’s head, trying to puzzle out why she’d answer like that. A joke?

  “I said, what the fuck do you want, Griffin?” She crossed her arms, foot tapping on the hardwood floor.

  Shit, maybe Mac was pissed about how the game had gone down earlier. He’d thought she’d had a good time despite losing, but maybe she wasn’t as easygoing as he’d assumed.

  “Hey, I’m sorry about the game. You played great, and—”

  “You think this is about the goddamn game? Shit, you’re an asshole and an idiot.”

  “Mac, what the hell’s—” But his words caught in his throat because over Mac’s shoulder, he caught sight of Willow standing on the staircase, her face passive and emotionless as she stared at him. No smile. No twinkle in her eye. Nothing. His stomach twisted, the urge to go to her too strong to resist. “Willowtree? What—”

  “I know you said you wanted to chat with him, Will, but I could knee him in the balls for you instead,” Mac called over her shoulder, blocking the doorway so Finn couldn’t get through. “Just say the word. It’d be my absolute pleasure.”

  He stared at Willow, her questioning eyes connecting with his. She stood silent for an eternity. Finally, she said, “Maybe after we have that chat.”

  Thank Christ. A chat would do Finn some good. He could find out what the hell had happened to Willow between when he’d last seen her in the square, looking beautiful as hell and smiling at him like he hung the damn moon, to now when she looked ready to murder him.

  Mac shoved her finger into his chest, pressing deep as she leaned close. “She might be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I’m not finding myself quite so gracious given your history. Just remember I’m a fifth-degree black belt. And I’m pretty sure no one would fault me for shooting you in the ass with a BB gun when it’s after midnight, so you better be damn careful with your words. Never can be too sure who’s breaking and entering, now can you?” She spun around and headed for the steps, squeezing Willow’s arm as she passed. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

  After aiming one more glare in Finn’s direction, Mac shot up the stairs, and then it was just him and Willow.

  He stepped inside, closing the door behind him, before striding over to her. Needing to touch her, to feel her, reassure himself she was all right. “Tell me what’s goin’ on. Mac said you wanted to chat? And why is she ready to shoot me with a damn BB gun? Is it about the game? I’m sorry ’bout that. I should’ve talked it over with y’all first, but I—”

  “You think this is about baseball, Finn?” She crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed as she stared at him.

  “I have no idea what this is about, but I’m hopin’ like hell you’ll tell me and tell me quick so I can fix it.” He reached out, intent on smoothing his hands over her shoulders, but she jerked back, out of his reach.

  She stepped around him, farther away. Out of touching range. “Is it true?” Her voice was quiet. Calm. Like the eye of the storm.

  “Is what true?”

  She stared at him for long moments, her eyes seemingly doing their best to read him. “You know, every time we’ve been together I’ve wanted to ask why you left the way you did. Why you never called or wrote. Why you never, ever came back, but something always stopped me. Fear, I guess.” She glanced down and shook her head, a new fire in her eyes when she met his gaze again. “But I’m done living in fear. And I want to know. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to assume the story my daddy fed me was the truth.”

  Finn’s stomach bottomed out, his face draining. Dammit, he wasn�
��t ready for this conversation. He might’ve had ten years to prepare himself, but he wasn’t even close. Not when the outcome could so easily go out of his favor. Not when what he gambled was something as precious as Willow.

  He stared at her, trying to find the words to tell her why he’d done the things he had, how it’d ripped his heart out to go, and how every mile away from her had felt like the worst kind of torture.

  Her eyes crumbled in his gaze, her stoic expression melting into devastation. “It’s true, isn’t it? What he said.”

  “Willowtree, I—”

  “Do not call me that. You don’t get that privilege. Not when all it took to get you to leave me behind without a word was a little cash.”

  Finn’s body turned to ice as a boulder settled in his stomach. He hadn’t been fast enough. He should’ve found Dick and gotten it taken care of earlier in the day. No, what he should’ve done was figure out a way to tell her well before today, to hell with her relationship with her daddy. Because now…now everything he’d ever wanted was getting snatched away in front of his eyes. He could see it in her face when she looked at him. The disappointment. The anger. The hurt.

  It killed him to know he caused it.

  “Can’t believe I let you play me for a fool. Again,” she whispered, shaking her head as a tear slipped free and rolled down her cheek. She swallowed, licked her lips. Took a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve spent the whole night hoping with everything in me what my daddy said wasn’t true. It couldn’t possibly be. You’d tell me it was a lie, that it never happened. That my daddy made it all up just to turn me against you.” She huffed and shook her head. “I thought that naïve part of me was dead and gone, buried alive after you left. The part that was stupid enough to believe everything you said. To believe we had somethin’ special. To believe in an us.”

  “We do have somethin’ special. You’re the most important person in the world to me.” He reached for her again, desperate to feel her under his fingers. Desperate to wipe away her tears and comfort her. Even though he didn’t deserve such a privilege. “Willow—”

  “Don’t touch me.” She slapped his hands away, her face growing redder by the second. “I can’t believe I let this happen again. I knew it would. I knew, somehow, you’d make me out to be the idiot Haven girl just like I was back then.”

  It didn’t make sense. Didn’t add up. Her daddy never would’ve told her the circumstances surrounding Finn’s departure. Not when the mayor had blackmailed Finn, forcing his hand. Even without a sick momma, he hadn’t had a choice. It was get the hell out with fifty grand or stay and be indicted for a crime he never committed—underage alcohol consumption and distributing to minors in a dry county. Apparently, that was one of the benefits of having the sheriff for a best friend.

  Unless… Unless Dick didn’t tell her the whole story. Only the part that made Finn look like a money-hungry coward. Not the part where Dick was close to the devil himself.

  He stopped himself from reaching for her again, just barely. But he stepped closer. Displayed as much sincerity in his voice as he could. “Please, sweetness, will you let me explain?”

  She breathed out a laugh. “I waited ten years for an explanation. Ten years, not to mention all these weeks we’ve spent together. And now you want to give it?” She shook her head and strode to the front door, not an ounce of hesitation in her movements when she opened it for him as a clear sign to get the hell out. “After all the chances I gave you, I find I’m not much interested in listenin’ anymore. Goodbye, Finn.”

  Finn woke to an incessant pounding in his head. Though, that was no surprise. For the past—shit, how long had it been?—however many days, he’d woken up the same way. Except as he opened his eyes, becoming more aware of his surroundings, he realized the pounding wasn’t a headache, but rather came in the form of his brother.

  “’Bout damn time you woke up.” Drew stopped thumping Finn’s forehead and yanked the pillow out from under his head.

  He groaned, clutching his aching skull. “The hell, man?”

  Since the pillows were gone, Drew moved on to Finn’s feet, hauling them off the couch and letting them drop to the ground.

  “Seriously, I’m not in the mood for this, Drew.” Finn’s head was killing him, and his mouth felt like he’d swallowed an entire bag of cotton balls. Soaked in roadkill. And then left to marinate for a week in the Mississippi sun.

  “No?” Drew said. “Let me tell you what I’m not in the mood for. I’m not in the mood for my shit-for-brains brother to start demanding things when he’s done fuck all the past three days while moping like a teenager who just got his phone taken away.” Drew kicked Finn’s foot. “Time to get your ass up. Get your shit together and join the land of the living. I’ve covered for your sorry ass, but my patience is gone.”

  Finn was way too hungover for this conversation. Or, actually, maybe he was still a little drunk. He groaned and sat up, propping his elbows on his knees and cradling his pounding head in his hands. “Look, I’m sorry about the bar—”

  “You think this is about the bar?” Drew snorted out a laugh. “We’ve got it handled. This is about me watching you for the past ten years, you finally gettin’ what you want, only to let one little fight end everything.”

  Finn breathed out a humorless laugh, the image of Willow’s face from that night blinking in his mind. It was all he’d been able to see every time he closed his eyes. The pain and betrayal so vivid on her features. While nothing he did erased it, the alcohol numbed it a little.

  Hence why his mouth tasted like ass and gnomes were using ice picks to pound away at his skull.

  “It was more than ‘one little fight,’” he grumbled.

  “I don’t care if it was fucking World War III. Absolutely nothin’ is gonna come from you locking your mopey ass away in the apartment, drinkin’ your weight in bourbon.”

  Finn glared up at his brother. “No? What the hell else am I supposed to do? The woman I love just told me to get out of her life. Permanently. I don’t think some flowers and a dozen cupcakes is gonna cut it this time.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  Finn rubbed his eyes, trying to will away the headache raging behind them. “Tell me something I don’t know,” he muttered.

  “When you two eventually get married, I hope you know I’m using this story in your toast.”

  Marriage? Willow wouldn’t speak to him—he’d tried that, calling her a dozen times before giving up. Then he’d resorted to texting her—none of which she’d answered. She also probably couldn’t even look at him, though he hadn’t tested that theory since, instead, he’d chosen to stay home and get drunk off his ass. And his jackass brother was talking about marriage? Not fucking likely. Not after Finn had fucked everything up. “Now who’s the idiot?”

  “Still you.” Drew took a seat on the battered coffee table directly in front of Finn. “Here’s what you’re gonna do, dumbass. First, you’re gonna take a damn shower because you smell like a homeless man who just went on a bender. Then you’re gonna do what you’d already planned to—bring that check back to our illustrious mayor.”

  “It won’t matter.” Finn shook his head, pressing his palm hard against his forehead. “None of it’ll matter now.”

  “Maybe not. But it might.” Drew paused, long enough that Finn finally looked up at him. “Dick doesn’t play by the rules, so maybe you shouldn’t either.” He raised a brow.

  Finn snorted. “Yeah, I definitely see the sheriff helpin’ me out with this little situation I’m in.”

  “Who said you needed the sheriff? Way I see it, all you need is a convincing argument on why he should come clean to Willow about all he did back then. You said it yourself—there’s no way he’d have told her the whole story…just enough to pit her against you. So make him.”

  Finn ran a hand through his hair, his mind whirring with possibilities as he finally saw a tiny pinprick of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Drew was right. This mi
ght not do anything. But maybe, just maybe, it could. And didn’t he owe it to himself and Willow to at least try? To try absolutely everything in his power before giving up?

  He squinted at his brother, the harsh light coming in from the front window killing his eyes. “Where was this brilliant advice three days ago? I’ve wasted a lot of time getting…well, wasted. Maybe too much time.”

  “First, you kind of deserved it. A little payback for walking away from her in the first place. Second, you’re sucking down all our open stock for the bar, and Nola said I better get your ass under control before she comes over and does it her damn self.” Drew pushed to stand and looked down at him, shaking his head. “She’s scary-feisty, man.”

  Finn wasn’t arguing that. And he was ashamed it’d taken her getting fed up with him before he came to his senses. Jesus, some pile he was. Not only had he been an absolute worthless excuse for a human being, not helping with the finishing touches at the bar, but he’d been drinking through their stock too. Drew was right. It was time to get shit done.

  After a shower to help him feel half human again, he had some unfinished business with Mayor Haven to attend to.

  It was dusk by the time Dick showed up where Finn had instructed. Getting him there had been a miracle in and of itself. But Finn’d had to be strategic about it. He certainly couldn’t show up at the mayor’s office—not with Willow right down the hall, liable to pop in at any moment. Same went for Dick’s home.

  Quiet and secluded it was, like some kind of back-alley drug deal. Come to think of it, this location wasn’t all that different from where they’d met all those years ago.

  “All right, boy,” Dick said as he heaved himself out of his car. “Best be tellin’ me what this nonsense is about before I make some calls.”

  Finn slid his hand into his pocket, not moving from where he leaned against the side of his truck, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Like his whole future didn’t ride on the outcome of this meeting. “Ah, yes. Calls to the sheriff, isn’t that right? Must be nice to have such a close, personal friend in law enforcement. Allows you to do all kinds of shady shit.”