Unbroken by Love (The Basin Lake Series Book 4)

by Vercier, Stephanie

  “Are you saying you don’t love it here?” Skyler questions, giving my brother-in-law a disapproving glance.

  “I love it fine, but if I’d been a big football star, I’m not sure how easy it would have been to give it up.” His expression remains perplexed, even with his wife’s observant gaze.

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” I answer, taking a pile of potatoes before passing them along to my nephew. “Plus the winters in Minnesota were pretty brutal.”

  “It’s cold here too,” Charlotte pipes in.

  “Not as cold as up there,” Wayne, the younger of the two, tells her knowingly.

  “Whatever,” she says, like she doesn’t want to give her little brother another thought.

  “Regardless of the reason you decided to retire from playing, we’re very happy to have you here, son,” Dad says from the other end of the table where he sits proudly. “And Murphy’s farm is going up for sale if you’re still interested.”

  “Are you thinking of buying it?” Skyler asks after scolding Wayne for rolling a Brussels sprout across the table.

  “When did this come about?” Matt questions before stuffing a fork full of food into his mouth.

  Mom is silent, but her smile at the possibility of me buying the neighboring farm is endless.

  “I’ve been trying to decide what to do here,” I begin to explain, passing the last platter of food. “There’s no doubt in my mind I want to farm, more than likely focus on wheat, but I can’t expect Dad to support me with his land.”

  “He supports the rest of us,” Skyler says. “There’s more than enough work to be done, and we could let go of some of the hands, especially Craig Lindstrom who, I swear to god, is one of the laziest men we’ve ever had working here.”

  “He’s not lazy—he has arthritis,” Matt offers.

  “And he’s worked with us for fifteen years,” Mom adds in.

  “I’m just trying to make room for Garrett.” She beams at me while offering everyone else a defensive shrug.

  “I’d like to get a piece of my own land,” I tell her. “And since the Murphy farm juts up to ours, we could look at it as an expansion.”

  And more than just wanting my own land, I want something to lose myself in. Dr. Barnes, the psychologist I’d ended up seeing for over a year, had helped me face and own what I’d done in my past. But I’d still been making new mistakes in between appointments, and I figured the best way to exorcise those from my life was to fill my time with a massive project. And what could be bigger than taking on my own farm from the ground up?

  “How many millions of dollars did you make in the NFL?” Wayne asks, peeling the layers off of that same Brussels sprout he’d rolled across the table.

  “That’s a rude question,” his mother warns, though she and Matt perk their ears up because it’s surely something they’re curious about too.

  “No worries,” I tell them, then look to my nephew. “It’s probably not as much as you think, little buddy. I wasn’t in long enough to be making too many millions.”

  In truth, I’d made about two-and-a-half million dollars in the three years I’d played and still have about half of that, dwindled down after taxes, paying the mortgage my folks had on the farm off, buying everyone in the family new trucks and spending more money than I’d ever thought I’d have on women, women that I’m ashamed to admit I can’t accurately count. How I became that guy, the kind of man who would sleep with a girl who’d throw herself at me just because I was good at football, is still somewhat beyond me.

  “Getting laid is part of the deal,” my friend and teammate, Andy, used to tell me. “No reason to get all flustered over getting girls so easy.”

  But Dr. Barnes had a different assessment. She said that if I were the type of guy who liked sleeping around, then doing so wouldn’t have bothered me like it did. She theorized I was doing it to fill the hole left when Paige dumped me. She said I probably didn’t want to get my heart hurt, and being a football star, first at WSU and then in Minnesota, made it easy to go from one girl to the next and never to get too attached.

  She was probably right, and I’d tell myself I’d at least done better than some of the guys I’d played with, walked away with some money, hadn’t fathered any unexpected children and wasn’t paying spousal support to any ex-wives impulsively wed to on a guys’ weekend in Vegas.

  “We appreciate what you’ve done for us,” Dad says with a firm nod toward me.

  “We really do,” Matt adds in. “That new truck was a pretty sweet Christmas present.”

  “That truck is from Uncle Garrett?” Charlotte asks, setting her fork down and reaching for her glass of water.

  “You know it is,” Skyler tells her. “Same as the new appliances. You’ve been very kind to us, little brother.”

  A quick nod is all I offer. I’ve been thanked for all of those things before and had given them without a need for gratitude. Everyone at this table had been there for me in their own way, and I was glad to give them something, even if it was something as boring as new appliances for a house that all six of them now share.

  “Thank you, Uncle Garrett,” Charlotte says, and I smile at her. “The pretty girl you used to date was at the store yesterday,” she adds in, setting her glass of water down and spearing some pasta with her fork.

  “Charlotte, I told you not to mention that,” Skyler practically hisses at her daughter.

  “Pretty girl… you mean Beth?” There have been a lot of pretty girls in my life, but the only one I can think of as being in Basin Lake at the moment is Beth Forester, my ex-high school girlfriend, who is now married to my good buddy, Ben. His family owns the only decently sized grocery store in Basin Lake, so no surprise Beth might be there.

  “No… not that one.”

  “Charlotte,” Skyler warns, more with her eyes than the stern uttering of her child’s name.

  “Then who?” I ask, willing to push past the roadblocks my sister is putting up to get the answer from Charlotte.

  But then it dawns on me before I can get an answer, and I feel a warm stab to my gut as I picture her.

  “She was in Mom’s photo album,” Charlotte says, rolling past her mother’s objections. “Her name is Paige, and Mom called her a bad name.”

  “Charlotte!”

  Matt laughs, a wide grin spreading across his face. “What did she call her, honey?”

  “A bitch,” Charlotte says with the same mischief that’s in her father’s eyes.

  “You apologize right now,” my sister seethes.

  “Oh, let it be,” Mom says, which is surprising considering how conservative she’s always been, how a bad word spoken at the table used to get you sent up to your room.

  Charlotte might be apologizing at this very moment, or maybe she’s not. I hear voices, but my mind is so inwardly focused now, set right on the last image I have of Paige in it, that I don’t make out the words anyone is uttering.

  “—Paige doing in town?” I catch just that last thread of my Dad’s voice, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “She and Evan Mattson are getting married,” Mom says. “And she’s having a baby. Pregnant first and then get married—I guess that’s just how it’s done these days.”

  Married?

  A baby?

  “Are you okay?” Skyler reaches for my hand.

  “Yeah… I’m just a little surprised I guess?” The stab in my gut settles, but it’s replaced by something empty.

  “Do you still love her? She was your prom queen, Uncle Garrett.” Charlotte can’t be quieted, no matter how much my sister tries, and this time Skyler doesn’t reprimand her.

  I clear my throat, thinking back to Dr. Barnes, thinking how I’d worked through my feelings. I hadn’t ever verbalized them to my family though. But by the sad, pathetic way they’re all looking at me, I decide now is as good a time as ever. “I did love her, quite a bit actually. But I’m over that part of it. Now, I just miss them. Paige and Evan were my b
est friends.”

  “It’s been a long time,” Skyler says, her hand on mine. “Maybe you could call them up and try to… I don’t know… reunite?”

  “But you called her a bitch, Mommy,” Charlotte reminds her.

  “Okay, no more using that word, dear,” Mom says in a voice that says a third mention won’t be tolerated.

  Skyler sighs but keeps her attention focused on me. “I may have my own feelings about Paige, but it doesn’t mean I don’t know how important she and Evan were to you. It might be worth a shot to make contact with them.”

  I’ve wanted to do that for years. I’d felt betrayed by both of them, even if I’d done some betraying too, and Evan and I had come to physical blows, pretty much wanting to kill one another when I’d finally realized they’d been dating behind my back.

  But now?

  Now I just wish we could go back to the way it was before it got so complicated.

  “We’ll see,” is what I settle on telling her.

  And then, as if Paige and Evan had never been brought up, we all go back to eating, talking about what it would take to get the Murphy farm, potential yields and how Murphy’s house needs some work along with a “woman’s touch.” Mom had added that last part in, and I knew she wasn’t talking about her or Skyler. She might allow me some time to be alone and single, but it won’t be long before she starts bringing the available young women of Basin Lake around for coffee, an excuse she’ll use to make introductions, to make me some sort of match.

  And while that’s old fashioned and sounds a little pathetic, that might not really matter. I think I’m ready to settle down, to move forward instead of looking back.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  GARRETT

  I’ve been meaning to head over to Paige’s old house every day this week, but I’ve found a reason not to every single time. Today, it’s because I need to hit the hardware store to repair some loose boards in the barn. After dinner last Saturday, Skyler said Paige and Evan were in town last weekend for the baby and bridal shower and that the actual wedding is this weekend, this Saturday. I’d lost my chance to see Paige or Evan at the house when I didn’t go by on Sunday, but I figured I could at least talk to her mom and offer some kind of congratulations and get an idea if there was any interest in seeing me, a first step toward mending fences.

  Chickening out is pretty much status quo for me right now though, and after loading up my truck with lumber, I head over to Pamela’s Coffee, telling myself that nobody except maybe Paige’s grandmother would be home at eleven o’clock in the morning anyway.

  “Garrett?” It’s Beth, my ex, that calls out to me from behind the counter where she’s filling orders for other customers.

  “Hey, Beth. Been a while.” I walk up to the counter and stand off to the side as she finishes up some drink orders, the people in line nodding and smiling at me in the familiar way people do in small towns. It’s different than the way people in big cities who know who you are look at you, either with judgment because you play for a team they think pays their players too much money, or with a kind of awe that doesn’t seem warranted.

  “Waaaaaay too long,” she says, letting out a deep breath when she’s finished with the other customers and it’s just me at the counter.

  “So, you obviously still like working at Pamela’s?” It’s the place Paige used to work, and it had been like a second home to me when I was in high school. I’d seen Beth here before on visits back home, but I figured one day she’d maybe finally follow the dream she used to have of becoming a nurse.

  “Just part-time now. Between the kids and me still taking some evening classes at the community college, it’s all I can handle.”

  “Congratulations on the kids,” I tell her. I’d sent her and Ben cards and gifts for both of their boys, Nathan and Cord, who had been born in very rapid succession, but saying it in person has a little more weight.

  “Oh, thank you. It’s been crazy busy with two little ones and all my homework.”

  “Ben won’t let you quit working here?” As far as I know, the grocery store his family owns is doing well, so I don’t see why Beth should be killing herself working if she doesn’t have to.

  She laughs. “He’d like nothing more… says he never sees me, but working here a few mornings a week is what keeps me sane. I think I’d really miss it.”

  Man, Beth is beautiful, and I can appreciate it from afar now. When she and I had dated, I’d felt incredibly lucky, but when my feelings for Paige started to creep in and Beth was making it clear she was hoping our relationship would last beyond high school, I didn’t string her along. And I honestly think she’s better for it. She and my old football buddy, Ben, are a better fit than she and I could have ever been, and together they seem to have the kind of life they’d both wanted.

  “And how about the new house I hear you guys bought?”

  She smiles. “It’s over off of Chelan Drive, in that small development they’ve been slowly filling in. All new, not a thing needs doing except for my finishing touches. And I love it, even if I’m not overly fond of the big yard that Ben spends too much of his free time working on.”

  “I’m sure it keeps him fit,” I joke.

  “Not as fit as you.” She pokes a finger at one of my biceps. “Jesus, Garrett, you get any bigger and you’re going to burst out of your skin.”

  I laugh. “Hey, not working out every day after years of football practice just feels wrong. My dad still has my old weights set up in the garage.”

  “And how is your dad? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

  “He’s good,” I say, though in her asking the question, I realize I have some doubts. He’d never entirely recovered to his old self after that heart attack he had during my first year in college but had been strong enough to get back to work on the farm. Being home now, I’ve noticed small things recently, one too many stumbles and him looking more tired in the mornings. If I notice too many more, I’m going to have to say something.

  “I’m glad. I always liked your family.”

  I ask her how her family is doing, and after her reporting that everyone is well, I tack on a question about Paige.

  “So, I heard Paige and Evan are getting married, huh?”

  She smiles, but thank god it’s not one of those pathetic ones. She must be able to see that I’m over the girl that had once twisted my heart up into knots. “Well, speaking of Paige…” She looks over my shoulder as a large group of women come inside, women I think belong to that big knitting circle my Grandma was once a member of.

  “Go ahead and help them,” I say, moving out of the way as they come to the counter, curious enough about what she had to say about Paige that I’m willing to wait through a dozen coffee orders.

  “Thanks, Garrett,” she says before her attention turns completely to her customers.

  I check my phone. No news on the Murphy farm yet. I’d put an offer in on Tuesday after Dad and I had spent pretty much all of Monday there checking everything out. Dad said it would have been a done deal with just a handshake if it had been up to Mr. Murphy, but he’d already moved in with his daughter in Phoenix while his more difficult son was handling the transaction. Looking up from the phone, I scan the full coffee shop, not sure I’d seen it this busy in quite a while. And then, as I’m about to return my attention to my phone and re-read an email about the pending inspection if my offer is accepted, I catch sight of her.

  If I’d been slouching against the counter, I’m standing at full attention now. There’s a tightness under the already firm muscles of my stomach and a noticeable speeding of my heartbeat.

  Paige?

  She’s sitting by the window in the furthest corner, the muted gray light softening her long blonde hair, her head turned toward the window.

  I move forward, past the tables and decide she must have come back to Basin Lake early to make some last minute preparations for the wedding. And it’s now or never, time to swallow my fear and hope she’ll g
ive me another go at forgiveness and friendship.

  “Paige?” I say aloud, stopped right behind her.

  She doesn’t move, doesn’t even startle, and I now notice the ear-bud tucked into her ear, an ear that I can still remember tugging at with my teeth.

  I take a step forward so that I’m looming above her. Clearing my throat, I say her name again, a little louder, something I hope she’ll hear over the sound of whatever she’s listening to.

  This time she startles and pulls the buds out of her ears, ears that are not Paige’s.

  “Kate?”

  She looks up at me with gorgeous blue eyes, so like her sister’s and yet all her own, and smiles softly. “Oh... hey, Garrett. This is… unexpected.”

  “Yeah… well…” I grip the back of my neck, not sure what to say to Paige’s kid sister who is anything but a kid now.

  “You can sit down if you want,” she says with a slight laugh. “I was just listening to an audio book, but I’m not really at the edge of my seat or anything.”

  “Oh? Something I’d know?” I accept her offer and slide into the chair across from her, trying to relax the sudden accelerated beating of my heart.

  “Not unless you like vampire romances,” she says, that smile of hers still not fading.

  “Uh, can’t say I do.” I chuckle, my nerves relaxing, though I’m not sure I’m completely at ease around Kate and a beauty that might even surpass that of her older sister.

  “I didn’t either, not at first, but I kind of got hooked on them while I’ve been away. I have a feeling I’ll get sick of them, but I kind of want to finish this series before I do.”

  “You’ve been away too, huh?” Skyler had mentioned something about Kate joining the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity or something, but she hadn’t been all that clear on details.

  “Two years working for this non-profit called Houses for Us, kind of like Habitat for Humanity, but without any religious affiliation.”

  I take a moment to absorb that. The Kate I knew as a kid had her head up in the clouds, and I’m pretty sure she was a cheerleader before she went into that pouty stage teenagers sometimes do. I’d seen her once or twice around town when I’d come home for visits, and she didn’t strike me then as a girl who would give two years of her life up to build houses for other people.