by Toni Aleo
I got it too. I went to school to be a vet, my dream career. There wasn’t a moment during my childhood when I wasn’t finding a way to help animals or volunteering at Dr. Ross’s clinic. It drove my dad crazy that I didn’t want to work in the distillery with him, but it wasn’t my passion. Devin’s passion, yes, but not mine. My passion is animals.
I was always the odd one out, though. Unlike my brothers and sister, I don’t have the famous McElroy red hair. I’m dark, with dark-green eyes. I was the pariah of the town, and sometimes people didn’t acknowledge that I was my parents’ kid. I was so different. I kept to myself, and I had goals. I wanted more than what the stupid town could give me. I wasn’t quiet about it either. Because of that, Dad wasn’t very happy with me growing up.
But even he couldn’t deny that I was going to succeed. I got hired right out of college at my buddy’s clinic that his dad owned. Noah owns it now, and we’re a great team. The best clinic in Lexington. People travel to us to help their pets, and we’re doing great things here. I’m happy, which is why I haven’t gone back home even though I have a job with Dr. Ross anytime I want it. I don’t want it, though. I don’t want to go back, but now I have no choice.
I have to go back to Spring Grove.
When the door to Noah’s and my office opens, I run my hands over my face and inhale deeply.
“Hey, Ms. Wilbert is back. She thinks Oats ate another sock.”
I nod as I stand. I hope my face is free of tears as I turn to my longtime friend. We met in college as roommates and have been close ever since. When his eyes meet mine, I can see the concern swimming in his brown depths. “You all right?”
I shake my head. “My dad passed away.”
His eyes widen. “What? Dude, I’m sorry.”
He reaches out, cupping my shoulder, and I nod. “Thanks. Listen, I’m gonna take off. I gotta head to Spring Grove.”
He nods quickly, squeezing my shoulder. “Of course, man. I’m so sorry. Do you want me to come?”
I shake my head. “No, thanks. You’ve got Cynthia and the girls and then this place. Someone has to run it while I’m gone.”
“Yeah. Pass my condolences on to your family, okay?”
My eyes start to well up again. Noah’s always been a good friend. “Thanks, man. I’ll call you when I know more of when I’ll be back.”
“Of course. Take your time.”
I swallow hard, appreciating his concern and support. “Hopefully I’ll be back by Tuesday.”
Noah shakes his head. “Dude, I know you don’t want to go back, but really, take all the time you need.”
Yeah, going back to Spring Grove is the last thing I want to do.
My dad knew that, but he made sure this time I’d have no choice.
Thanks, Dad.
Nothing in this town has changed.
It’s as if I left for college and came back the following week. Everything looks the same, nothing out of place, except everyone is older. I expected stuff to be more modern. I mean, I know the distillery is—my dad made sure of that with all the tourists coming through—but everything else is the same. I thought by now they would have done something else with the town square fountain. It was built when Ambrosia was two, but even after twenty years, nothing has been done to make it better. Made up of barrels on top of barrels, with water coming out of all the ends, there are cement statues of little children playing among them. Those children are my siblings and me. Though, mine is off in the back and hardly noticeable. Ambrosia, she is front and center, mostly because Dad loved her the most.
Can’t blame him. She’s an angel.
Around the fountain, like it was the day I left, are all the necessities of the town: the post office, the police department, the courthouse, the fire department, the clinic. Everything is right here, making a huge ring around the fountain, and absolutely nothing is out of place. I went through the Gas and Go on my way in, and in bright-red letters above the cash register, a sign read “Only take cash and checks.” Thank God I had some cash on me, because I haven’t written a check in ten years. Everyone carries plastic—everyone—so why is Spring Grove stuck in the fifties? It’s insane and bothersome for sure. Another reason the moment I stepped in, I wanted to step back out.
I can’t run away, though. Today, we bury my dad, yet I am finding it hard to go into the church I grew up in. No one in Spring Grove ever missed a Sunday. I usually hung out in the back with my buddy Theo, since Holden’s mawmaw made him sit up front. But today, it will be me sitting in the front.
Saying goodbye to my dad.
He had a damn good life, though. He was a great man, strong and loud. He brought so much money into this town, and because of that, people respected him, loved him. And he loved them. He would do anything for anyone, but he loved his children the most. There wasn’t a day that passed where he didn’t text me something. Even if it was just a “Hey, have a good day” or even a simple “I love you,” he always made me feel loved.
I toe the tip of my dress shoe in the grass outside the church as I look up at the bright sky. It’s sunny, a bit warm, and of course, the whole town is showing up for Dad’s funeral. I haven’t seen these people in years, and like I expected, they really don’t pay me much mind as they walk by, entering the church. Pretty sure, in their eyes, I’ve been dead these last fourteen years instead of living a successful life in Lexington. How dare the heir to McElroy’s Distillery not want to run it? Oh, the blasphemy. Screw them all; I wanted more than this town could give me. So sue me.
I tuck my hands into my pockets as I lean on the side of the church, wishing like hell I still smoked. I gave it up when I was twenty-two, per my mom’s orders. She said if I was going to preach health to animals, then I needed to be healthy. It made no sense, but I love my mom, so I did as she asked. Plus, I felt bad that I wasn’t coming back home after college. So, instead of telling her that initially, I told her after I quit. It all seemed like a solid idea until she realized I wasn’t coming home to work for Dr. Ross. Then she was just pissed and bitched at me every time she got a chance. I’m still unsure why she and Dad felt betrayed, but they did. They accepted it, but there had never been a phone call that didn’t end with them begging me to come home. I always found a reason out of it, but there was no way out of this.
Not that I wanted one.
I hadn’t seen my siblings in years. I talked with them weekly, we made sure of that, but seeing them, hugging them, and mourning with them… I hadn’t realized how much I missed them. I knew I missed my mom and my dad, but I had seen them both just a month ago when they came to visit. Even then, my dad was so full of life, a laugh at every turn. Being in the house, not hearing his laugh, it hurt. But hearing the sobs of my family makes it even worse. I run my fingers through my hair as emotion chokes me. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to bury my dad. Damn it.
I clear my throat and look up just as my childhood buddy catches my gaze.
“Hey, asshole, never thought I’d see you around here again,” Theo Hudson calls to me, and I laugh. He kisses a curvy blonde’s cheek before veering off the sidewalk toward me. With quick grins, we wrap up in a tight hug. There isn’t a childhood memory of mine that Theo isn’t in. We were both outcasts, along with our buddy Holden. We were the guys you didn’t let date your daughter but the ones you called on when you needed something done in a hurry. People loved to talk about us, mostly ’cause they felt sorry for us. Theo was the bastard kid of some rich guy in Washington. Holden’s momma didn’t want him, and I was the black sheep of my family. My dad didn’t love me the way he loved the other kids. I knew it was bullshit, but it stung.
“Hey, man, how you doing? Ugly as ever,” I tease, and he laughs as he slaps my back.
“I was thinking the same about you.” We laugh as we part, and his eyes turn sad. “I’m really sorry about your dad. We’re gonna miss him. He was the best guy in town.”
I swallow hard. “Yeah, that’s the damn truth.”
“He made sure I always had a job.”
I nod. “That is until you got that fancy-dancy inn of yours. How’s it doing?”
“Fantastic.” He beams, and I’m proud of him. He was a whole lot of nothing when we were growing up, but after a nice stint in jail, he came out ready to take the world by storm. “Good to see ya home, though. Now I don’t have to bring Gen to Lexington to meet you.”
I feign shock. “No shit, that was Gen? You weren’t lying to me?”
He gives me a dry look. “I damn well told you I got her back! We’re getting married at the end of the summer, which is why I asked you to be my best man—and never got an answer, by the way.”
I nod, a teasing grin on my face. “I thought you were bullshitting me.”
Theo scoffs. “You’re just pissed I’m marryin’ before you.”
“Maybe,” I say as I inhale deeply. I thought I would be married by now. I am thirty-two, I have a great career, and I’m doing well, but I haven’t had the time to find someone to spend it with. Not that I’ve been looking very hard. “Still need that best man?”
“I do.” Theo waggled his brows at me, and I laughed. “Get it? ‘I dooo…’”
“Loser,” I laugh, shaking my head. “I guess I’ll have to come back.”
He shrugs. “Or don’t leave.”
“Nope, I’m leaving,” I say simply, much to his dismay. “You know I can’t stand it here.”
“Oh yeah, all about that city life,” he teases, and I grin back at him.
“You don’t know what you’re missing. This place… Nothing has changed.”
“Which is part of the charm,” he says simply with a lopsided grin. “This place is home. You know you’re safe here, and you know everyone. Bet you don’t have that back in that big ole city of yours.”
I don’t, but then, I like that. I don’t want people in my business. “Maybe not, but at least people appreciate and like me there.”
“Dude, unlike when we were kids, we’re men now, and things are different. We’re different. They’ll love you if you let them.”
I don’t believe him for a second, nor do I need this town to love me. They had their chance and treated me like shit, not that I need to tell Theo that. Before I can comment back, I see Holden Abbot coming up the sidewalk with his mawmaw. His eyes light up as he rushes toward us. “Shut the hell up. Look what the cat dragged in.”
We embrace in a manly hug, and I smile. Holden hasn’t changed a bit either. Still that boyish grin and those friendly brown eyes. He might be a bit stockier, but then, aren’t we all? We aren’t boys anymore; we’re men, according to Theo. Damn, if it isn’t good to see these two. “Hey, Hold. Good to see you. You good?”
“Real good,” he says, but then his grin falls. “I sure am gonna miss your dad.”
“Me too,” I say, cupping his shoulders, the pain of my loss still fresh and gaping in my heart. “But hey, it’s good to see you two.”
They both agree as Holden says, “We gotta get a beer tonight, drink away our sorrows.”
“I can’t think of anything better,” I say, and Theo nods.
“I’m there.”
We all nod, and I can’t help but appreciate how these two don’t treat me like I abandoned them. My family did for a long time, but I can always depend on my boyhood friends to have my back.
When a voice I’ll never forget falls over us, I look up to Pearl Abbot, everyone’s honorary mawmaw, and grin. Does that woman not age? “Boys, come on now. The service is about to start.”
Man, I kinda get what Theo was saying. This place can feel like home, and Mawmaw is just that. She’s a crazy coot of a lady, but we love her. She took care of all of us and made sure we were fed all the time. She was the only thing good in this town, along with my dad. Damn good lady, and everyone in town respected her. She did anything for anyone; she was a pillar. Just like my dad was. Man, this is gonna suck.
I go to call to her, ask her to wait for me, but before I can say anything, my gaze falls on the woman standing beside Mawmaw.
Wait. Is that…
“We’re coming, Mawmaw,” Holden calls over to her, and when he starts for her, I hold Theo back.
“Who’s that with Mawmaw?”
Theo looks back to where the two women stand in their Sunday best. Done up to the nines, wearing big hats that belong at the Derby and not here in Spring Grove. But there is something about the woman standing beside Mawmaw that seems familiar.
“You mean Del?”
My heart stops in my chest. “Del? Delaney Kate?”
His gaze meets mine. “One and only. Why? Oh. Shit, you haven’t seen her in forever.” He laughs. “She’s probably the only thing in this town that’s changed.”
I sure haven’t, and he isn’t kidding.
Wow.
Unlike the really overweight kid who could beat all our asses, now she’s curvy as all hell. She looks soft in all the right places, and I’m pretty sure if there were an entry in the dictionary for an hourglass shape on a woman, the picture would be of Delaney. Her waist is trim, but her hips and shoulders are wide, thick, and sexy. She has ass for days, and I don’t remember her breasts being that heavy and mouthwatering. Her hair is long and dark with peeks of light strands along her shoulders, curled to perfection. Her lashes are dark and thick, bringing out her brown eyes. Her lips are in a pout, bright red and luscious, as her gaze locks with mine for a beat. Heat runs through my body before she looks away, heading into the church. I wasn’t expecting that. She ran with us like one of the boys, and we teased her like one. She was so much bigger than all of us put together and could honestly lay us out. But that girl is gone, replaced by a girl I’m pretty sure can do the same.
But in a way I would like very, very much.
I thought the things in this town never changed.
Guess I was wrong.
Chapter Three
Delaney
Well, Reed McElroy is way hotter than I remember.
Who am I kidding? I thought he was the most gorgeous guy when we were growing up. I spent summers chasing after him, Theo, and Holden, just waiting for Reed to notice me. I expected him to come to his daddy’s funeral, but then I thought maybe he wouldn’t. He hasn’t stepped foot in this town since he took off after graduation. He always said he was too big for Spring Grove, and he was. He was taller than both Holden and Theo all through school. He always had these wide shoulders and dark-green eyes that could make any girl swoon. His jaw was always set in such a way that said not to mess with him. If he wasn’t causing havoc in town with Holden and Theo, he was at the clinic with Dr. Ross.
I’d crushed on Reed so hard. When I got myself off for the first time, it was because of him, imagining his hands and fingers all over me. I wasn’t the kind of girl he went for, though. He was attracted to girls like my sister—pretty, dainty, and skinny as a rail. I outweighed him and the rest of the boys in my school by a full hundred pounds. I was the token fat girl everyone teased except when Holden, Theo, or Reed was around. No one was allowed to make fun of me then, but the guys all teased me relentlessly.
Chubs is what Reed used to call me.
But I was completely infatuated with him.
Maybe because I felt like he didn’t mean it. He was just trying to be cool, and I really think he was misunderstood. The town wasn’t that good to him, mostly because he had a chip the size of Mount Everest on his shoulder. He wanted out of here, and because of that, he was a dick to almost everyone. Even when he was a dick to me, I couldn’t help but think he was just beautiful and any attention was good attention. Thank God I’m not still pathetic like that. Especially since he is downright sinful now.
Man, I was nowhere near prepared to see him.
I chance a glance back at him as I enter the church. Unlike his brothers and sister, Reed has dark-as-night hair. He takes after his real momma, who died having him. Reed only knew Mrs. Shirley as his momma, and she never treated him any other way but as hers. Unl
ike everyone else in this town. Reed was an outcast in everyone else’s eyes. But to me, he was…gosh, he was perfect. So smart. So hot. And when he smiled, Lord, send me a chariot ’cause I’m coming home! He knocked me right on my ass.
Actually, he’s the only guy to do so.
These last fourteen years have been kind to Reed. He is even bigger now, which is mind-blowing to me. His shoulders are still wide and mouthwatering. His waist is trim and his legs strong. He continues to tower over Theo and Holden. His eyes are sharp and greener than fresh-cut grass covered in dew on a Sunday morning. His jaw is dusted a bit with hair, and his lips, man, as kissable as ever. Not that I ever would know anything about that. Reed McElroy, kissing me? That’s funnier than the time we all got stupid drunk and jumped off Willow’s Bridge. I belly flopped and threw up everywhere.
Good times.
“I can’t look at John Aaron without seeing a shirt stuck to his face with come,” Gen whispers to me, pulling me from my memories. I snicker as I look over at her, ignoring my stupid girl crush on Reed. That was eons ago. “He’s such jerk.”
“He sure is,” I agree, and when John Aaron looks at me, I raise my brows. He looks away quickly as we take our spot, second row with Mawmaw. “Doesn’t matter. I think I might give up on guys.”
Gen pulls her brows together. “Please. You love men.”
“I do,” I say softly, and I feel maybe this isn’t the place to talk about this. Poor Old Man McElroy is in the casket maybe twenty feet from me. His family will come in at any moment, crying, brokenhearted, just like the rest of town. Old Man McElroy was a good man. He loved this community, he loved his family, and he loved his whiskey so much, some would say he left a part of his love in each barrel.
That part got you real drunk.
“But I just don’t think I’ve got it in me anymore. Maybe I’ll just sleep with them instead.”
Gen gives me a blank look. “Girl, you’re in love with love.”
