Bo swung his palms up. “Hey, I like to joke about a lot of things, but even I have a line I won’t cross. Your past is one of them. I just wanted to warn you.”
Mindy.
Mindy.
Mindy.
She was home.
His chest became heavier and his gut twisted. His jeans stretched. He was a dumbass.
Anger sliced through him. Why the hell was she back? She left Cooper’s Hawk—and him—in her dust years ago and didn’t look back.
Creed stepped out of the barn and looked around the green pasture. Why couldn’t he get air into his lungs? It was as if he had a ton of bricks laying on his chest. Why did his boots feel a size too large and his boxers a size too small?
Damn. Mindy was home.
His Mindy.
The biggest heart break in his life had been the day she told him she needed to get out of Cooper’s Hawk and she was leaving for California. Not once had she asked him to come along. He wouldn’t have because he’d signed up for the military but being asked would have at least proven to him that she cared.
He strolled up to his truck and pressed out the tension in his forehead with his thumb and forefinger as he wrapped his head around the idea that the girl who broke his heart was here…at Sage Ranch. Driving a BMW.
This shouldn’t come as a great big surprise. Not really. After all, this was her childhood home.
He rubbed his eyes and muttered a curse word.
Mindy.
Mindy.
“Mindy,” he huffed out. He couldn’t think clearly. Hell, he couldn’t breathe. Clenching his hands into fists, he felt his knuckles ache and loosened the grip.
How many times had he dreamed of what could have been if he had told her how much he cared for her? How she made him feel? How many times had he wished he’d done things differently? If he had though, he wouldn’t have Livvy. Some paths needed to happen although unplanned.
“She’s only back for a visit. She’ll leave and things will go back to the way they were,” he muttered to himself. Back to what way? His lonely existence?
Better than being near a woman who’d stamped on him then kicked him to the curb.
In the meantime, how could he dodge her?
Cooper’s Hawk, population of six hundred, could be a pretty hard place to keep from seeing someone, at least anyone that didn’t live under a rock.
Opening the driver’s door, he climbed in, turned the key and pressed on the gas pedal causing the door to slam shut. The tires kicked up rocks and dirt, and he coughed against the dust cloud that drifted through the open windows. Once he could manage to inhale again, he continued the narrow gravel lane toward the main road. He glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing the farmhouse in the distance. Something triggered inside him, like a dam wall cracking. When had he become weak? A coward? He had nothing to run away from. This was his town. His place. He wasn’t the one who slept with her then walked—no ran—away.
Whether he liked it or not, he’d have to face her—had to prove to himself and to her that he no longer cared for her. No longer craved her more than his next breath. Hell, he’d been a stupid kid who’d allowed his brains to settle behind his zipper. Who the hell knew who they wanted to spend their life with when they’re ten? So what that they’d exchanged some playful vows in a barn during a tornado when they were snot-nosed kids who’d been out catching frogs. Years had passed. They weren’t the same people.
Damn.
Slamming his foot on the brake, he slid to a stop, causing the back to veer.
He needed to man up.
Jerking the steering wheel, he made a quick U-turn in the grass and peeled out. The rubber finally caught traction, causing a loud crunching sound of rocks that caught the attention of the cattle in the field. They watched him, chewing cud. He felt about as ridiculous as they looked.
The back of the truck shimmied and he straightened the steering wheel and skillfully pulled back into the long gravel driveway, headed toward the old farmhouse that felt more like metal to magnet. He parked next to the sleek, silver BMW with Cali plates. “Well, well, well…” She certainly did have expensive tastes. The girl he remembered was into horses for transportation not pricey cars that were unfitting in redneck valley.
This brought him some relief. Exactly. She wasn’t the girl he knew back in the day when they’re biggest concern was not getting caught after toilet papering principal Hahn’s front yard. In fact, he’d guarantee she had physically changed. With a BMW palate, she probably had collagen infused cheeks and lips and big, fake tits. He didn’t mind the latter, he wouldn’t lie, but he preferred his women real.
“Shit!”
He needed to get it through his thick skull that sitting there moping in his truck wasn’t tapping into the bravery he had a minute back. He was acting like a full-blown idiot. He needed to stomp right up to the door, knock and pretend nothing was cockeyed except for the welcome sign hanging on the red door.
Once his worn boots hit rocks, he strolled up the broken stones of the walkway, took the steps to the porch two at a time, and straight up to the door. His hand was suspended in the air ready to knock when he caught a strong scent in the air. He sniffed. Smoke. Fire. And it was close. There was a no-burn order in the area so who would be stupid enough to go against the rule?
Jumping off the side of the porch, he saw the plume of grey smoke coming
