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She snatched it away. She couldn’t stand sympathy right now. It would break her.
Maddie sighed, and when she spoke, her voice was soft. “Because he loves you, Soph.”
Even if it were true, why would it matter? It wouldn’t, but she was tired of explaining that to everyone, so she didn’t bother. She shrugged. “It’s over. In case you haven’t noticed, he wants nothing to do with me.”
Maddie shook her head. “I haven’t noticed that at all.”
Sophie turned and looked out the window onto Revival’s Main Street. It really was pretty here. Getting prettier by the day as the town took on new life. A life she’d helped build. It gave her an unexpected satisfaction.
In Chicago her work sometimes felt indirect, hard to quantify outside the numbers the accountant types loved so much. That’s why she’d started her After Dark blog in the first place. She saw the direct fruits of her labor when a previously unknown gem suddenly exploded with business.
Her work in Revival was like that too. Maybe that was why she hadn’t really missed her job too much. The citizens of the town informed her of the impact of her work . . . incessantly, whether she wanted it or not.
The bell over the door rang and she glanced toward the sound. Everything inside her stilled at the sight of Ryder and Charlie. All her muscles stiffened. She bit her lip.
The morning when she’d first come to town and sat in this diner with him rushed over her. They hadn’t sat together that day. Had barely spoken. But even then she’d known it was on. She remembered the way he’d flirted with her, giving her that smile of his and those slow, heated once-overs.
It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Charlie waved to them, and Maddie waved back, but Sophie stayed frozen. Ryder wore a baseball hat today, low enough to shadow his eyes. He tipped the brim at her and moved off to a booth as far away from her as possible.
“You okay?” Maddie asked, her brows creased, her mouth pinched.
She nodded and offered a bitter smile. “Small towns, right? Bound to happen.”
“Maybe you should go talk to him.”
“And say what?”
“That you miss him,” Maddie suggested, as though it was the easiest thing in the world.
Sophie shook her head. “Then what?”
“I don’t know, maybe he misses you too, and hearing it will help break the tension between you.”
They were pulled so tight it felt like they could snap at any second. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at him, and her heartbeat sped up. As gorgeous as he was, that wasn’t what she missed. And it wasn’t the crazy, insane sex either.
It was him.
The way he laughed at her antics when they watched I Survived.
The way she put her feet on his lap and he cupped her ankle, stroking absently over the bone.
The way he drove out of his way to get her Starbucks when she was having a hectic day.
And acted like he’d constructed a ten-course meal when he made her nachos.
How he wanted to hear everything about her. Or told her funny stories about trying to maintain order over his deputies.
But mostly, how she felt complete whenever he was around.
There were a thousand things she missed about him.
Her entire world stilled. The room quieted, and she could feel her breath too fast in her chest as her heart galloped like she was running a race.
And just like that she understood.
Understood why she wasn’t getting better. Why this wasn’t getting any easier. Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked at Maddie sitting across from her, twisting her hands with obvious worry.
