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She winced.
Can you give the girl a break? She lost her father.
He was trying, but the problem was, she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was a woman, and a damned fine one at that. Suddenly, it wasn’t so easy to forget why he’d been mad at her all those years ago.
“Have you heard from Ma—”
“No.” He cut off that line of conversation since it was the only thing close to as painful as losing her had been all those years ago. “So, where you been, Maggie?” Bennett wandered to an armoire with four framed photos lining a shelf.
He picked up one of Maggie at her high school graduation and smiled. Her eyes held all the promise of a future she could look forward to. He’d been there, in the stands that night, not that she knew as much. He’d taken the bus back from Texas Tech to surprise her, to see if they could talk about the question he’d asked her the year before. Daisies and promises in hand, he’d sat in the back of the high school football stadium waiting for his moment to reclaim his dreams. But when the principal announced her as the valedictorian, then shared his excitement at Maggie’s acceptance to a school in Houston on full scholarship, Bennett had chickened out and left. The daisies—and his hopes—were left in the dumpster of Deer Creek High School, and he pushed aside his plans to marry Margaret Newman until she figured out what she wanted out of life, and if Deer Creek would ever be a part of that life again. Maybe that was why she’d needed time in the first place—her goals had to count for something, too.
Not that he’d begrudged her education or her aspirations, but they were gonna chase those dreams together once upon a time.
“You know where. San Antonio.” He heard the crinkling of the paper bag, then a sigh of delight that made his throat dry. “Are you kidding? This should be a banned substance, it’s so good.”
“Uh, yeah. Mae’s really got those vanilla tarts dialed in.”
“Wow. I remember her coffee stand having some first-rate scones, but that was it.”
“She’s got a shop now, and some interested buyers who want her to franchise.”
“So, Deer Creek is growing after all. I always assumed it would be frozen in time like the rest of rural Texas.”
“You didn’t have the monopoly on growing up and moving on, you know.”
He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and now? He turned around and, darn, if she wasn’t looking at him with damp eyes. Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut around her?
“That wasn’t very nice,” Maggie said with what sounded like half a tart in her mouth.
Bennett put the photo down and opened his mouth to apologize just as she used her pointer finger to wipe some of the vanilla tart from her bottom lip. She licked her finger clean, and Bennett’s jeans tightened around the middle.
This was a bad idea, coming here. But what choice did he have?
“I’m sorry. Anyway, San Antonio, huh?”
She gazed up at him from under full lashes. “Yeah. I graduated, went to school in Houston, then landed in San Antonio where I started my own company.” She paused like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t.
“Oh, yeah. Interior design?”
“You remembered.”
“Of course, I did. You were going to remodel our ranch house.” He winced.
The slipup wasn’t intentional, but it had an effect on both of them. Her gaze fell and so did his stomach.
“Um, yeah. Well, that was the plan. But plans shifted, and I ended up with a major in mechanical engineering and a minor in business.”
“Well, damn. A STEM woman. I could’ve figured that with the way you were always fixing stuff in your dad’s barn.”
“It wasn’t fixing. It was tinkering.” She took another sip of coffee and licked her lips clean of the foam.
Why did she keep doing that? He loosened a button on his flannel to let in some air.
“Call it what you want, but I know improvements when I see them. My dad used to be so jealous of whatever you did to the equipment. Kept saying he was gonna adopt you, so you’d help him fix his old tractor.”
“I’d have helped either way. All he had to do was ask.” An uncomfortable silence fell over them both at the mention of Bennett’s father.
News would have reached her that after Matt left, their dad lost the ranch to foreclosure during Bennett’s second year of tech school, then died a year later. This town was too small for a shame like that to stay buried.
