“Bethany, don’t spy.” Did she see anything?
Hannah ignored me and ran to her sister. They both stared in.
We were being creepy. “Come on, guys. You can’t?—”
“Hey,” June said from behind us.
We all spun. June was dressed the same as this morning. She’d braided her hair and it hung over one shoulder. Her cheeks were pink from the crisp air, and she wore cowboy boots. Normal ones that weren’t dyed different colors. These boots were more like her hair. Some light blue lined their seams.
She was so fucking beautiful and, at the moment, attainable.
“It was their idea,” I blurted. I held up the basket. Iwould not be another one of those men commenting on June’s legs and her looks and how fuckable she was.
The black leggings only teased how muscled and curvy her legs were. She’d always had an ethereal beauty that left me speechless, and I remembered too well how the night before she’d left went. Fuckable.
Men were assholes.
Interest lined her face, and she walked around the porch. Her steps weren’t loud like mine had been.
“We brought you food!” Bethany announced.
Hannah rattled off the items they’d packed.
With each one listed, June’s smile grew. “That’s so sweet of you. I’m afraid to confess that Tenor got me some groceries, but they aren’t nearly as good as what you brought.”
Tenor might be a bachelor, but a guy raised on Mae Bailey’s food knew good eats. I gave June a dubious look and her eyes danced.
“You can go on in,” she said.
I was standing in front of the door, and she probably didn’t want to push past me. I didn’t move. “You were out, and you left your door unlocked?”
“I was in the back, checking the trail to the creek. It was too muddy to trek, but I was enjoying the fresh air and I found a couple of birds’ nests.” She looked around at the sloping valleys to where the creek cut through. Farther out, the land flattened and was turning green. By the end of May, it’d be a brilliant emerald. Her dad, Darin, had never wished to farm or ranch in this area. He’d said he was lucky to be able to preserve its natural beauty.
I opened the door. Memories unlocked as I looked inside. The plush furniture, at odds with the polishedwood floor and the log-beam walls, lent a posh air to the exposed wood. The couch and fluffy chair told a person to sit down and stay awhile. The fireplace still had a family picture hanging above it. A framed image of June’s parents and her brothers and sisters before Tate had graduated and left for college.
Stepping inside was like trudging through three feet of mud. Nostalgia might choke me. We used to talk and laugh and make out for hours. The night before she’d left, I’d finally gotten to hold her all night.
The girls shoved past me, shattering the memory like a popped bubble.
Bethany took the basket from me. “Where should I put it?”
“Anywhere on the counter,” June said, coming in behind me and stepping out of her boots. “Y’all hungry? I’ve got a frozen pizza to throw in the oven.”
They’allwas another pop in my mental balloon. A sign that her time in Nashville meant we’d been apart for so many damn years. I shouldn’t be this twisted inside when it came to her.
I’d grown up and so had she. I was a different man, and the sandwiches were a sign that I only knew the girl June used to be. I didn’t know the woman she was now. So why did I feel hung up on her?
“I’mstarving,” Hannah said as if she didn’t have a belly full of cookies.
June folded her hands in front of her. “You’re welcome to stay.”
“Can we, Dad?” Bethany rose to her tiptoes, her face full of hope.
Dammit. I was just thinking that I had to get over the past. “We’ve already intruded,” I said hesitantly.
“The pizza will go to waste if I eat what you brought. I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to it. My tastes have gotten a little snobbish and the quality of frozen pizza has dwindled over the years.”
“I love pizza,” Hannah said.
