“Our brothers sure did. Remember when they took the snowmobiles to the cabin?” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know that was you.”
She gasped. “I did not mean to tell them. I saidyoumight be at that cabin. I forgot you’d also said you had plans with Rhys.”
They’d only interrupted a heavy make-out session. We’d been fifteen and still exploring. The excitement of those times was reminiscent of now. Getting caught nowadays had a lot more levels to it though. “Speaking of getting busted... Kirstin came home.”
“She’s in town?”
“She was at the house. She walked in when...” I couldn’t finish. The embarrassment was high, but that moment had been so personal. An explosive reconnection.A moment that had waited for fifteen years, and then boom, ex-wife worried I was going to get her kids’ images splashed over the internet.
“Oh my god.”
“Yeah. He let her stay there and came to the cabin. She’s going to be at Wren’s for however long she’s in town.”
“The plot thickens.”
“Not really.” At her sidelong glance, I shrugged. “It’s not serious between us. Kirstin flew home worried my fame was going to drag the girls in front of the camera.”
“Did she come home for the girls—or for Rhys?”
“It sounds over between them, but I just hear Rhys’s version, which isn’t terrible. It was like an echo of us, only they had kids and had to divorce before she left.”
“Those are pretty major differences.”
“I don’t know what to think.” Other than I wanted my time with Rhys. I wanted to have sex with him. To store up the way he made me feel before I went back to my career. “We don’t want anyone knowing. The girls can’t think I’m more than a friend.”
“Well... they’re young. But that picture of you two that came across my feed looked pretty cozy.”
“It’s your fault for ditching me with him.”
Her smile was unrepentant. “Why don’t you invite him out next weekend?”
I ran through my brain for what the significance of next weekend was.
Autumn rolled her eyes. “We’re working cattle. Tate’s doing one of the days on a weekend so we can all help. It’s all hands on deck. I, for one, am not missing Gideon on a horse and working cattle.”
“I heard you did before.”
“I saw him after.” Her face got all dreamy, and if I had looked in a mirror when Rhys had entered the cabin with muffins and coffee, I’d have had the same expression.
“I made Wynter take pictures. She and Myles are coming home for that, by the way. Summer’s coming because Jonah said he’d give it a shot. He’s going to help drive and deliver meals.”
Jonah still had a limp from the accident he’d been in when he was younger. According to Summer, he could no longer ride horseback. Walking on uneven ground could be hazardous for him, but there was plenty to do on cattle-working weekends.
“I should send Ruby to take some photos to post for me. Unless she wants to come?”
“She’d either love to or get scared away.”
From our online interactions, Ruby seemed like a mix of timid and adventurous. “Any big-sister advice?”
Autumn’s expression turned solemn. “You have to keep it at the front of your mind that you’re going to walk away again, and he’s not going to follow.”
Her words were a quick stab to the heart. “I did it before.”
“But you thought he’d be coming later. You thought that when his dad got better, he’d run to you.”
I swallowed hard. His dad hadn’t gotten better. Rhys hadn’t run to me. He’d run me off.
“He’s already let you go twice, Junie,” Autumn said softly. “Unless you’re willing to give up everything to be here, all those homes you collected, and your touring, there’s going to be a third time.”
