Page 34 of The One Who Never Left: Colter

“You’re right, I don’t. Why don’t we fix that.”

Her stomach dropped. She’d just dared him to do the one thing she was trying to avoid—turning the spotlight on herself in a way that begged for answers to his questions. It was supposed to be the other way around, her gathering information while staying safely unreadable. Instead, she’d handed him the opening and felt the balance shift.

“Let’s not.”

“What’s the one thing a man could do that would instantly make you lose interest?” he asked, ignoring the move-along vibe she was giving off.

“Men who ask about my cantaloupes.”

“No more melon talk. Got it. What’s your astrology sign?”

“Seriously, you get one question and that’s what you ask?”

“I didn’t know we’d established rules besides the melon talk,” he said.

“The longer you talk, the longer the list grows.”

"Careful. At this rate I won't be allowed to speak at your daughter's wedding."

There was a long pause that indicated a shift in subject matter.

“What scares you more, being alone or picking the wrong person?” he asked and Sutton almost walked away, but then she realized it was her turn to ask something back, to do what she had trained herself to do for Lynlee’s sake.

She had spent the last few years learning how to read men carefully, how to ask the right questions, how to decide whether someone was safe enough, steady enough, kind enough to earn a place in her daughter’s life. This was not about her pride or ego or her past history with men. It was about seeing who he really was, about finding out whether he and his family were as good as they seemed.

She had given up years of her own wants and dreams to get answers. Now, finally, it was her turn to ask.

“Alone isn’t the same as lonely. I’ve spent most of my life alone and I’ve learned that there’s strength in that. Picking the wrong person could cost you everything,” she said surprised at how easy that truth rolled off the tongue.

“Don’t you have family nearby?”

“That’s not how this game goes. It’s a one for one deal, which makes it my turn. What scares you more, being alone or picking the wrong person?”

He didn’t answer right away, instead took a slow pull from his beer, eyes drifting toward the yard like the answer might be hiding there.

“I guess, picking the wrong person,” he finally said. “Growing up with my brothers and enough animals to start a zoo, I’ve never been alone. I imagine it’s quiet and between helping run the ranch and my practice, quiet sounds nice. My turn. Why did you become a vet tech?”

“I can say that I love animals, which I do. I’ve always felt at peace around furry things but there’s more to it. When I got pregnant, I was in college. Pre-med. Balancing my class load and being a mom was difficult, so I had to make the decision between being average at both or being a master of one. I chose being a mom, so I dropped out of college to take the vet tech program at the local junior college. It was eighteen months instead of eight years. The choice wasn’t easy. Walking away from my dream of becoming a pediatrician felt like setting down a piece of myself I wasn’t sure I’d ever get back. But I made it with both eyes open, and I’d make it again if it meant being there for Lynlee when it mattered most.”

That didn’t mean the dream was gone, though. Just postponed. When Lynlee was old enough to stand on her own, Sutton could see herself reopening that door and seeing if medicine might still want her back.

“Why didn’t your family step in and help?” he asked earnestly, like he couldn’t fathom a situation where loved ones didn’t drop their life to be there for one another.

“I grew up in foster care.”

Normally when she shared that part of her life people either looked at her with pity or squirmed uncomfortably, unsure what to say about something so far outside their own experiences. There were a lot of assumptions too—the system, abuse, neglect—but none of those applied to her. Her foster homes had been safe and welcoming but never loving. She’d always felt like a placeholder, a name on a roster, a shelter for state money.

But Colter didn’t look at her that way. His eyes held something different—compassion and maybe even pride. The warmth of it made her chest tighten, then swell, and something foreign slid through her body—she felt seen, actually seen, for the person she was and not reduced to the worst or loneliest parts of her story.

“Which is why I’ll do anything to protect Lynlee, even if it means our family stays just the two of us.” She would kill for her daughter to grow up like Colter had, with a large loving family. But wanting it for Lynlee and trusting it enough to hand her daughter over to it were two very different animals, and Sutton had spent five years learning the difference the hard way.

“What about her dad? Is he in the picture?”

Sutton hesitated, heart ticking up a notch. She didn’t want to lie again—yikes—but she wasn’t ready to spill that truth—not yet.

“My turn. Why a vet?”

He held her gaze for a long moment, as if he were looking into the depth of her soul. She was afraid of what he’d see so she repeated the question.