Page 80 of Hometown Hottie

“It totally is. I love it.”

Lifting my gaze to his, I speared him with an exasperated look but gave him the update on the Murphy ranch. “George and Mara are thinking about selling it as a whole. They’ve got an offer on the table and Ryan wants me to be prepared for them to take it.”

He let out a low whistle. “Wow. I never thought they’d willingly sell that place. Do you really think they’re going to do it? What does Nova say?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her about it,” I admitted. “She and I worked things out, but now it feels like we’re out of the frying pan and into the fire. I mean, we’re together, but we still can’t tell Ryan about it, or go out in public, or do any of the things normal couples do.”

“So basically, nothing has changed?”

I shrugged, gratefully accepting my beer from the bartender and taking a long sip before I responded. “Technically, everything has changed. We agreed to make it official. We just can’t act like it.”

“So nothing has changed,” he repeated before he chuckled. “If a relationship falls in a forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it even make a sound?”

“Our relationship isn’t falling. Whatever that means. It’s just…”

“Complicated?” he finished for me.

I nodded. “Something like that. I guess I just thought that when we finally talked everything through, we’d get to be together for real, but now she’s dragging her feet and I get it. I do. I understand that she doesn’t just want to drop this bomb on her brother’s head, but it’s not like I’m asking her to marry me tomorrow.”

He cocked his head at me. “What are you asking her to do?”

“Just to give it a real shot. Do it right,” I said. “It feels like we can’t do that until it’s out in the open, though. We’re still sneaking around. Still lying. The only difference is that at least now we know where we stand with each other, but that’s it.”

“That has to be a relief, though,” he said. “Knowing where you stand with her is a definite step forward from wondering what she wants and if you’re ever going to find out.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I spun my glass slowly between my fingers, watching the bubbles rise in the amber liquid before I looked back at him. “A long time ago, I came home for a visit just after the season wrapped for the year.”

“Okay?” He frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I always used to fly my mom out to visit me instead because our schedule was so insane, but that time, I came home, and while I was here, I went to Moe’s.”

“Ah. I get it. You came home and you saw Nova. That’s how it ties into what we were talking about before?”

I nodded. “It was the first time I’d seen her in years, but I didn’t speak to her. I didn’t want anyone to know I was here, so I kept a low profile and sat in the corner outside wearing a ballcap and sunglasses. I just wanted to get out of the house for a minute, you know? I didn’t want to make a big splash.”

His eyes widened. “So you watched her like some kind of stalker?”

I scoffed down a laugh. “No, it wasn’t like that. I saw her sitting inside with someone, but I couldn’t see who it was. Eventually, just when I’d decided I’d go say hi after all, some of the people around their table moved and I saw a guy.”

“You saw a guy?”

“Yep.” I inhaled deeply through my nostrils. “I asked my mom about it when I got home, and she told me he was Nova’s college boyfriend. They’d been dating for a couple years and he moved here briefly to be with her after they graduated.”

“What? I didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

I shrugged. “She hasn’t mentioned him at all, but I thought they were going to get married. At the time, it sounded like that was what everyone thought.”

“Everyone, or just your mom?” he asked.

I chuckled dryly. “Everyone. The few times I spoke to Ryan during that time and managed to find a way to bring up Nova, he told me about the boyfriend. A while after that visit, that was also how I found out they’d broken up. The guy had left her, from what Ryan told me.”

Vance narrowed his eyes. “What are you trying to say here, Carson? Why the trip down memory lane?”

I drew in a deep breath. Closing my eyes for a moment, I wondered about it myself. “The last few days, I just keep thinking about that visit and remembering how I felt when I saw them together. I would’ve been fine if she’d moved on. I would’ve been happy for her, but I knew they had broken up years ago and that she was still single, and I guess part of me was hoping that I’d have a shot if I came home, you know? That I would get a second chance.”

“That’s exactly what happened, though. Isn’t it? You guys are together now, so this is your second chance.”

“In a way, sure. We still have an obvious connection, but now Nova’s got all this other stuff going on and I don’t know how to help her or how to make her see that I want this for real. I just can’t stop wondering if she wants to keep it from Ryan because she thinks I’m going to leave again, or if it’s because she doesn’t think I’m serious about her.”

Vance listened to me patiently, and when I was done, he leaned forward a little, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “Look man, I know you’ve got it bad, but maybe think about letting her go. At least for a while. None of us are going anywhere anytime soon, and if you think she’s not ready, that she’s still skeptical about relationships, or that she’s got too much going on, maybe you should consider telling her that you’ll wait until she’s worked it all out.”

Before I could respond, a group of women came up to us, giggling and jostling each other as one tentatively held out a sharpie. “We’re so sorry to bother you, but could we have your autographs?”

Fuck. This has to be the worst timing ever.

Vance and I had gotten used to these kinds of interruptions though, and we both switched on that charming, carefree persona and pretended that they hadn’t just butted in to something.

I grinned at one of the women closest to me and nodded. “Sure thing. What are your names?”

The girl descended on me like a fly to honey, especially flirty as she practically shoved her friend out of the way and came to stand so close to my side that she was almost in my lap. Thankfully, I’d been trained in the art of putting someone down gracefully and I did it without hesitation.

Scooting back a bit under the guise of asking the bartender for some napkins and another pen, I busied myself signing my name. I thought I’d dodged the bullet, but what I hadn’t realized at the time was that Amber was at the brewery and that she’d seen the whole thing—and that from where she had been standing, the charm and the grinning hadn’t looked like a well-trained bit at all, but like two guys who were interested in the women they were talking to.