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I frown, confused. “What?”

“Now that you finally know what it’s like when she’s iced you out, maybe you won’t be stupid enough to screw it up.” Boone picks up a bean and eats it.

“Wait,” I say. “The people who swore me off from her all those years ago are the same ones telling me to go for it?”

“It’s not that deep,” West says.

“You’re different now,” Rowe adds.

The words are like a dart shot straight at me. They hit their mark.

The side door opens, and Melinda takes one look at all of us, standing around the kitchen island, and frowns. “You all look like you’re up to no good.” She walks in. “Boys, Rowena, head outside and help Hattie set up more tables. And there’s corn that needs shucking.”

Boone, West, and Rowena all go outside, and I slide the bowl of green beans across the counter.

“Last of the beans for the season,” Melinda says, a little wistfully.

“They look good,” I start toward the door. “I’ll give them a hand outside.”

“You sticking around this time?” She calls out without looking at me.

I stop moving, turn back, stuff my hands in my pockets, and try not to feel like a fourteen-year-old kid again. “Hoping to, ma’am.”

She pulls out a big pot from one of the cupboards, walks over to the sink, and flips on the water. “Good. ‘Bout time you came home.”

I give her a quick nod, then follow the others outside, that word reverberating through my chest.

Home.

I walk outside and catch a glimpse of Hattie knelt down in front of Libby, looking at something in the little girl’s hands.

All the running. All the avoiding. All the punishing myself without ever finding any peace.

Is it foolish to think that coming back is as easy as deciding to? Hattie must sense my stare because she looks right at me, and I want to believe more than anything that it is.

My phone buzzes, and I pull it out to find a new text.

Nell

We need to talk. Management has concerns. Call me.

I see her five other messages, all unanswered, and I close my phone and shove it back in my pocket.

I don’t want to think about Nell. Or about the management team and their concerns. I don’t want to think about work at all. I just want to be here, on this ranch, with these people.

And pretend everything is right in the world.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Noble

We spend the evening playing corn hole with neighbors and friends of the family—which at the Holbrook ranch is a full-contact sport—and eating food hot off the grill that had no right to taste as good as it did. We chat with neighbors and talk about old times. People have genuine questions about where I’ve been, what I’ve done, and I answer, politely, keeping it to the “A” papers only. No sense reminding everyone about the choices I’m not proud of.

People are welcoming and excited to talk to me. Gives me hope that this town hasn’t totally given up on me.

After dinner, we take the horses out, and every time one of Hattie’s siblings catches me staring at her, they make it very obvious they did.

And every time, I replay what Boone said in the kitchen.