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Great. An old-time love story. That was exactly what he needed right now. “Is there a point to this?”
In a heartbeat, her smile transformed into a glare. “I always have a point to make to those who aren’t too thick-headed to understand it.” She paused, took in a deep breath and clasped her hands together tight enough that her bony knuckles turned white. “One day, not too long after the pie discovery, Josiah’s moonshine still blew up. The explosion took him and everything in the area straight up to Kingdom Come. One moment he was here and then he was gone.” Her voice broke on the last word and she blinked ferociously until the tears threatening to fall surrendered to Ruby Sue’s overwhelming iron will. “I think of him every time I bake a new batch of pies. I remember his smile and his laugh and the way his hand felt on the small of my back when we danced. The memories are a comfort but it doesn’t change the fact that the one man I ever loved is gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it—but you can do something about Olivia.”
The ache he’d tried to drink out of existence hit him with full force, battering his ribs and squeezing his chest tight. “She made the right choice to leave.”
“Why, because your face is all scarred up? Do you really think she’s that shallow or are you that dumb?”
That was part of it but there was more. He’d hurt her in the end, and he wo
uldn’t be able to live with himself. It was better this way. She’d find someone who deserved her. “I’m not someone people should depend on.”
Ruby Sue rolled her eyes. “And yet this whole town does.”
“It’s Salvation, the crime rate is pretty much zilch. I’m more figurehead than police chief.”
“So your sister and the rest of your family, they don’t depend on you?” Exasperation increased her volume and turned her words sharp. “I’ve seen you with that little munchkin niece of yours. Only a fool would say she couldn’t depend on you. Same with others in this town. I know you helped Marna Simons when she broke her hip and needed to get back and forth to physical therapy. Then there’s than mangy mutt who thinks you’re the best thing since Meaty Bones. All sorts of people depend on you. God knows Olivia depended on you, from the time she was a little one. Your parents were some of the few in town who’d let their kids play with the Sweet triplets. That girl fell in love with you back before she even knew what it meant.”
“It’s too late.” The ache spread through his body until even his bones hurt. “She’s gone and if she’s smart, she won’t come back.”
“Then pull your head out of your rump and find a way to get her back to Salvation.” Ruby Sue scooted out of the booth and stood at the end of the table staring down at him as if she’d had just about all of his stupid she could take. “Life doesn’t give you anything. You have to fight for it. So go fight for that girl.”
Without waiting for a response, not that he had any clue what to say, she turned on her heel and marched over to one of the waitresses. Mateo picked up the menu again. He didn’t need it, but he needed to do something with his hands because his grasp on what he thought was right was slipping.
It had only ever been sex—amazing sex, the kind of sex that tore him apart and then rebuilt him—but it was just sex. He’d told himself that lie year after year, hotel room after hotel room, pretending that Olivia was just his pre-deployment good-luck charm.
In reality, she was his last wish. If he didn’t make it back, he wanted her to be his last good memory, the one that would get him through the darkness and over to the other side.
And he still did.
He may not be the man she deserved, but he could learn to be—he could fight to be.
The waitress stopped at his table, but instead of holding an order pad, she held out a single piece of pecan pie. “Compliments of the house.”
Ruby Sue was about as subtle as a Mardi Gras float in the arctic tundra, but she wasn’t wrong. He dropped the menu, pulled out his phone and texted his sister.
CHANGE OF PLANS. MEET ME AT THE VETERANS’ CENTER.
He had one shot at getting Olivia back—and he needed the whole town’s help to make it happen.
Sitting in the middle of the king-size hotel bed, Olivia picked at the remains of the store-bought pecan pie while Handsome shot her death glares from across the room.
“I know you miss swatting at the dog, but we don’t belong there.” She half-heartedly pushed around the stray pecans in the aluminum pie plate, too tired out from her seventy-two hour crying jag to do more than that. “I don’t know where we belong.”
Her phone vibrated on the bedside table. Miranda’s picture flashed on the screen, not for the first time in the past two days. She didn’t want to pick it up. Answering the call meant putting a bright face so no one would know how broken she was.
No. Not broken. Empty, as if someone had taken a giant spoon and scooped out her insides, leaving her nothing more than an aching shell. She’d sold out her family to save the man she loved and he’d shoved her away. How did she explain that to her sisters—to her unborn niece or nephew—when she couldn’t explain it to herself? She was an idiot; a flaky idiot with more boobs than brains.
Miranda’s photo disappeared off the screen and the vibrations ended. Then it started again, this time with Natalie’s picture. If she didn’t answer it, they’d have the National Guard searching for her soon. Surrendering to the inevitable, she hit the talk button.
“Oh my God. Where are you?” Natalie asked, worry pushing her voice to a ten on the shrill-o-meter, even with the audible distance added by being on speakerphone.
“I’m at a hotel in Gulch City.”
“Are you okay?” Miranda asked.
She glanced up at the mirror on the opposite wall. Her eyes were balloon puffy. Her hair was a greasy mess. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on when she drove away from Mateo’s house. She was most definitely not okay. “I’m fine.”
“If you’re worried about that asshole Larry, he’s not in Salvation anymore. Matteo said he followed him to the county line and that every cop in the county is on the lookout for him just in case he comes back.”
