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“Then being away from home will help you see it all the more clearly, won’t it? You wanted me to leave town to see what life was like without the shadow of Dad’s problems. Why doesn’t the advice apply to you?” She held up a hand to cut off Keely’s argument, refusing to listen. “You can always rebuild the farm, Keely. But you started that business out of necessity. Why not spend some time with Nate—someone you love—and just enjoy the time together before you think about what you want to try next?”
She’d been so sure that she was making a good decision to put herself first. But ultimately, she’d wanted to do exactly what her sister was suggesting—to spend time examining her heart and figuring out what she wanted to do next. Was there any reason she couldn’t do just that while she was on the road with Nate for a season or two?
Her stomach knotted, knowing the answer already. She’d been too scared to take a chance with him, so she’d reached for a convenient way to put up more walls. To protect herself from possibly being hurt again.
At thirteen, she’d lost her mother, the person who was supposed to love her most in all the world. That loss had hurt every day since. But if she let that fear hold her prisoner here, even when Nate had offered her a whole new life at his side, she might never stop hurting.
Both alternatives were scary. But the path she’d taken sure hadn’t led her to any real happiness. Maybe it was time to do something different.
*
“You’re going tolove Chicago,” Ty Lambert told Nate as they drank celebratory beers to toast Nate’s new baseball home.
Ty had wanted to take him out, but Nate didn’t have the heart after the way Keely had shut things down between them. It had taken all Nate could do to get through the baseball camp today. So he’d invited Ty back to the farmhouse at Rough Hollow, where the converted pole barn offered a covered spot to sit while the sun went down. A wrought-iron ceiling spun overhead, and he’d switched on a couple of misters that ran along the roofline in an effort to keep things cool.
“Think about what you’re saying, man.” Nate sipped his own beer, frosty from the outdoor refrigerator at the end of the outdoor bar. “I’m as Texan as they come. Chicago is just a stopping point. Last Stand is my home.”
That had been clear to him on this trip in a way it never had been before. When he came back to Last Stand, he would lead a baseball camp on a more permanent basis. Maybe help some local kids toward professional ball. Although that would be more fun to think about if it meant being with Keely again. He’d been up half the night thinking about how he could have reframed his suggestion that she come with him. He didn’t know why his leaving had to mean the end of their relationship, even if she chose to stay in Last Stand.
His chest had ached night and day since that conversation. Physically hurt. But he needed to see her one last time, to tell her that he loved her no matter where she lived, and that he would support her decision if she stayed here. He didn’t expect her to change her mind, but she deserved to know.
“Still. It’s a fun city.” Ty set his beer down and narrowed his eyes. “What gives? Are you unhappy about the trade? Because I’m thinking Chicago is going to give you more opportunities to play.”
“I do too.” He’d been shocked at first, forgetting about the trade deadline between the baseball camp and then the fire. But after having more time to process it, he figured it didn’t make much difference to him if he was playing in Houston or playing for Chicago. The goal was to keep playing. “The trade is fine. I just wish I could convince Keely to go with me.”
Understatement of the century.
“Alexis’s sister, right?” At Nate’s nod, Ty continued, “What is it with the Harper women? I can’t persuade Alexis to shut off her work ethics long enough to even go out with me.”
Nate swiped away a moth fluttering near his head. “She probably has good reason if she wants to keep her job.”
“That’s just it.” Ty spun the beer bottle around and around on the table, agitated. “The last I talked to her, she was talking about quitting and moving back here to spend time with her father.”
Nate felt his jaw unhinge. Would she really do that?
Ty didn’t seem to notice as he turned his attention to picking at the label on the dark green glass. “So if she leaves the PT position with the Stars, I plan on making some visits to Last Stand. Convince her to change her mind.”
Surprised that Ty would go to that level of effort to court Alexis, he tried to shake off his own thoughts of Keely and the way they’d broken up. Again.
“A long-distance relationship?” Even as he said it, he knew he had to try to make it work with Keely. Stay together and just travel back to see her every chance he could.
He loved her too much to walk away again.
“It’s not that far. A few hours.” Ty shrugged like it was no big deal even though they had very little downtime in the season. “I figure if she sees me as someone who can’t commit—a guy who isn’t serious—then maybe showing up here as often as I can will prove differently.”
“Why would she think you’re not serious?” Nate hadn’t been with the team long, so he didn’t know a lot about the guy other than what the media had to say about him—that Ty Lambert lived on the edge.
“I probably came on a little too strong to start with.” A sheepish grin. “You may have noticed sometimes I let my mouth run away with me.”
“It’s all good. I appreciated your succinct summation of my father’s character, by the way.” He clinked his bottle lightly to Ty’s, still thinking about that long-distance idea.
“You heard that?” Ty had a good start on peeling off the label, and then smoothed it back into place. “Alexis told me that wasn’t a smart thing to do. But damn. Where does your dad get off talking to you like that?”
“Nate?” A feminine voice behind him made everything inside him go still.
Turning in his chair, he saw Keely standing near his mother’s garden, the purple light of dusk streaking the sky behind her. She wore a pale blue dress with yellow flowers that stopped just above her knees, so lovely it hurt to look at her.
“Could I talk to you for a minute?” she asked when Nate couldn’t seem to find his tongue.
