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I needed to stay away from him so I wouldn’t be sucked into his vortex. Nothing good could come from getting close to a man who’d hurt me in the past.
Only a fool would do something like that.
Two
Heath
I used the flashlight on my phone to navigate through the woods, back to Addy’s birthday party. By the time I arrived at the bonfire, the crowd had dwindled, and it was mostly family. Sebastian had already taken Ember home, too.
I’d feel better when his cabin was done, and they had a short walk home, instead of driving into town. I wondered if Knox would ask Sarah to move into his cabin soon like Emmett had with Ireland.
I didn’t feel the same desire to settle down and get married as they did. But running into Marley when I hadn’t expected to see her was unsettling. I’d wanted to see her at Lila’s funeral, but she held a private service.
Marley was even more gorgeous than she’d been in high school. Her hair was longer, her curves voluptuous.
We were hot and heavy when we were teens, but I shut it down when I worried about what her brother would think. It was fun for a while, and I thought I might even love her, but we didn’t have a future. Not when her brother was my best friend.
When he deployed, I promised to look after Marley. She didn’t have an easy time of it in school. The kids knew she lived in a trailer on her grandmother’s property, and they never let her forget it. My brothers and I were picked on for living on a farm and not being from town, where all the popular kids lived. But we didn’t care, and we were big enough that they eventually stopped the ribbing.
Marley talked endlessly about leaving town. Knowing that I’d never leave my family, and the farm was in my blood, it was just one more reason that we wouldn’t have worked out.
I’d never met anyone who made me reconsider settling down. I had my ever-expanding family to think about, as well as what we needed to do to increase revenue at the farm so that Mom would always be supported.
I didn’t have time to wonder about the what-ifs. Aiden would have been pissed if he’d found out how I’d made a move on his sister back then. He’d never forgive me.
I’d check on the inn tomorrow and make sure it was safe. Then I’d steer clear of Marley. She was moving back to California, and I wouldn’t see her for another ten years.
“Everything okay with you and Marley?” Talon asked as we headed inside the barn to clean up.
“I think she’s upset about her grandmother dying and having to come home.”
“She hasn’t visited much over the years,” Talon said as he moved around the room, gathering cups and plates and throwing out any trash.
When Mom talked about how she was doing, I listened. I needed to know that Marley was happy. It settled something deep inside me.
I knew I hurt her when I broke up with her, but it had to be done. We didn’t have a future together.
“Did you know her in high school?” Talon asked, and I felt his gaze on the side of my face.
The space between my shoulder blades tightened. “She was a year younger than me but I knew her as Aiden’s younger sister.”
“You two seemed to have some history.”
I shook my head. By the time we hit high school, girls were all over me and my brothers. But we were focused on the farm. We didn’t want or need the attention. “Why would I have talked to a girl younger than me?”
“I don’t know. You tell me. We lived on adjoining properties. Did you run into her in the woods?”
My heart thumped in my chest. Did he know our secret? I thought we’d been so careful. When we were seeing each other, Knox was away at school, and Emmett was focused on building his furniture business. “Why would you think that?”
“There was just something between you, a familiarity. She seemed pissed at you.”
She’d said she wouldn’t do anything for me, as if there was something between us. But I wasn’t ready to tell my brothers. Not when I didn’t want Aiden to find out. “You’re wrong about that. I think she’s just overwhelmed with grief.”
“Then why didn’t she visit over the years? She had to know Lila missed her and wanted her to come home.”
“Lila never would have asked her to.” Each time Lila brought up Marley, I thought for sure she knew about us. She always seemed to be fishing for something. Maybe it was her intuition, and she hadn’t seen anything.
“Isn’t it selfish that she stayed away all those years?” Talon asked.
