AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After we part ways, I walk downtown a little, getting reacquainted with the place I grew up. It has only been a few years since I stopped coming back, but so much has changed. Mostly due to Gabe and his partner Brady. New storefronts and refreshed sites fill all of downtown, the updated houses and restored relics look amazing, and I am so glad someone is taking the care to bring the town back to life.
Harmony Hollow is small and most of the folks here either farm or run small businesses. We have all you could need here, and I wonder why I was always so desperate to get away. Growing up all I ever wanted was to get out of this town. To get away from my parents, who I adore but drove me nuts with romance living and breathing right in front of me.
“Never believed you could do something special here,” I say to myself as I round a corner and stop in my tracks.
Settled across the street is one of the two dealerships Bran runs. Owns. It’s his legacy, left to him by his father. He swore he never wanted to take it over. That he hated the idea of being like his father. He loved his father, and he was a decent man, but he made no time for Bran or the rest of the family. Even when we were young, Bran was always the man of the house, looking after his mother and two brothers.
In the warm light of the sunny spring day, I stand on the corner to watch the comings and goings of the little car lot. For a small lot they have lots of gleaming cars. A few salesmen walk the lot with buyers, but I do not see him. I find myself wondering what his days there are like. What his office looks like and how bossy he gets with his employees. Just as I start to cross the street to go find out, my phone pings.
Taking it from my pocket, I glance at the screen. Another message on the dating app. Do I keep talking to this stranger or face Bran and talk to him? One is much easier than the other. It has felt nice to have someone to talk to while I adjust to my life here again. Sighing, I swipe the phone open to read his message.
Him: Hope you smashed it. Tonight, you ought to celebrate yourself. Maybe I can help?
I almost agree. To whatever him helping me could mean. But I can’t. Not when I am so confused about how I feel about Bran. I knew confusion was bound to happen. Old feelings coming up and frustration at how we ended is inevitable. I am not ready to blow someone off—who has been fun and nice to talk to—but it would be wrong to go out with someone else while I feel this way.
Me: Already helping. Being someone to talk to when I need it.
Him: Glad I can be there when you need someone. Is there someone else you can talk to if you need? Someone besides me?
Me: There is. My best friend is a saint and has been amazing while I adjust to being back home. And... someone from my past, someone very important to me, he is there too. If I need him, I know he would listen to me. I am just not ready to need him yet.
Him: He would be a fool not to be there when you need him. I am sure he would be happy to be the person you turn to. I know I am right now.
On the drive back the The Pillars, I listen to a playlist Bran made for me our junior year of college. We were hot and heavy then, breaking up just to make up days later. I thought he was the man I would be with forever. He was the only one I had ever felt anything for. We just wanted such different things out of life—I wanted to chase down the sun and he wanted to just let it set on the horizon.
Now I wonder if that meant we just made sense together. I was so idealistic and hungry and too impatient to let us figure things out. When he told me he did not want me to go off to graduate classes thinking about him, I took it hard. Ruled by my emotions, I let things between us fall apart.
“Pais, baby, please, I don’t want to do this, can’t we just...”
“No, we can’t just wait anymore. Wait to start our lives. I can’t.”
With the playlist he made me about love and forever playing, I miss him more than ever. I wish I could take those words back. I have wished that a hundred times since the night I said them. I could have waited forever for him, if it took forever to get what we had right. I loved him. And he loved me, even if I told him it was not enough. Even if sometimes I wished it was more.
Bran loved me enough to put me first, but I could not see that then.
Now I am left wondering if he was the one who broke my heart—or if that was my own handiwork.
CHAPTER 6
Bran
* * *
Is it possible to fall in love with the same woman twice?
Because over the past weeks, I think I have fallen in love with Paisley Story all over again. We talk every single day, several times a day, although I don’t think she knows it's me yet. Being anonymous because of the app makes it easier for us to be open. Paisley holds nothing back, talking about her failed dreams, how hard it was for her to come home, and most importantly—how much she misses a certain someone.
“I am not ready to need him yet,” she admitted to me.
When she had her meeting with Gabe Holmes, she was anxious and excited. I could tell just by us chatting over text. I could not let her do it alone, so I made my way the few blocks to the café I knew she was meeting him at, hoping to run into her. I just meant to give her some words of encouragement, that’s always been my job. My duty.
Finding her tripping over her sexy heels in that even sexier little dress woke a carnal creature inside of me. It has always been Paisley for me, even when I didn’t think it should be. When I thought it could not be. Growing up together meant I wanted her the moment I knew what it was to want someone—but I always knew she was out of my league. All I ever wanted to do was take care of her—even if that meant just being there to protect her from herself.
Knowing what it feels like to have her and how hard it was to lose her, I made a decision. I need to win her back. Need to do whatever it takes to convince her that all our mistakes led us right here. Right where we were always meant to be. Talking to each other, wanting each other, needing each other every single day. I am convinced there will never be someone better for me than her. And no one better for her than me.
Today is the day. After almost two weeks of talking to her daily, sharing quotes, songs, and everything else about our day, I am going to ask her out. Hopefully she agrees even though I expect her to be pissed when she shows up to find it is me she has been talking to. Or maybe she knows. It was not hard for me to figure out it was her. And things she has told me allowed me to run into her at the grocery store and that day at the café, so I am not exactly hiding it all that well.
Her: Good morning. Busy day ahead?
