Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
She captivated me.
When she graduated from college, I was already running on borrowed time. My body had been warning me for years. Aching joints, slow recoveries, and the kind of pain that didn’t fade after a good night’s sleep. The circuit had taken its pound of flesh, and then some.
I told everyone I was thinking about retiring because of that. Because it was time. Because I’d done enough. But the truth was that I thought, for the first time, we were going to be in the same place, and I’d thought it was finally time to make my move.
No more semesters pulling her away. No more counting down to breaks and holidays. She’d be here. In Magnolia Ridge. In the hometown where our families were, where we both grew up.
And I didn’t want to miss it.
The five-year age gap didn’t feel so damn heavy anymore. Not when she was twenty-two, standing on her own, and I was twenty-seven, finally thinking about standing still. What I felt for her suddenly didn’t feel like something I had to lock away and ignore.
It felt… possible.
Yet I stayed on for three more years because Baylor left our little town and moved to New York. I remember the night I decided I was done. Sitting on the tailgate of my truck, I stared out over the fields, the sky stretched wide and endless above me. My body hurt like hell—same as always—but for once, that wasn’t the thing weighing on me. It was her. What staying might mean. What it might cost. What leaving might give me.
So, I hung up my spurs.
My career was my identity. I walked away from the only life I’d known since I was old enough to climb onto a bull and think I was invincible. Everyone said it was about time. Said I was smart to quit while I could still walk straight.
I let them believe that.
It was easier to let them believe my aches and pains were the only reasons. Easier than admitting that my true reason was for the hope of something that might never be mine.
Five years ago, I came home for good.
Five years ago… Baylor introduced me to Todd.
Turning my plans upside down.
Even thinking his name leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Toad fits better—short, squat, always hanging around where he doesn’t belong. The kind of guy who laughs too loud at his own jokes and claps you on the back as if you’re already friends.
Ellison had been pumped that her sister was coming home for a visit. She hadn’t known about Todd. None of us did. I was ready to shoot my shot. I was going to woo her, make her fall madly in love with me, but everything I’d hoped for crashed and burned. It was bittersweet because she was smiling. She was happy, and I wanted that for her. I just wanted her to be smiling up at me. Not him.
I’d forced a smile and pretended I was happy for her. I never let it show that there was a crack in my chest, and all the hope I’d felt was seeping through. I was prepared to be an asphalt cowboy. I would have followed her to New York City and adapted.
For her.
Shaking out of my thoughts, I focus on what’s happening around me. The double doors open, and she walks in with her arms full of bags. Leighton and Courtlynn rush her, and I fist my hands at my sides, because I want to do the same. Instead, I stay rooted to my spot, watching as the sisters reunite.
They haven’t seen her since Ellison and Copeland’s wedding. I know because they were talking about it earlier. I haven’t seen her since then either. My eyes drink her in. I know instantly that something feels off. She’s smiling, but it’s not reaching her eyes. There’s something hidden that she’s trying to hide.
Ellison walks in, and it’s another hug fest, but then Baylor speaks, and her words have my breath stalling in my lungs. “That’s why I’m moving back home.” Those six words have something shifting in my chest. It’s heavy and sharp and impossible to ignore.
Baylor’s moving home.
My Baylor.
I don’t know what it means. What about Todd? Is he moving here, too? I have so many questions, but as the sisters lead Copeland and Ellison to their places, I know I’m not going to get them, at least not right away.
My familiar friend, hope, sparks up once again, because maybe, just maybe, it was my time. Our time. I stayed in Magnolia Ridge, which is where my friends and family are. And I knew that I’d still get glimpses of her.
Could it be possible that we’re both finally in the same place, at the same time, with nothing in the way?
Baylor heads for the drink table, and suddenly, I’m parched. My steps are slow and even as I casually make my way to grab a bottle of water from the table. It’s a wonder I can pull off casual, because all I want to do is run to her.