She wasn’t back for good. It wasn’t fair to get tangled up with him. No matter how she could rationalize it, she’d never be able to have no-strings-attached sex with Daniel. She just wasn’t capable of it.
So she ran.
Like a scared kid.
Hope took a few careful steps back. “I’ll see you around, Danny.” Then she hightailed it for Jules’s truck. She didn’t stop to think that it might be yet another stupid idea until Adam got behind the wheel and cranked the engine on.
He barely waited until they were off the dirt drive to start on her. “Why are you back in town, Hope?”
“What?” She jerked back, stung. “I’m here for the scholarship in John’s memory.”
“That’s all well and good—if it were true. But you could set that shit up down in Dallas without ever setting foot back in Devil’s Falls, and you damn well know it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I have half a dozen meetings set up tomorrow alone and—”
“Meetings you could hold over the phone.” He didn’t look at her, but the judgment in his voice hurt. A lot.
It was a fight not to hunch down in the seat. “If you didn’t want to see me, you didn’t have to offer to drive me.”
“Fuck, that’s not it.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m happy to see you, kid. Really, I am. I’ve missed you like crazy—we all have—but this isn’t about John. This is about Daniel.” He didn’t give her a chance to jump in, not that she knew what she was supposed to say. Things with Daniel were complicated, and not in a good way.
Adam turned onto the highway leading into Devil’s Falls. “I don’t judge you for not coming back. Fuck, I left, too, and I had every intention of staying gone. I’m sure it’s hard being back here and seeing John everywhere.”
She knew exactly what he meant. She might have been the kid sister, but she’d tagged along through most of their grade school adventures, and then again once she hit sixteen and Daniel finally woke up and realized she was totally in love with him. Daniel. Seeing him and Quinn and Adam together only brought into relief the missing piece, but there was comfort in knowing that those three were here in Devil’s Falls, still friends despite everything. Still living and loving and maybe occasionally getting into trouble for old times’ sake.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You goddamn well know what the problem is. You’ve moved on with your life, left the past where it belongs. Daniel hasn’t.” He finally looked at her, the lights of an oncoming car illuminating his face. “Despite not having seen you in a hell of a long time, I still love you like a sister, Hope. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and watch you grind what’s left of Daniel into the ground when you leave again.”
“That’s not fair.” She couldn’t dredge up any anger. Adam could be a dick, but that’s not what this was. He was worried about Daniel. It seemed everyone was worried about Daniel. “I didn’t come back here to mess with him.”
“Maybe not, but you being back is going to do exactly that.” He headed into town, pulling to a stop right next to her car in front of Cups and Kittens. “If you care about him even a little after all this time, stay the hell away from him, Hope. I mean it.”
She stared at the dashboard, wondering when it had all gone wrong. Oh, yeah, right around the time my skirt hit my waist. “I came back to help.”
“You won’t help Daniel. You’re only going to make it worse.”
Her throat tried to close, but she managed to speak past it. “Some things don’t change. You can be so damn mean sometimes, Adam.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sat back. “But it’s the truth. You’ve been doing well. Don’t look at me like that, of course I’ve followed up on you over the years—you’re the little sister I never had by blood. Hell, Hope, you’re doing better than well. I’m fucking proud of you.”
Her eyes burned, and she blinked a few times, trying to tell herself that it was because of the heat and not because she was actually tearing up. She’d always considered him and Quinn brothers while they were growing up, though she’d thought those relationships had broken at the same time as hers and Daniel’s. Adam had disappeared off to do the rodeo circuit, and the most she’d heard from Quinn was a snarky Christmas card every year. “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t exactly announce it. That’s on me.”
Those things went both ways. She’d followed his rodeo career, but she’d never seen him ride live. The thought of seeing one of the men she cared about getting thrown from the back of a furious bull…she couldn’t handle it. “I promise I didn’t come back here to cause problems.”
“I know, kid. Trust me, I know. And if you were planning on staying, I wouldn’t be warning you off him—you two were always good together.”
Yeah, they had been. Right up until he stopped returning her calls and forced her to move on with her life without him. Hope took a shuddering breath. “Things change.”
“Some things. Not this.” He got out of the truck and walked around to open her door. She hopped down and squeaked when he pulled her into a hug. “I missed you, Hope. We all did.”
She recovered quickly and hugged him back. “I missed you guys, too.”
He let her go and ruffled her hair, the move one he’d repeated thousands of times before. “I’ll follow you to the B&B and carry your bags up.”
“It’s fine.” She was already heading around the car for the tailgate. “I’ve got it.”
“There’s no shame in asking for help.”
She went ramrod straight and turned to glare at him. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, let alone that of a man she respected and loved like a brother. “I am not helpless, a
nd I’m more than capable of wrestling a stupid suitcase into my room. Leave it alone.”
“If you say so.” Adam held up his hands. “Kid, I don’t know how they do things down in Dallas, but you’re back in Devil’s Falls—around here, we help each other out, and it’s not seen as a criticism.”
She knew that—just like she knew that she was being rude for snapping at him. She was just so damn used to people looking at her screwed-up knee and seeing someone less than whole. And, truth be told, her leg was hurting her something fierce right now, the pain radiating all the way to her hip. All she wanted to do was go up to her room and lie down for a little while and just process everything that had happened.
But that didn’t mean she should be taking it out on Adam. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He gently nudged her aside and grabbed her suitcase. “It’s weird being back in town, huh?”
“The weirdest.”
Fifteen minutes later, she was all checked in and Adam was gone, leaving her in peace. At least in theory. In reality, she kept replaying the last few hours and wondering when her well-intentioned plan had jumped the rails. The goal had always been to come back here, get some closure, and go back to her life in Dallas, feeling better about everything. About putting that nagging what-if question to rest, once and for all.
Instead, here she was, having just had a quickie with her ex against the side of a house, getting ripped a new one by a man she considered a brother, and going to bed wondering what the hell she’d been thinking.
Coming back to Devil’s Falls had been a horrible mistake.
…
Daniel spent the next few days half sure that Hope would randomly show up on his doorstep. By the time he realized she had no intention of doing that, almost a week had passed. I don’t even know how long she’s in town for. He should just let it go. It was no wonder she didn’t want to see him. Their past aside, she’d barely been back in town an hour and he’d been fucking her against the wall like she was…well, anyone other than Hope Moore.