Right. We’re standing in her family’s yard.
“I still help out around here,” I admit.
Joe slowed down significantly over the past few years, and David prefers to deal with the business side of things than the animals that drive the business. I’m reluctant to tell her that. It feels like I’d be emphasizing the fact that I haven’t gone anywhere, the way she has.
“Reliving your misspent youth, shoveling shit?” she teases, not seeming to notice the vulnerability.
I smirk, relieved. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“I couldn’t sleep. I was going to go for a run. But I can help?”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” She fiddles with the hem of her T-shirt, avoiding my gaze and growing uncertain.
This. This is why I’ve never been able to get Sutton Everett out of my head. Because there’s this thing between us that I canfeel, and I know she feels it too. It hums right now, a steady buzz of static and electricity.
When I first met her, she was babbling and uncertain. Nervous. I thought she was shy. Adjusting. Still discovering who she was.
Then, I watched her navigate being the new girl, a high school senior, in a small town with ease. Over and over again, the same disconnect appeared between how she acted around me and her behavior with everyone else.
It made me feel like the tallest man on Earth.
If I’m being honest, it still does.
“Trying to prove you’re not a pop princess?”
She smiles, but it fades fast. “Trying to spend time with you.”
Gravel crunches as she shifts from foot to foot, obviously regretting the statement.
She looks out at the main pasture, bites her bottom lip, then glances back at me. “My dad wants to sell this place.”
The sentence hits me like a sucker punch. Lily has always treated me with kindness, even after things ended badly between me and Ellie. David has always been appreciative of my help around the farm, for my willingness to handle the tasks he doesn’t want to.
But I know why my stomach feels like it’s sinking all of a sudden, and it has nothing to do with either of them.
Sutton has come backoncesince she left. Slim odds, but still a chance. It will hurt to lose that possibility.
What is it about knowing you should let go of something that makes holding on to it feel like the only option?
“Wow.” That’s all I can come up with to say.
“Yeah.”
I clear my throat. “Do you…care?”
“I shouldn’t.”
I’m not sure if we’re talking about the farm anymore. “That’s not what I asked, June.”
A loudmooemanates from the barn, followed by a noisythudas hoof hits wood. Sutton walks past me and slides the main door open, spilling light inside and letting more impatient sounds out.
I follow her down the center aisle, then hear the rumble of an engine outside and grimace. “I’ll be right back.”
Sutton’s curious gaze follows me outside. Jett Joseph and Chip Bowen are climbing out of a pickup truck.
“Hey, Mr. Owens,” Chip greets.