blinked and finally made herself glance in his direction.
He was looking straight at her. “So, Amy, got a few minutes?” Those green eyes gave nothing away. “We should touch base.”
Her heart pounding so hard she was lucky it didn’t crack a rib, she nodded. “A walk, maybe?” she heard herself offer lamely.
“That’ll work.”
It took her several agonizing seconds to realize that he was waiting for her to join him. “Oh!” she exclaimed like a total doofus and ordered her feet to carry her toward him.
They all went out to the porch together and waved goodbye to Viv.
Luke shook Derek’s hand. “Friday, happy hour. The Ace.”
“I’ll be there,” said Derek.
The Ace in the Hole was the only bar within the Rust Creek Falls town limits. Amy remembered it all too well from her short, unhappy visit to town nine years before.
And then, last year, the Ace had garnered national attention when a reality show, The Great Roundup, had filmed final auditions there. Travis Dalton, Derek’s cousin, had been on that show and so had Travis’s now-wife, Brenna O’Reilly Dalton.
Amy had watched the show faithfully every week. The scenes filmed in town had made her feel all warm and fuzzy, made her long for Rust Creek Falls, made her remember the good times growing up. Best of all, The Great Roundup had allowed her to get sappy and sentimental from the safety of her Boulder, Colorado living room. Never had she ever planned to set foot in town again.
But now, here she was, about to get up close and conversational with the very reason she’d stayed away for so long in the first place.
Luke and Eva went back into the house, leaving Amy alone with the gorgeous broad-shouldered stranger who’d once ruled her teenaged heart. She just stood there, like a lump. She had no idea what to say to him.
He had his straw Resistol in his hand. He slid the hat onto his head and tugged on the brim to settle it.
Everything inside her was aching. This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
“Let’s go.” He started walking. She followed him down the steps and out into the late-afternoon sunshine.
He turned for the big yellow barn where Eva and Luke would get married in less than four weeks. Amy came up beside him and they walked together, but not touching, neither saying a word. Somewhere far off, a lone bird cried, the sound faint. Plaintive.
“Here’s as good as anywhere, I guess,” he said, stopping at a split rail fence fifty yards or so from the looming shape of the barn.
For more reasons than she cared to contemplate, she didn’t want to look directly at him, so she turned toward the pasture on the other side of the fence. The papers Viv had given her crackled in her hands as she rested her forearms on the top rail and gazed off at nothing in particular.
Silence. Out in the pasture, a bay mare snorted and shook her dark mane.
Derek said, “You look good,” and she tried to read his tone. Careful? Thoughtful? Maybe a little angry?
What did it matter, though, what was on his mind? She didn’t know him anymore. They were strangers to each other now and she needed to remember that. “Thanks. You, too—and, well, I don’t even know where to start.” She did look at him then. He was watching her from under the shadow of his hat. Waiting. She swallowed. Hard. “I have been wondering, though...”
“What?”
“Well, it would be good to have some idea of who knows,” she said, and then wanted to kick herself. Could she be any more unclear? He probably had no clue what she’d just tried to ask him.
But as it turned out, he understood perfectly. “About us, you mean?”
“Yeah. About, um, what happened thirteen years ago.”
“Nobody in this town,” he said. “Nobody but me.” A slow smile curved his beautiful mouth. “Well, and you, now that you’re here. While you’re here.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I would like it to stay that way.”
“Just between you and me, you mean?”
“Yes, Derek.” His name in her mouth tasted way too familiar. “Just between us. Can we keep it that way?”
“You got it. I’ve never told a soul and I won’t start now.” And then he frowned. “But what about the Armstrongs? You didn’t ever tell Eva or her sisters?”
“No.” Her silly throat had clutched and the word came out in a whisper. She knew her cheeks had to be lobster-red. “Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. And then she made herself explain. “I never told the Armstrongs the whole story. All they know is that you and I dated in high school. How about Luke? Your family?”
“I meant what I said, Amy. I haven’t told anyone. It just seemed better to put the whole thing behind me. It’s the past and it needs to stay that way.”
“I agree.” And she did. Absolutely, she did. She wished that none of it had ever happened.
But it did happen. And it changed her in the deepest way.
Did it change him, too, she wondered?
Not that she would ever ask. She had no right to ask and she needed to remember that.
He smiled again—halfway this time, one corner of his mouth kicking up. “Luke waited until after I said I would be his best man to tell me that you would be the maid of honor.”
A strange, tight spurt of laughter escaped her. She quickly composed herself. “I see Eva all over that.”
“What do you mean?”
“She got me to agree to be her maid of honor before she mentioned that you would be best man.”
“So, you think she knows more than you’ve told her?”
“Well, you know Eva, right? She’s a complete and unapologetic romantic. I think she suspects there was more than just a high school crush going on between us back in the day.” Another tight little laugh escaped her—and then she wanted to cry. Really, she couldn’t stand for him not to know what she truly felt, how much she regretted the way things had ended up. “Derek, I...”
“Yeah?” His eyes held hers, a deep look, one that reached down into the center of her and stirred up emotions she wished she didn’t feel.
“I, well, I just need you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”
Wow. She almost couldn’t believe that she’d gone and done it, apologized straight out. And as soon as the words escaped her lips, she kind of wanted to take them back.
Because really, wasn’t he the one who’d told her to
