“Trying to get rid of me already?” He shot her another quick look and steered the truck down Main.
“No,” she said and half expected her tongue to fall off due to that whopper. “I was just curious. You haven’t been around much the last few years.”
“And how would you know that? Weren’t you living in Houston?”
“Houston isn’t the moon, Rick,” she said. “I talk to friends. My brother. They keep me up on hometown news.”
“Me, too,” he said. “Well, not your brother. He and I never really were friends.”
“True,” she said and silently added they were even less likely to be friends now, though Rick didn’t know it yet.
“Joe Davis told me when you moved out.”
Sadie smiled and nodded. Joe and Rick had always been close. Not surprising that the town’s best mechanic had kept Rick up to date on things. She was more glad than ever that she had left Royal when she had. If not, Joe would have told Rick her big secret and heaven knew what might have happened then.
“He, uh, also told me about Michael. I’m sorry.”
A twinge of pain rattled through her heart at the mention of her late brother. Michael Price had led a troubled life. Somehow, he had never been able to find happiness, but he’d always looked for it in the bottom of a bottle. Eight months ago, he had been driving drunk and driven off a cliff road in California. She would always miss her brother, but Sadie hoped that he had at least found the peace he had been searching for.
She lifted her chin. “Thanks. It was hard. Losing him like that. But I was grateful that he hadn’t killed anyone else in that wreck,” she said simply.
“He was a good guy,” Rick said softly.
“He was a good brother, too,” Sadie said, smiling sadly. Her memories of Michael were mostly good ones and she clung to them.
“And,” Rick said, changing the subject, “now you’ve left Houston to come home again. You’re living with your dad?”
“Just temporarily,” she said. “Until I find a place of my own. Ever since Mom died several years ago, Dad spends most of his time on fishing trips. He’s in the Caribbean now, and Brad doesn’t live there anymore, so …”
“You’re not lonely in that big place all by yourself?”
She nearly laughed. “No. It’s fair to say, I haven’t been lonely in a long time.”
Rick frowned. “What’s his name?”
“His? Who his?”
“The guy you’re seeing,” he countered. “The I’m-too-busy-to-be-lonely guy.”
Sadie snorted. “There’s no guy. Too busy for one of those, too.” She left it at that, not bothering to explain what he would find out for himself all too soon.
Silence stretched out between them, the only sounds the crunch of the wheels against the asphalt and the soft sighing of the truck’s air conditioner. Outside, summer sun beat down on Royal, Texas, making even the trees seem to slump with fatigue.
“You know,” he said finally, “I seem to remember you being a hell of a lot friendlier the last time I saw you.”
Oh, boy. She remembered, too. In fact, her memory was so clear and so strong, it was all she could do not to squirm in her seat. A flush of heat spread through her body as images rushed through her mind. His body. Hers. Locked together. Desperate kisses, amazing sensations. Didn’t seem to matter that she was already so nervous she could hardly swallow. In spite of everything, Sadie knew that if he reached over to touch her right now, she would probably go up in flames.
“You okay?” he asked from beside her and that deep voice of his seemed to roll across her skin.
Oh, she really was not okay.
“Sure,” she lied. “Fine.”
The familiar scenery raced past them as he left town behind and drove along the highway toward the Price family mansion in the exclusive development of Pine Valley. Three years ago, Sadie had walked away from the home where she grew up to live in Houston, losing herself in the hustle and the crowds. At the time, she had definitely needed to get away. To find a fresh start where no one really knew her. Where her private life wouldn’t be fodder for local gossips.
Now though, she was back and the past was reaching out to grab her.
She looked at Rick again. Funny, she’d known him most of her life and yet hadn’t connected with him at all until that one, memorable night. He’d changed, she thought. He looked older, more serious, more self-confident somehow. And that was saying something, since Rick had never been lacking in confidence.
His brown hair was trimmed military short, his brown eyes locked on the road in front of them. His hands were wrapped around the steering wheel and she watched as the muscles in his arms flexed.
“You sure you’re okay?” Rick asked, glancing at her briefly before shifting his gaze back to the road.
That was Rick, she thought. He wasn’t the kind to be distracted from what he saw as his duty—which at the moment, was driving. He appreciated rules and order and as far as she knew, always did the “right” thing, whatever that might be at the time.
There was simply no way he would ever accept her version of “right.” This day wasn’t going to end well, yet Sadie couldn’t find a way out of it. Now that she was home in Royal, people were going to talk. And the fact that Rick had only been home for a day was probably the only reason he hadn’t heard whispers already.
Well, she couldn’t let him hear this news secondhand. She owed him the truth. At last.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Just trapped like a rat, she added silently. Oh, she had known that this day was going to arrive, sooner or later. She had just been hoping for later. Much later. Which was ridiculous really, she argued with herself. She had moved back to Royal. She knew that, eventually, Rick would return. And keeping a secret in a small town was just impossible. Wasn’t that one of the reasons she had left in the first place?
Frowning, she focused on the road and tried not to think about what would happen when they got to her family home.
“If you say so,” he said, his tone telling her he wasn’t convinced. “So. Since you’re fine and I’m fine and we’re not talking about anything else, why don’t you tell me what you were doing at the TCC besides making your brother crazy?”
She blew out a disgusted breath at the mention of her brother. “Shoe was on the other foot, actually. Brad is the most stubborn, hardheaded man in the state of Texas.”
“This is news to you?” he asked with a chuckle.
Brad Price had long had the reputation in town of being the most hidebound traditionalist in the known universe. His hard head only added to the fun.
“No,” Sadie said, grateful to have a safe subject to talk to him about.
