Page 29 of Where You Left Me

For just a few seconds I allow my brain a chance to reminisce. To think about all the times this beautiful girl climbed into my truck. The late nights when she’d sneak out after having a fight with her parents, the hot summer days when we’d head out of town to the lake, and the few times we made this very drive.

Having her as my shotgun rider aligned everything else in my life. Seeing those long, tan legs beside me and that gorgeous smile calmed the wild in me.

After she left, it was like I’d been kicked off my axels. And that untamed beast unleashed. I went on a downhill spiral without her.

It took me years to get back to some kind of a new normal. To stop using her as an excuse for my poor choices. I had to climb out of the pit I was in and force myself to learn how to do life without her.

Having her back here, in Maple Ridge, in my life, is messing with all of that.

“What made you change your mind?”

“I always wondered what would’ve happened if Reese Witherspoon’s character had got in that plane with Jake. Now you mind telling me where we’re going?”

As I head out of town on Main Street, I finally answer. “One day a week from late June to late September, I drive to Palisade to pick up peaches.”

I don’t see her looking at me but more, Ifeelher looking at me. I wonder what’s going on in that beautiful head of hers. God knows she’s not going to tell me. Even though there was a time when we knew each other better than anyone else, we don’t anymore. We might as well be strangers.

Except that’s not true either.

She’s Mia. I know her past. And knowing that can tell a person a lot about their present. Although it doesn’t feel like that right now. Because I don’t know what she’s thinking.

“Why?” she finally asks.

“Don’t get all cocky on me, beauty. It has nothing to do with you.” It may have alittleto do with her, but she doesn’t need to know that each time I go to Palisade, I think of her. I think about our first time there. It was the first time she let me go down on her. I think about her because that’s when I gave her the nickname.

“You haven’t been gone that long; you remember how sacred Palisade peaches are. Hell, even people not from Colorado know how sacred they are.”

She sighs. “But you can get Palisade peaches anywhere. There’re fruit stands up and down the highway.”

“It’s not the same. When I go, I get to choose the peaches myself. I get to smell them, feel their firmness, and taste them too.” I glance over at her and find her cheeks flushed. Like allthis talk about produce is arousing her. And maybe it is, ‘cause it’s fucking turning me on and making my dick hard.

I slide a grin in her direction before returning my attention back to the road. No sense in getting worked up when nothing is going to happen between us. The kiss from a few days ago already shouldn’t have happened. Because the thing about Mia is, it’s never going to be enough for me. I want all of her.

“Why do you go once a week? Seems like an awful lot of peaches.”

“I pick them up for the bar, and for Grandma Nettie. For your mom, too.”

“Oh…she didn’t tell me that,” she admits.

“Been doing it for about the last five years.”

“That’s really sweet.”

I turn my attention to her as I take the onramp for the highway. “You regretting climbing in my truck, Peaches?”

She’s quiet beside me for a long moment before finally saying softly, “I’ve never regretted climbing in your truck.”

Her expression is serious, those beautiful green eyes looking soft and adoring at me. But I can’t decide how to take that. If the intention behind her words means more than what she’s saying, I can’t let my heart get too excited. I’m not sure it will survive another beating from her.

CHAPTER 8

Mia

Idon’t know why I said what I said. Me and my damn mouth. Sometimes it’s too big for me. I’ve gotten better about not speaking before thinking, but when I’m with Jones all that goes to shit.

Part of me does regret agreeing to come with him today. I know as soon as I set foot in Palisade every memory, every feeling will come racing back, and I won’t be able to stop it.

But we have two hours left before we get there. The thought of being in Jones’s orbit for the summer was already scary, but being stuck in his truck for two hours is downright terrifying.

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