Page 19 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

He breathed out. “Can I stop you?”

She grinned and shook her head. “Why did you buy this house?”

He looked away. He wasn’t sure he wanted to have this conversation. He’d lived here for nearly six months now, and he still felt like it was on loan. Plus, he hadn’t talked about his family drama to anyone.

She scooted a little closer to him. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just, it’s a huge house and only you.”

“I bought it for the land and the river,” he said. “If the property had come with a shack, I would’ve taken it.”

“You don’t like the house?” She was pulling her muffin to pieces.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

Her brow furrowed, and Brandon wanted to reach over and smooth it. “But—”

“But what?” he asked. He wasn’t sure what had caused this sudden change, but he wasn’t going to waste it.

“You have family in North Carolina, right?” she asked. “Why pack up and move here, to this big ol’ house, all by yourself? It must be lonely.”

He breathed deep. This was the question he’d been avoiding all along. The reason his family texted him constantly, and the reason he all but ignored them. He didn’t want to talk about it, but he wanted her to trust him. He wanted it more than he’d wanted anything in years. And he remembered the way she’d trusted him with that nonsense story about her dad cheating on Millie Douglas with her mom. He didn’t believe that for a second. Allie had opened up to him; he could do the same. Suddenly, he was talking. “Five years ago, there was a woman—”

She scooted a little closer and rested her head on her knees.

“I thought I was going to marry her, but it turned out she was sick and tired of my job in the military. Tired of me having to leave without notice, tired that I couldn’t give her details of what I was doing, tired of the secrets—”

She frowned. “You were military police, right?”

“An M.P.” He nodded. “She hated it. I got deployed, she broke up with me, and six months later when I came home, she was married.”

Allie gasped.

“To my little brother. I didn’t even know they’d been dating.”

“Oh, Brandon . . .” She took his hand, lacing her fingers through his—her skin smooth like silk. “That’s why you moved here?”

“No, I handled them being together for years, never said a thing, but Maryanne is pregnant, and I realized I’d put my life on hold for too long for nothing. I moved here because it was time. I can’t keep living in limbo. Can’t stay broken.”

Her jaw pulsed, and a hard determination filled her gaze. “Do you want me to egg their house? Cuz I totally will.”

He laughed out loud, all the tension that’d been building in his chest releasing with that one ridiculous comment, making his confession somehow way less painful than it should’ve been.

She smirked. “Not a hollow offer. Just give me an address.”

He leaned closer to her, breathing in her delicious lavender scent, and nudged her with his shoulder.

“Well . . .” She took a deep breath. “I’m glad you’re here. So is Allie, and so is Cash. We’re lucky to have you in our lives.”

He chuckled again. “Does that mean you’re going to stop avoiding me now?”

She flushed. “I deserved that.” She stood and yanked him to his feet. “Man, you don’t pull any punches, do you?”

He shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“I’m flattered. Does that mean you’re going to stop avoiding me too?”

He shrugged. “We’ll see.”

She slapped his arm and then grinned, the first easy grin he’d seen on her in weeks. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

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