Page 73 of Love Complicated

“Are you going back to Santa Barbara then?”

“No, I got laid off. Budget cuts. That’s why coming back up here seemed like a good idea.”

She’s silent for a moment, then asks, “Henry said Madalyn wants you to sell her the track?”

“She wants to make it into a tasting room.”

“That’d be awful.”

Just the mere thought of allowing Madalyn to have the property or even step foot inside the gates makes my blood boil. “I’m not letting it go. I wanted to give it to your dad, but he doesn’t want it. Said it belongs to me and soon I’d understand.”

“And do you?”

I chuckle and remove my hat, placing it on Cash’s head as he stands beside me now. “Not a fucking clue.”

Smirking, Cash adjusts it, on backward like I had it and runs up ahead again. He taunts Grady with it, holds it out and then takes it away as if to say, look, I’m wearing his hat.

Smiling, I shake my head. They remind me of Henry and me growing up. One good, one bad, both equally ready to cause trouble.

“So that leaves you here. . .for now,” Aly deduces quietly.

For now?I swallow, daring myself to look at her. “You say it like I’m here for a purpose and then I’m gone.”

Aren’t I? I certainly didn’t plan on staying when I came home, did I?

We’re at her house now, the boys barreling inside and I know for now, I’ve lost that hat because Cash isn’t giving it back. Part of me hopes he wears it in front of his dad. I’ve had the same black hat since I was in high school. Guarantee you the moment Austin sees it, he’s going to knock it off that kid’s head.

“Aren’t you?”

I glance around and then take a seat on her porch. “Last week, yeah. I wanted to leave the moment Burke came back. I wanted to sell it all and never look back at this sleepy town time and life has forgotten. But now. . .” I pause, my eyes moving over her face, her beautiful features lit up by the dim glow of her porch light. “I don’t think I could leave and feel good about it.”

Aly blows out a breath like she’d been holding it the entire time we were walking to her house. She takes a seat next to me, our shoulders brushing against one another. “Why’d you leave without saying anything?”

I never said anything to Aly after that night. Hadn’t wanted to. She turned me down and if you haven’t realized it by now, big grudge holder. “My dad didn’t leave me much of a choice. Either I left, or I was going to jail for that shit I pulled downtown. Brooks wanted to press charges against me.

She fumbles with her keys in her hand, growing more and more flustered by our conversation. Her voice is small, her body hunched forward as she attempts to curl into herself when she says, “You couldn’t have said goodbye?”

Silence screams over her words as I process them.

I watch her face, the sadness I caused, the life she lived because I left. Even if I had stayed, would it have been for the better? I didn’t do right by her from the moment we met. How was I any different? I couldn’t say I was the better choice and feel good about it.

My jaw tightens, and I stare at my hands, flipping around a bottle cap I had in my pocket. “If I had, I would have taken you with me and then I’d be arrested for kidnapping. Either way. . . jail time and I’m still not sure I would have had you.”

Her mouth pops open at my response.

I stare at her, silently saying:You were never going to choose me and you know it.

The boys draw her attention inside the house, snapping her back to reality and she breathes out slowly and takes a step back. “I better get them in bed.”

I nod, stepping away.

As I’m walking away, her sigh catches my attention. “Ridge?”

I turn but don’t say anything, waiting for what she might say next.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

She could have said anything to me, but she knew exactly what I needed to hear.

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