Page 95 of Coming Home Country
Setting down her mug on the table situated between us, Harper leaned forward with her elbows resting on her knees. “We weren’t close in school, Bex, but it was impossible not to notice the blinding display of love you and Tucker put on. I can’t even begin to imagine how painful it was when the two of you split.”
My lungs constricted as tears burned behind my eyes. The pure agony of having my heart ripped out by the man I loved was still so fresh in my mind.
“It’s none of my business how the two of you managed to bury the hatchet—and Lord knows you’re a better woman than me because I’m not sure I could have forgiven that man his sins—but now that you have, what’s holding you back?”
I blinked at her. “Holding me back?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “You don’t want to put a label on whatever it is the two of you are doing, and you might’ve put off leavin’, but you’re still intending to go. Why aren’t you embracing this fresh start?”
Damn, this was the last thing I expected when I invited Harper to meet for coffee. But I’d be lying if she wasn’t giving me the push I needed to putwhat I was feeling into words, to unburden myself by sharing my thoughts with another human being and getting their feedback.
“It just feels too easy, you know? Having him back makes me so happy I can barely contain it, but at the same time, there’s this paralyzing fear that comes with it. I put all my eggs in one basket with Tucker once before and got burned so badly that my heart hasn’t been the same ever since. What if I do it again and the same thing happens? I won’t survive losing him—the dream of our future—a second time.”
Harper’s lips folded inward as she mulled over my fears, spoken aloud for the first time.
After what felt like an eternity, she offered her thoughts. “Maybe you’ve suffered through more than your fair share of hard and this is the universe’s way of making it even.”
“You really think so?” My chest ached with how badly I wanted her belief to be true.
“I do.” She nodded with conviction. “What you have with Tucker is so special that when you didn’t get your happy ending together, I remember thinking to myself that if you guys couldn’t make it, what hope did I have?”
I dipped my chin toward Grady, staring down at the sleeping infant. “Seems like you did okay.”
“Our love story may not be perfect, but it’s ours,” she agreed.
Needing a distraction from my own love life, I asked, “How’d you end up with Colt anyhow? If you don’t mind me askin’.”
“You’re not the first person to wonder how a girl from Rust Canyon snagged one of the seemingly untouchable Winfield boys. And to tell you the truth, it still boggles my mind as well.”
Growing up, we knew of the Winfields, but we didn’t reallyknowthem, not in the same way we were intimately acquainted with the six hundred members of our community. Their property was set an hour outside ofRust Canyon—a cattle ranch as opposed to one specializing in breeding horses, like the Sullivans’—so they homeschooled their boys, only coming into town occasionally. All three Winfield boys were dark and broody but as handsome as all get-out. When they walked down Main Street, they turned every young lady’s head. Though not a one of those boys seemed the least bit interested in female companionship.
So, it stood to reason that I would be curious about how at least one of them had found their way to settling down. And with someone I knew, no less.
Harper hummed, preparing to tell her tale.
“After graduation, I took up a job working behind the counter at Canyon Comforts. One evening, the Winfield boys came in for dinner. They were seated at a table, being waited on by one of the other waitresses, but one of them kept staring in my direction.”
“Colt,” I surmised.
“Colt,” she confirmed. “Though I didn’t know it at the time. They all look so much alike it was hard to tell them apart. Of course, it’s easier now that I see them every day, but back then, they were practically strangers. Handsome strangers, but strangers, nonetheless.
“They left, and I’d just about managed to put it out of my mind how his intense attention made my skin feel too tight, when he came back the very next night. This time, alone.”
My smile couldn’t be contained. “I’m guessin’ he came in to see you?”
She tilted her face skyward and blew out a breath. “I was so startled when I turned around and found him seated at the counter that I nearly dropped the coffee pot in my hand. To see those boys in town once a month was stretching it, so two days in a row? How could I not think he was there to see me? But I didn’t want to presume anything for fear of misreading thesituation and making a fool of myself, so I kept my head down, took his order, and served it to him without so much as a word.
“The third night was when it sank in that his return wasn’t a coincidence. By the sixth consecutive night, I couldn’t take the silence any longer, and my nervous chatter rose to the surface. For days on end, I talked, and he listened.” She huffed out a laugh. “Not much has changed in all these years, to tell you the truth.”
Colt was definitely more of the strong, silent type. He reminded me of Jett in that way.
“After three weeks, I’m pretty sure he knew my entire life story. Almost as if he could sense I’d nearly run out of words a month in, he cleared his throat, and my lips zipped instantly in anticipation of hearing him speak for the first time outside of his nightly dinner order.
“‘Miss Coleman,’ he said.” She tried to imitate his gruff voice. “If you don’t mind marryin’ a rancher, I’d like to take care of you for the rest of your life.”
My mouth dropped open. “Just like that, he proposed?”
A blush rose to Harper’s cheeks. “Call me crazy, but the words had barely left his mouth before I said yes.”
