Page 25 of Huckleberry Hill
“I mean, you hate New York.”
“I don’t.”
“You do. You so do. Hadley, you’re a small-town girl and New York is a massive, lonely city full of millions of people you’ll never interact with.”
“Then why do you like it?”
“Exactly for that reason. I can be anyone here and no one notices or cares. But you, you’re always going to be you. Small-town ranch girls who love their families and want to raise their kids riding horses don’t belong here. Gianni was . . . an experiment. An experiment that went awry.”
“The whole damn lab blew up in my face,” I muttered. Exhaustion pulled at my emotions, lodging them free. “I wasn’t entirely honest with you . . .”
“About what?”
“About why Gianni and I broke up.”
“Because he’s a douche canoe?”
“No. It’s because when I told him I was unable to give him children, he lied and said it didn’t matter. That we’d be okay . . . but then two days later he broke up with me. Over the phone.”
When she didn’t reply, I pressed, “Salem?”
“You can’t have children?”
“No.”
“But—how did you—when did you find out? And why didn’t you tell me?”
“I found out about two weeks prior to my breakup. And I was . . . processing.”
Mourning.
“I wasn’t ready to tell anyone,” I said softly. “Not even you.”
“I’m not just anyone. I’m your twin. Fuck, I knew something deeper was going on. I just knew it.”
“I had to tell Gianni because . . . well, because . . .”
She sighed. “Yeah. Okay. Fuck, Hadley.”
“Don’t pity me,” I commanded. “I can’t take pity.”
“It’s not pity,” she assured me. “But how about some empathy?”
“That, I’ll take.”
“Well, I think this is fucking great.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped.
“Not the news. The news sucks. But there’s a silver lining in all of this. You found out what Gianni was made of before you tied the knot.”
I sighed. “There is that, yeah.”
“Can you imagine being married to him and then finding out something like that? You need a man built of stronger stuff. Gianni doesn’t deserve you. I never thought so. This just confirms it.”
“Thanks, Salem,” I said softly.
“Have you told Dad? Or Muddy?”
