Page 34 of Huckleberry Hill
“About me and my fiancé.”
Declan kept his head down, but I saw his shoulders tense. “You’re engaged?”
“No. Not anymore.”
His shoulders relaxed. “That why you came home?”
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Italy.”
“What about it?”
“You were supposed to go there with him, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I turned back to Goldie. “I could’ve stayed in New York, but I’d already taken off work, so I would’ve just been sitting around, stewing.”
“Nothing like getting some clarity under an Idaho sky.”
I smiled. “Yeah, nothing like it.”
“What did you do in New York? For work, I mean.”
“You know the horse-drawn carriages around Central Park?”
“Yeah.”
“I worked in the stables. And then a few nights a week, I served in an Italian restaurant. It’s how I met Gianni. He owns the restaurant. Well, his family does. He came in one night and I spilled sparkling water on him.” I paused. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”
“Sometimes you can talk to a stranger the way you can’t talk to people who know you,” Declan said.
“You’re easy to talk to,” I said. “Maybe it’s because you have no preconceived ideas about who I am. Who I’m supposed to be.”
“You don’t have to be anything other than what you are.”
I smiled. “My sister would like you.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because she’s spent her whole life trying to justify who she is.”
He shrugged. “Your dad, Muddy, they love you. Just remember that’s where they’re coming from when they talk to you.”
I patted Goldie’s nose.
His words had me pondering, but the stables were no long empty, and I had the desire to be alone.
“Have a good night, Declan.”
“You too, Hadley.”
I strode from the stables and forced myself not to look back. There was more to Declan than met the eye.
For all his joking and teasing, I knew there was depth to him.
When I returned to the house, I kicked off my boots and left them on the porch and then I set the bear spray on the foyer table.
“I left a plate for you in the microwave,” Muddy called.
