Page 9 of Here With You

“I don’t mind missing it. Lying in a casket is not how I want to remember him.” Miles’s fall from grace was not a family secret, so he didn’t need to explain it again. Cormac had heard both sides. His father’s version, where he’d taken a wealthy family and made them dirt poor, and Miles’s, where he’d defended his decision to do the right thing. Since his nephew was sitting next to him drinking a beer, he imagined Cormac was a man who weighed the evidence and made his own choices.

“Were you really engaged to Em Brown?”

“Yes, I was.” Miles took another drink and closed his eyes, picturing her years ago with her long honey hair and dazzling smile. She was beautiful then, and she was beautiful now. Emmaline was the rebel of the two Brown sisters, which was why he was sure she’d pack up and go with him the day he drove over to get her. But news in a small town traveled fast, beating him to The Brown. When he got there, she’d already been given her decision by her father. He was no longer an acceptable suitor. There was no way Horace Brown was allowing his dirty McClintock blood to enter the Brown family tree. He brushed away thoughts of the past and focused on the here and now. “Tell me about this girl who’s yours but doesn’t know it.”

Cormac sat up and smiled. “Tiff.”

He turned to his nephew with both brows raised. “Who?”

“Tiffany Townsend. She owns the candy store. You know, the one with the taffy-pulling machine in the window.”

“And you’re sweet on her.”

He patted his stomach. “I’ve gained ten pounds since spring from visiting that place.”

“You ever ask her out?”

He shook his head. “She’s got a kid, and her ex keeps showing up. I don’t want to start something if she’s still got one foot in the door with him.”

“Have you asked her about him?”

Cormac looked horrified by the idea. “Hell, no. I don’t want to know anything about him.”

He chuckled. “Yes, you do. You want to know if he’s in or out of her life.”

“I can’t just walk in and ask. Besides, word on the street says she’s about to lose the store. I don’t think it makes enough money to make ends meet. I suppose all will be decided after the tourist season ends. She’s got enough on her plate to deal with. I don’t need to add to her woes.”

“Maybe you’d be an asset and not a woe. Your sweet tooth is contributing to the bottom line.”

“I can’t save the store on my small contribution, but I try to help. I’m going to take the wait-and-see approach. You can learn a lot by standing back and watching.”

“You’re a wise man, Cormac.” He wanted to ask who he got that from because it wasn’t from his father. Darryl wasn’t the brains in the family. “Maybe she can get a rent reduction. Who owns the building?”

Cormac frowned. “Her ex for now. Cricket says he owns several storefronts on Main Street. He’s not from here. She met him in Dallas. It would suck to answer to someone you’re no longer with. I imagine they keep ending up together because she can’t completely cut ties with him, having his kid and all.”

He looked over his shoulder at The Brown Resort. “It’s hard to work with your ex and stay emotionally detached.” With less than one day under his belt at The Kessler, he second-guessed his decision to manage it.

When he came to town, he had no intention of staying. But seeing Emmaline made him want more than he had, and after his lotto win, he had a lot he wanted to share with her. Deep inside, he knew he could make things right. The problem was that he was torn about his approach. She’d never married, which either meant he’d ruined everything to do with love for her back then, or she’d never found someone who filled her heart as he had. The biggest issue was that she left him when he lost everything, so if they ever had a chance again, she couldn’t know about his windfall. He didn’t want money to be a factor a second time. If he and Emmaline were meant to be, she’d need to fall in love with him the way she saw him—a man with a dog and a truck and not much else.

“I wish there was something I could do to help her.”

“I’m no expert on women. I crashed and burned the first time, but maybe just be her friend at first. The best relationships start as friendships.” That’s how he and Emmaline started. They were study buddies in high school, and that friendship grew into something more.

“Did you ever fall in love again?”

He could honestly say he hadn’t. He hadn’t been a celibate saint since they broke up, but he’d never let another woman in. His bed, yes, but not his heart. “Nope. Emmaline was the one for me. She was the perfect amount of sass and class to make me happy.”

“Do you think you guys might have a second chance at it?”

He breathed deeply, inhaling the salty air mixed with sunscreen and hope. Logic said no, but he’d been working purely on instinct since he returned to town. Over the years, there’d been a little voice in his head that he used to ignore. The same voice told him not to turn his father in. It screamed at him to let the powers that be deal with it, but his future father-in-law was getting ready to put down a significant investment and partner with the McClintocks. Miles knew when it all went to hell, it would get ugly. Wasn’t it better to blow things up before Horace lost a fortune and blamed him?

Over the years, he’d learned to listen to the voice. Had he listened to it years before, maybe things would have been different. He’d been listening closely now. It told him to buy a lotto ticket from the Five and Dime. It told him to take the shift the day Carter drowned. It told him to ask Cormac to set up a meeting to see if Carter wanted to sell his property. He wasn’t sure what would happen between him and Emmaline, but he knew that voice in his head was telling him to stay put until he figured it out.

“That depends on where Emmaline’s priorities are. She’s married to the resort, and I’m unwilling to be a mister-ess to her job.”

“Don’t you wish you were rich?”

He hated holding back the truth from Cormac, but he had to. His newfound wealth complicated a lot of things. He had the cash to change many lives, but was it wise? He could rush in and save the ranch, which had turned from a thriving cattle ranch to a wasteland. And maybe he should since he was the one who financially destroyed it, but the voice in his head screamed, “No!” He had to keep reminding himself that he wasn’t the one who’d been cheating people. The reckoning was already coming. He’d sped it up. When it came to Emmaline, he’d take Cormac’s wait-and-see approach.

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