Come Back for Me (Arrowood Brothers #1)(35)

“Well, I don’t know. Mostly, I worry about the people I care about.”

“Like me?”

I nod with a grin. “You bet. We’re friends.”

“I’m scared of my dad.”

Bile churns in my stomach and guilt fills me. If I had known there was a possibility of her, I could’ve saved her from it all. We both slow down, and I put my hand on her shoulder. “Your dad can’t hurt you now,” I reassure her.

She looks away and then back to me. “He hurt my mom and was always yelling at us.”

This kid should’ve known a life with fairy tales, sunshine, and tea parties. Her father should’ve given her hope and been a man she looked up to. He robbed her of that, and I’d like to kill him for it.

I’ll do what I can to ease her worries. “I was up in the tree during that storm because my dad was angry a lot. He would yell and sometimes he’d hit my brothers and me.”

“But you’re so strong.”

“Now I am, but I wasn’t then. I remember being scared a lot when I was younger. It wasn’t until I grew up and went into the military that I finally realized I didn’t have to be scared anymore.”

I don’t want her to wait that long, but there is hope.

“I want to be a grown-up.”

I laugh. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Squirt.”

The house comes into view, and Hadley sighs. “When I’m a grown-up, I’ll get to do what I want and won’t have to go anywhere I don’t want to.”

The ignorance of youth. I sure as fuck don’t want to be in Sugarloaf or have to fix up the farm I never wanted to see again. Nor did I want to get out of the navy, but I had no choice. However, coming back here has given me something I never thought I’d get . . . a second chance.





Chapter Fifteen


Ellie





“She’s all tucked in and fast asleep,” I say as I make my way into the living room where Connor is sitting making a list of something.

He looks up and smiles. “Good. She’s probably exhausted.”

We all are. At both Hadley and Connor’s insistence, I decided to stay another night here. Ultimately, I made the decision to stay because Connor and I have a lot we need to talk about. My want for Hadley to feel comfortable, even if it means this conversation will be anything but for me, was another reason.

“Yeah . . . do you think that we could talk?”

He puts the paper down and nods. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”

“How about we go on the porch, that way she doesn’t overhear if she wakes up.”

“Sounds good.”

I release a deep breath through my nose and follow him out. We sit on the porch swing, and I shiver from the drop in air temperature, but I have so much to say, I don’t give myself a second to think about it.

“I want to tell you that I really have no idea if it’s possible. I’d like to explain, if that’s okay?”

“Of course.”

I plan to bare my soul and hope I make it out of this without crumbling.

“I met you the night before I married Kevin. In some part of my brain, I knew I didn’t love him and shouldn’t marry him, but I felt like . . . I had to. I truly believed he loved me and was just protective—maybe a bit jealous and insecure. It was the way he talked to or about me, you know? I convinced myself that once our relationship was secure, he’d be too. I was wrong. In my heart, I knew it wouldn’t matter and I shouldn’t do it. I went to the bar that night because I was lost and that was the last place my parents were. They meant everything to me. They were . . . they were killed in a hit and run close to the bar a week prior, and I’d been a mess since their death. My entire world was gone just like that and I thought, well, I thought that if I could feel them then I’d know what to do. But then you said hello, and I was so lost. It took one word for my entire life to feel as though it had been righted. You were so wonderful, and you looked at me like I was special and beautiful. We danced in that bar, and I wanted one night that every girl dreams of. Even if it could only be that solitary night? Even if it was so wrong?”

“But it didn’t have to be that once.”

He’s right. If I hadn’t left before he woke, I might have never married Kevin. Even if Connor had still left, maybe I would’ve found the courage to walk away, seeing what I could’ve had. I was so na?ve and didn’t want the morning sun to wipe away the night we shared in darkness. Instead of facing the possibilities, I settled for what I thought was my only option.

I hadn’t really thought Connor could have been more because he was just as happy spending that night wrapped in anonymity as I was.

“I think we’d be lying if we said that was true. You were running from something too, if I remember correctly.”

We used each other to escape the reality of our lives. As much as I would like to believe there could be more, it wasn’t true. And I’ve done enough pretending to know the difference.

He looks out at the horizon and grips the bottom of the swing. “I was.”

“You’re not married, so it couldn’t be that.” I attempt a little levity.

Clearly, it didn’t work because he now looks as if he’s haunted by something.