She curls up on the chair across from me. “We needed this break. I needed this break.”
“Me too,” I admit. “My brain needs to reset. We’ve done great this first year, but there are so many ways we could go starting this fall. I read some articles I want to show you.”
Delaney nods, gazing into the distance.
The summer sun streams through the windows, a threat of rain rolling in from the west. Before we know it, it’ll be fall, then winter, and another year will have passed.
Thinking of it like that causes a swell of anxiety to bubble in my belly, a reminder that another year will have gone by and I still feel like I have nothing figured out about my life.
I’m only in Illinois because of Delaney. When she came up with the idea for Boutique Designs, I was all in and didn’t even mind moving up here despite my hatred of all things winter so she could stay near her family. But now our lease is almost up on the house we’ve been renting, and when I try to push forward on expanding our brand and getting a long-term plan in place, she drags her feet. I’m in this static state, unable to move.
“About all that . . .” Delaney says.
Sitting up, groaning as my back screams in distress, I push it aside and focus on my friend. “What’s up?”
“Um, well . . .” She takes down her ponytail and puts it back up. “I want to thank you for being such a good friend.”
“Okay . . .”
She takes a slow, deep breath. “Remember when I had dinner with my mom a few weeks ago and came home crying?”
“Yeah,” I say, utterly confused as to where this is going.
“Dad got a new contract at the farm.”
“That’s great,” I say, knowing her family had been struggling. “He must be thrilled.”
“He is. Mom too. It’s for production of organic dairy, which is all the rage, but there’s all this red tape involved . . .” She looks at the floor, avoiding my gaze.
Shifting in my seat, I try to figure out what she’s saying so she doesn’t have to come out and say it. I got nothing. “What does this mean for you?”
“They need my help. Full time.” She looks up at me, her eyes wide. “I couldn’t design with you and work for them. It would be too much to do both things.”
“Is that what you want?” I ask, my mind reeling. This would answer so many questions, explain her lack of motivation over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know,” she groans, getting to her feet. She walks a circle around the living room, kicking a gum wrapper as she goes. “I need to help my parents. I’m not sure they’ll make it if I don’t.” Her voice breaks, and when she looks at me, her eyes are watery.
“I get it.” Standing, I make my way to her and pull her into a hug. “Family always comes first, Delaney. I respect that.”
She pulls back, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “You are the best person I know.”
“Oh, I am not,” I laugh.
“Yes, you are. You’re so kind. You want to fix everything and you’d give anyone the shirt off your back. You’re gorgeous and talented and—”
“Stop. You’re making me feel weird.”
She laughs too before taking her seat again. “I’ll have to move back to my parents’ property. Is that okay? I mean, I know you can afford the rent, but I feel like I’m abandoning you.”
“It’s fine. You do what you have to do.” Even as the words come out of my mouth, I can’t help but wonder what I will do. Where does this leave me?
“I didn’t even want to bring this up until we finished the Paxton Project and were on vacation. I’ve been a wreck.”
“Don’t be nervous about talking to me. Ever,” I tell her. “You’ll just be a half hour away. I’ll be fine here until I figure out how to navigate this little curveball.”
She sniffles before getting back up, her nerves getting the best of her. “Enough touchy-feely. I’m going to get coffee.”
“You do that,” I laugh, listening to her grumble about not being a baby as she walks out of the room.
Falling back onto the couch again, I rub my temples. As if I didn’t have enough stress with the truck issue, now I have this.
Looking around the place we’ve lived in for a year now, it suddenly feels less like home than it did ten minutes ago, and it didn’t feel particularly home-like then. With Delaney gone, it’ll be even worse.
A bout of loneliness creeps in to my stomach as I try to figure out what I’m going to do. Stay here? A place I know really no one but Delaney and a couple of her friends and a couple of guys I’ve seen here and there? Or go back to Savannah and feel like a failure for landing back there again?
What do I do with Boutique Designs? Can I run it on my own? Can I do the things I want to do as a one-woman show?
I bury my head in my hands.
“You’re okay with this?” Delaney asks, coming in and handing me a mug of coffee.
“I understand you wanting to help your family. Of course,” I tell her. “I hope someday you figure out how to follow your dreams in the process, but I get it. Truly.”
“Will you stay here or go back to Georgia?”
“I don’t know,” I say, sipping the brew. “That’s the beauty of our company, I guess. I can do it from anywhere.”
“I’d go back. There are all those sexy-as-hell brothers of yours.”
“Brothers, Delaney. They’re my brothers. They’re gross.”
I attempt a snarl, but it doesn’t come out that way. As gross as they are, I love them so much. Despite their overbearing and ridiculous antics, they are the best brothers in the world and have taught me so much.
Delaney smiles over the brim of her mug. “So stay here.”
“Probably not,” I laugh. “I’m definitely going somewhere warmer. Somewhere . . . inspiring.”
“You know what I find inspiring?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows. “We should go to the bakery over in Linton and get a donut and see if we can bump into anyone.”
The tension in my shoulders evaporates as the notes of her giggle work through the room and I see right through her plan. “Yeah, I’m sure the guys from the bar are having a croissant there this morning, Delaney,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Highly unlikely.”
“Probably not. But we might run into them at the gas station. Or . . .”
“We are not stalking random guys on a Sunday morning,” I laugh. “Even if they were totally cute.”
“Cute? They aren’t puppies, Sienna. They were stallions.”
“You’ve officially lost it.”
She grins, plopping down her coffee mug and tucking her legs up under her. The lightheartedness slips from her face as she clears her throat. “What are you going to do about the truck?”
The flip of my stomach at his smirk turns into a crazy knotted mess at the memory of last night.
Everything about last night was an epic fail.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about it,” I sigh. “I’ve been thinking about it all morning. I don’t even think I said I’m sorry.”
“In your defense, none of us were prepared to be accosted by three men that good-looking at midnight in Linton of all places.”
“What do they put in the water over there?”
“Sex appeal. Straight into the pipeline,” she says, pumping a fist in celebration of our luck.
The lust dampens as my conscience takes over and guilt swamps me. “Now that I’ve had a second to clear my mind, I’m kind of embarrassed, Delaney.”
“It was an accident.”
“I know. But I messed up his truck,” I wince. “And I probably came across as an unapologetic brat.”
“No one uses the word ‘brat’ unless they’re eighty,” she teases. “And you are the least bratty person I’ve ever met.”
“That doesn’t mean he knows that.”
She considers this. “Okay. I see your point and I have a suggestion.”
Groaning, I set my mug on the coffee table. “I’m not sure I even want to hear this.”
“Sure you do!” she says, her eyes dancing. “Go over there on Monday and offer up a night with you in exchange for the damage.”
“I will do no such thing,” I say, shaking my head. But two nights . . .
“But you want to. I know you do.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I laugh. “I’m going over there on Monday to apologize and offer again to pay for the damage—with money. It’s the least I can do. And hopefully he won’t file a police report.”
“He’s not going to do that,” she tsks.
“We don’t know anything about them other than they’re cute. They could be total assholes, Delaney. I can’t risk it. Can you imagine Graham’s reaction? Or my father’s?” My eyes squeeze shut so hard my temple pulses. “I can hear them now. It would be a nightmare.”
“Fine. You’re right. Go see him Monday and say you’re sorry. But if he offers any other exchanges, follow through and give me details.”
My cheeks heat as I consider being in Walker’s orbit again. All night, I kept telling myself I imagined the weight of his gaze and the crackle of energy that passed between us as he handed me the bat. It will do me no good to create some infatuation with the sexy stranger. When I see him again, especially being a desecrator of his property, I need to have my wits about me in case I need to think straight. That means not fantasizing about him. Again. Too much.
Delaney hops off the barstool and rinses out her coffee cup. “If you won’t go to Linton, I’m getting a shower. Let’s do something this afternoon. We could get manicures.”
“Let’s do that.”
She flips me a thumbs-up and pads down the hallway towards the bathroom.