By the time Hunter got in the truck, I was spiraling down to a place I knew I shouldn’t go. One where pasts wouldn’t stay buried and every single heartbreak that came my way was well-deserved.
This one especially.
“You ready?” Hunter asked softly. Everything about the way he spoke and held himself was stiff. Like he was terrified.
When all I could manage was the faintest nod, fear and regret burst from him even though he never uttered a word as he started pulling away from the house.
Part of me was screaming that I didn’t know what was going on—that it might be nothing. That Hunter could have been agonizing over the time we had left—not her. That I might be making it all out to be something because of what happened with Rafael.
But that part was so, so small.
I’d felt Hunter’s shock at seeing her there. Not just seeing her, but at her seeing us. I’d felt the distressed tension that had quickly filled the room. I could still feel it then. Filling my veins and weighing me down.
Not only that, but I knew the Dixon Farms’ office was inside Hunter’s house. It always had been. Which meant I knew the bookkeeper would be in his home.
But not at six-thirty in the morning.
Not just because she ran out of coffee—she could’ve gotten coffee anywhere. And she wouldn’t have been heading for his bedroom to let him know she was there.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached for the handle when Hunter pulled into my parents’ driveway. My movements stiff and mindless as the scene in Hunter’s living room continued to play out in my mind.
I stilled when Hunter grabbed my arm, stopping me from opening the door, and looked back at him.
At the outright terror and denial dripping from him.
“Madison—”
“I should go,” I whispered and tried to swallow past the shards of glass in my throat. My stare drifted to the clock on his dashboard and then back to where his head was moving in small, fast shakes.
“Not like this.”
“Then, how?” I asked.
“Just . . . not like this,” he ground out, his worry crashing against me. “Not with this between us.”
A mixture of a laugh and a cry tumbled from my lips. “What do you want me to say, Hunter? What am I supposed—”
“Mommy!”
My eyelids slowly shut when Avalee’s voice filled the morning air and poured into the truck from the open windows.
“Hunter!”
I looked up to find Hunter staring out the windshield. Trying to smile when it looked like he was breaking.
I glanced that way and released a trembling breath when I saw my daughter rounding the front of the truck with my mom following after—a dozen feet behind, calling out apologies.
“Avalee,” I said in disapproval when she awkwardly climbed onto the running board without slowing. Little fingers grasping the top of the door and head peeking out just over.
Her eyes lit with excitement when her stare shifted right past me to Hunter. “Hunter, you’re here again!”
“Morning, Avalee,” he said warmly. “How are you?”
Her entire body seemed to dance though she was standing still. “I’m so, so, so, so good. Did you see my goats this morning?”
“I did,” Hunter responded easily. “They miss you—so do the cows and pigs.”
“I knew it,” Avalee whispered.
“She saw y’all from the window and wanted to say ‘hi,’” my mom said as she approached Avalee. “Don’t mind us.”
“Wait,” Avalee said loudly when my mom reached for her, and must have pushed up on her toes from the way her head popped up a tiny bit more. “I have to ask Hunter if he wants to be my friend! Do you wanna be my friend? I think we’re supposed to be friends,” she rambled excitedly.
“I thought I already was your friend,” Hunter responded without missing a beat.
Stealing my breath. Taking my heart.
Giving my daughter those Dixon dimples and earning a smile bright enough to heal every hurt in return.
“All right, here we go,” my mom said as she grabbed Avalee and sent me an apologetic look. “Let’s give these two some time to chat.”
Avalee waved wildly as she let my mom pull her toward the house. “Bye, Mommy! Bye, friend!”
“Bye, friend,” Hunter called back.
And it warmed every part of my soul.
“I’ll be there in a second,” I promised, and watched until the door shut behind them before facing Hunter. My spirit wrenched at the shift in his expression. At the worry and the shattered look in his eyes as he studied me. “I have—”
“Talk to me,” he begged. “Don’t leave like this.”
The longer I hesitated, the more Hunter’s unease grew. As if he knew each second that passed in silence was another layer added to the wall between us that had started building when Isabel arrived.
I wanted to stop it. Fix it. But I was struggling to keep my heart together as it was.
“I can’t. I have to go.”
Dejection and fear washed over Hunter’s face in an instant. His chest pitched and his lips parted, his head moving in the faintest shakes as if he were going to stop me. But then he was pulling me closer and crushing his mouth to mine. The kiss hard and passionate and full of pain.
“I love you,” he breathed against my lips. “Come back.” It was a plea wrapped in dread, and it shredded my already aching heart.
“I will.”
There was nothing left for me in Seattle. The only friends I’d ever truly gained had all moved back home after college. I’d never clicked with the other wives and girlfriends from the team.
My family was here. My heart was here.
So, I would come back. I just wasn’t sure what I would come back to.
Savannah’s expression brightened as soon as she opened the door, making me want to fall into her arms and release my hurt to the girl who had been like a sister to me growing up. But I kept my smile plastered on my face as I accepted the side hug from her while she carefully held Levi in her other arm.
“Wyatt was just asking about Avalee on the way home. He’s gonna be so excited!”
Avalee bounced on her toes beside me, beyond eager to see the friends she’d made in the weeks we’d been there.
“We can’t stay,” I said as Savannah led us into the house. At her falling expression, I hurried to add, “I’ll explain, but Avalee drew some pictures for the kids.”
She gave me an odd look, as if she was afraid of what exactly I was going to explain, then nodded enthusiastically as she focused on Avalee. “The kids are in the playroom. You can go in there.”
Avalee looked to me for confirmation before darting away, calling out to Wyatt as she did.
“Everything okay?” Savannah asked quietly.
“I think it will be. It’s just . . .” I lifted my hands and then let them fall with a weighted breath.
“Okay.” Savannah’s tongue darted out to wet her lips. “Okay, I gotta change Levi. I just finished making coffee. Why don’t you go get a mug, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen when I’m done?”
“Do you want me to come with you?” I offered uncertainly.