Natalie was a mom—she knew if I didn’t want to talk, she’d have to hit a different angle to get the information she wanted. I could already see the gears turning in her head.
“A lot of changes for you in the last month,” she remarked.
“Yep.” I rocked back on my heels.
Looking through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall showcasing the massive deck and dazzling view of the mountains surrounding us, she mused, “It’s beautiful here.”
“You should see it in the winter, with the trees covered in snow. It’s breathtaking, albeit a little hard to access. A lot of the roads are impassable after a certain point. I’ve definitely missed the mountains living on the East Coast.”
Chocolate brown eyes met mine. “Are you staying here, then?”
I sighed, gripping the back of my neck. How did you tell your closest friends you weren’t coming back home? That you’d messed things up so spectacularly with the woman you loved that you couldn’t stand to be anywhere you might run into her?
“Probably. It’s home.”
Home. That word sounded hollow. This place might be my hometown, but it wasn’t home anymore.
My home was a five-six, sassy, smart, and funny brunette.
Reaching a hand out to touch my arm, Natalie said, “We sure will miss you. Promise you’ll visit?”
“I’ll try.” It was a lie. So long as Hannah was there, I couldn’t go back to Hartford. It was too painful.
“Trying’s not always enough. Sometimes, we have to fight hard for what we want. It takes effort, commitment, and determination.”
My eyes widened. Had she been talking to Zoe? No. That was impossible.
Tilting her head toward the deck where Jaxon ran around with their four children, a wide smile splitting his face, she continued, “You should take a page out of his book. I pushed him away so hard, but he never gave up on me. But you know what I realized? I was just scared—afraid of what letting another person past my walls would do to my heart if it didn’t work out. Being scared almost cost me the love of my life. I’ve made my mistakes, but learning from them shaped me into the person I am today. The biggest thing I’ve learned is how important communication is. If you aren’t completely honest with each other—even when it’s terrifying as hell—you can’t have a future.”
Dragging a hand down my face, I groaned. “Natalie.”
Reaching up, she took my hand in hers and gave it a quick squeeze. “Just think about it. Okay?”
I knew what she was trying to do. She wanted me to talk to Hannah, but my honesty would cost her a relationship with her father, and eventually, she’d resent me for it.
There was no path forward. This couldn’t be fixed.
Chapter 33
Cal
Thank God I nolonger planned to get married because I was never coordinating an event this large again.
I’d paid people to come in and handle everything, but apparently, that meant they wanted my opinion on every minute detail, and I was over it. I begged Zoe to stand in and boss people around—it was what she did best, after all—but she laughed in my face. Between peals of laughter, she forced out something along the lines of, “Oh,nowyou want my opinion?”
Yeah, I guess I deserved that.
It was too damn hot outside, and I could feel the sweat soaking the shirt across my back. It was just my luck that a heat wave would roll through this week. Miserable was my new middle name.
“Cal, honey. Your first guest has arrived!” Mom’s voice called from the screen door leading to the kitchen from the back porch. “I told them to wait out front for you to greet them!”
Turning my wrist, I checked the time. The party didn’t start for an hour. If it was one of my teammates, they’d be sorry because I was putting them to work. I had too much to do to be entertaining one of their dumb asses.
Rounding the side of the house, I was still grumbling when I saw a shiny red convertible parked out front. Rolling my eyes, that ostentatious car confirmed my suspicions that it was a teammate. Only one of them would rent something like that. It sure as hell didn’t belong to one of the locals my mom had invited.
Coming to the side of the wraparound porch, I called out, “Get ready to be my bitch for showing up this early. Hope it was worth it!”
The steps of the porch came into view, and that’s when I noticed a pair of lean feminine legs in cowgirl boots crossed at the ankle as their owner leaned against the post. I couldn’t tell who they belonged to from this angle, but it certainly wasn’t a hockey player.
