Page 30 of Haunted
Romance developed into love, and Sol was the kind of man who believed you only got one chance at that.
Unfortunately, his chance had been way too brief, and the aftermath had carved his heart up enough to keep him from ever letting anyone in again.
Falling in lust was just fine.
Alli’s gentle sigh reached his ears. “I loved him too, okay?”
Sol closed his eyes, as if that would stop the brief pain that lanced through him.
Fat chance.
“But that won’t bring him back,” he said, proud of the fact he’d kept the tremor from his voice. “And before you start believing I’m still grieving for him, you need to know something. I’ve moved on, all right? It’s been four years and I’ve finally moved on.” That was God’s honest truth. “It still hurts, but at least now it’s an ache, not a knife through my fucking chest.”
He caught the hitch in her breathing, but he wasn’t done.
“But you know what? I’ve learned. I won’t put myself in that position again. So I’ll hook up with as many men as I damn well please, and that’s about as deep as it’s going to get. So fine, if it’ll make you happy, put me down for Thanksgiving.”
“You mean it?” God, the note of joy in her voice nearly unraveled him.
“Yes, I mean it. And you’ve got my permission to tell Mom and Dad I’m coming home. That way, I won’t back out, not if I’ve given my word. But I’ll be coming alone, you got that?”
A pause. “I got it. I don’t like it, but I got it.”
“We all have to put up with disappointment, right? And now I’ll get back to work.”
“Sol…. Love you, okay?”
As if he could miss hearing that love in her voice.
“I love you too. Say hi to Hugh and the rest of the family for me, okay? Tell them they’ll be seeing Uncle Sol at Thanksgiving this year.” It had been ages since he’d seen his two nephews and his niece, not to mention his new grand-niece.
“I will. And I’ll let Mom and Dad know.” She hesitated. “You could always call them yourself.”
“It’s easier this way.”
And less painful.
They said goodbye, and he hung up. He glanced at the desk calendar once more. August twenty to twenty-seven was a line of pristine white squares.
And isn’t that a sign right there?
Yeah, Toby was right, damn him. Soldidneed this.
He pulled up Toby on WhatsApp and typed.
I’ll be there on the 20th. Book me in, and I’ll do the rest online.As an afterthought, he addedSo you’d better have something for me to take pictures of, okay?
Then he switched the phone off and went back to work.
He could safely lose himself there.
Chapter 8
Saturday, August 13
Butch scanned the interior of the bunkhouse. The guests had all been taken into Bozeman, and it would be a while before the next guests would begin to arrive. Plenty of time to get the place cleaned and ready, and everyone pulled their weight to make that happen. Zeeb stripped the bunks downstairs, Walt did the same on the upper floor, and Matt cleared away anything that belonged to the kitchen.
Butch got the worse job—the bathroom—but he was used to that. To be honest, he preferred it that way. He’d seen the results when Zeeb ‘cleaned’ it. More often than not, it required a second going-over.
