Rough Terrain (Vista Falls #1) (2 page)

“You really haven’t looked her up on social media?” Apparently not. If he had, he would have seen the photos of Gabby with her husband: hunting, fishing, camping, doing all of the things she used to love to do with Colt. Maybe it was for the best. No matter what Colt claimed, Wes knew seeing those pictures would sting.

“No. You have?”

“She friended me on Facebook a while back, so I see her posts from time to time.”

“And?”

“Married. No kids.”

Colt sucked in a sharp breath, looking pained. “Good for her. I’m happy she found someone.” He looked Wes in the eye. “Anyone we know?”

Wes shook his head. “No, he moved to town after we left.”

Colt rubbed his eyes, letting his hands cover his face. “And you really think I’d want to go back there so I could see my ex with her new man every time I turn around?”

“I’m not sure he’ll be her man for much longer.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She sent me a private message last week, asked how we were.” Wes watched his friend closely, half expecting him to walk out so he didn’t have to hear the rest. “We went back and forth a bit before she told me that her husband got a job offer out of state.”

“Is she going with him?”

“Doesn’t look like it. It seems they’ve been having problems for a while now.”

“What did she tell you about Sage?” Colt asked. “And don’t tell me you didn’t ask about her ‘cause I know you better than that.”

“Her dad had a stroke a few months ago. She’s taken over his car dealership.”

“Huh.” A ghost of a smile played across his lips. “She must hate that. Even in high school, she didn’t want to work there.”

“Yeah, well, I guess she doesn’t have much of a choice. Her brother’s in medical school, and we all know her mama’s never worked a day in her life.” Wes tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but it wasn’t easy. Sage’s parents had always looked down on him because his family had been honest, hard-working laborers while the Brevilles enjoyed the benefits of inheriting the only car dealership in town.

“I need time to think about this.”

“You got it.” At the end of the day, the business and their friendship came first. It was the only thing that had gotten Wes through the past decade and a half, and he wouldn’t do anything to put it at risk. “Just don’t take too long.”

Wes had already lost too many years with his son, and he didn’t want to waste another day.

Wes hadn’t set foot in Rusty’s bar in a hell of a long time. He’d been a kid with a penchant for trouble then. Now he was a grown-ass man… on a mission.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Rusty said, chuckling. “Look what the cat done dragged in, Bernie.”

Rusty’s thick red hair was a little thinner and grayer than Wes remembered. His beer belly was a little bigger, his faded jeans sitting just a little lower, but Wes could have picked his father’s old friend out of a crowd any day.

“Good to see you, buddy,” Wes said, shaking Rusty’s hand before leaning over the bar to kiss Rusty’s wife’s cheek. “Bernice, you’re prettier than ever.”

She laughed, slapping his arm. “You silver-tongued devil. What took you so long to show your face around here? Just ‘cause you’re some bigshot now, you ain’t got time for us little people anymore?”

“You know that ain’t true.” He scanned the bar, settling on the real reason for his visit. Seeing his old family friends was nice, but knowing that his ex-girlfriend was there was what had prompted him to leave work early. “I’d have been here sooner. Just been so damn busy settin’ up shop.”

Between the time it had taken to convince Colt returning to Vista Falls was the right call and working out the logistics, it had been a year since Wes got the ball rolling on the plan to relocate their business. A year of planning what he would say to Sage when their paths finally crossed again.

Tonight was the night.

“I hope you know how proud your dad was,” Rusty said, his green eyes filling with tears. “He talked about you all the time.”

Losing his father had been hard, but Wes was grateful every day that his dad had lived long enough to see Wes realize his dream. “He’s the reason I do what I do. You know that. If Dad hadn’t gotten me into hunting and fishing, who knows where I’d be? I sure as hell wouldn’t be running this company.”

Wes’s passion for the outdoors had led him and Colt to drop out of college and start a small retail shop for outdoorsmen. That led to a second store, then a third. He blinked, and before he knew it, they had forty stores throughout the States.

“I’ll catch up with you later, sugar,” Bernice said with a wink. “We’re down a waitress tonight, so that means I gotta hustle.”

“I guess I don’t have to ask why you’re back,” Rusty said, smiling. “You always did have a thing for that girl.”

“It’s been a long time,” Wes said, watching Sage chatting up the same girlfriends she’d had when they’d dated. “A lot’s changed since then.”

“This the first time you’ve seen her since you been back?” Rusty asked, setting a bottle of Wes’s favorite beer on the counter. It had been his old man’s favorite too, which was probably the only reason Rusty remembered.

“Yeah.”

“I gotta say I was shocked you guys decided to move your head office here. It’s sure been good for the local economy, giving our folks jobs, but wouldn’t you be better off in a big city?”

“We’ve been in a big city a long time.” He looked around the local watering hole, thinking it hadn’t changed much since he left. “It was time to come back home.”

“Time to come back to her?” Rusty asked, nodding in Sage’s direction.

“What’s she been up to since I left?” Wes had always been curious, but he’d never had the guts to look her up on social media in case he found a barrage of pictures of her with a smiling husband and kids.

“You know her daddy had a stroke a while back, right?”

“Yeah, I heard about that. She’s still running her family’s dealership?”

“She sure is.” He smiled, his eyes softening when he looked at Sage. “You know she’s a good girl. She’ll always try to do right by her family, but rumor has it her daddy left her with a real mess to clean up.”

Wes remembered a time when Sage’s old man had told Wes he wasn’t fit to spit shine his baby girl’s shoes, let alone father her child. Apparently Mr. Breville had fallen on hard times while Wes had been busting his ass to feel worthy of the girl he’d left behind.

“That can’t be easy.” He watched Sage cross the crowded bar, apparently headed to the restroom, and stop to talk to all the people they’d known since they were kids. The years sure had been good to her. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. “You ever see her in here with anyone other than her friends?”

Rusty laughed. “You want to know what she’s been up to, why don’t you ask her?”

Wes’s eyes collided with Sage’s before he muttered, “I think I will.”

He felt as though they were the only two people in the room when she stared back at him. The last words he’d spoken to her—
I’ll never forgive you
—ricocheted through his head, and he couldn’t help but wonder whether she heard them too.

He made the first move, walking slowly toward her, giving her a chance to retreat to the safety of the restrooms. But she didn’t. She stood her ground. Waiting for him.

“Wes,” she whispered, sounding a little breathless. “I heard you were back in town. How’ve you been?”

He was dying to take her in his arms, to satisfy his curiosity about whether they still fit together as though they were made for each other. But he didn’t have the right to touch her anymore, and he was certain she’d remind him of that if he stepped out of line. “I’ve been okay. You?”

With a slight smile, she said, “From what I hear, you’ve been doing better than okay. You and Colt hit it big. Congratulations.”

He wanted to remind her that that had always been their plan, but doing so would have made him sound bitter and resentful. He’d promised himself he’d leave all that behind when he finally saw her again. He gestured to one of the few free tables in the back of the crowded bar. “Can I buy you a drink? Catch up?”

“Um, I’m here with my friends,” she said, gesturing to a table of girls he’d once known as well as his own sister.

When his gaze drifted to their table, they smiled and waved at him in unison. He’d known Gabby would be there. She was the one who’d told him if he wanted to talk to Sage, he’d better get his butt down to Rusty’s.

“Just one drink,” he said, determined to wear her down. Letting her walk away without finding out what she knew about their son wasn’t an option. “Please. Then you can get back to your friends.”

“Okay,” she said, leading the way to the vacant table. “Just one drink.” After Wes ordered her a beer, Sage met his eyes for what felt like the first time in forever. “The years have been good to you.”

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” he admitted, leaning forward. He smiled. “It’s been a hell of a long time. I didn’t expect you to look the same.”

She laughed, her uneasiness obvious. “The lighting’s not so great in here. If it were, you’d see lines that weren’t there before.”

Maybe, but she wouldn’t be the only one. They’d both grown up with the scars to remind them of the love they’d lost. But Sage still had long dark hair that fell in soft waves down her back. Big dark eyes and olive skin… the only traits she’d inherited from her father, according to her.

“It would be a hell of a lot easier to have this conversation if you’d gained fifty pounds,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “As it is, I’m having a hell of a time taking my eyes off you.”

“Glad I’m not the only one,” she said, dipping her head to hide her smile. “I can’t believe it’s still there after all these years… that spark.”

Wes hadn’t known what to expect when he saw her again, but he sure as hell hadn’t expected to feel as if he’d been struck by lightning… for the second time. “I guess some things never change.”

Her smile faded as she looked at him. “But some things do. A lot of things have, in fact. I’m not the same girl I was back then.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be.” He waited for the waitress to place Sage’s drink down before he said, “I’ve grown up a hell of a lot. I’m not the same scared kid your daddy ran out of town.”

“The way I remember it, you left willingly.”

Only after she’d already left, intent on delivering their baby in another state before starting college that fall. “Not like I had a choice. Staying here, with all the memories of us, wasn’t an option.”

“Yet you’re back.” She took a sip of her beer, regarding him over the rim of her glass. “Which must mean you’re long over it now.”

“Do you ever really get over something like that?”

“No, you don’t. It changes you. At least, it’s changed me.”

Instead of diving into the subject they’d been skirting, he asked, “So what you made you come back here after you got your degree?”

“I got my MBA, actually.”

He raised his bottle, a smile tugging his lips as he tapped it against her glass. “Congratulations. That’s pretty impressive. Especially since I dropped out after my second year so me and Colt could open our first store.”

“I’d say you made the right decision.” She wrinkled her nose. “I would have preferred getting an English degree, but I let my father talk me into a more ‘practical’ option.” Her voice dripped with disdain as she made air quotes around the word.

“Do you still write?” When they were dating, she’d always been working on a short story or poem, claiming she was going to buckle down and write a book someday.

“I haven’t since I started working at the dealership.”

“Before that?” He suddenly wanted to know everything he’d been missing out on for the past fifteen years.

“I wrote a book. A memoir about adoption.” Her tongue darted over her bottom lip, an old nervous gesture. “It got picked up by a publisher. I even did a book tour. It sold better than we expected, so they told me to submit the fiction manuscript I’d been working on.”

“And?” He could tell this story didn’t have a happy ending, but he was dying to get his hands on a copy of the book she’d written, sharing their personal struggle and revealing feelings she’d probably never even shared with him.

“My dad had a stroke. I had to take over for him. I didn’t have a choice. My family needed me to step up.”

“So once again you did what your family wanted you to instead of following your heart?” He was clenching his jaw to prevent himself from spewing any more unsolicited garbage, but it wasn’t easy. On the subject of her family, he had a hell of a lot to say.

“You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing if your family needed you,” she said, a defiant edge to her voice that wasn’t there before. “I know you better than that.”

“The difference is my family wouldn’t have expected me to uproot my life to rescue them.” Wes knew he’d crossed the line when she stood, slinging her oversized purse over her shoulder.

“Thanks for the drink. It was… nice catching up.”

Watching her walk away, Wes cursed himself for letting his past resentments prevent him from getting the one thing he wanted most—information about his son.

***

“Are you okay?” Gabby asked and squeezed Sage’s hand when she returned to their table.

“I’m fine,” she said, forcing a smile. “Just took a minute to catch up with an old friend.”

Her closest girlfriends all rolled their eyes in unison. They knew the story of Sage and Wes as well as anyone and could tell she was lying through her teeth when she tried to play that meeting off as insignificant. Sage was still having trouble catching her breath. She’d known she’d run into Wes eventually. Vista Falls boasted less than a few thousand residents even after he and Colt moved their business there, so it was only a matter of time before their paths crossed, but she’d hoped to have a little more time to prepare herself.

“What did you guys talk about?” her friend Meghan asked before sipping her martini. “Is he married? Does he have any kids?”