Small-Town Sweetheart (The Spring Grove Series Book 2) Read online

  “Then what is it?”

  He takes a step toward me, his eyes blazing into mine. “We said we were fooling around, that we were dating. I never promised anything.”

  “You sure didn’t,” I say, my eyes clouding with tears.

  “You knew I was leaving at the end of the summer.”

  “I did.” I blink back my tears, kissing Wilbur’s head. My heart is shattering in my chest, but what the fuck did I expect? I knew this was going to happen, yet I kept on. I shrug as I go to turn. “So, it’s whatever it is.”

  “Delaney, don’t be like that.”

  “Don’t be like what? I said I wanted the truth, and you gave it to me. But like I said, things changed on my end, and I didn’t let you know. So it’s my cross to bear. I’ll be fine.”

  He looks stricken, his eyes wide and wild. I feel awful because I knew damn well what I was getting myself into, and I don’t want to hurt him. But at the same time, why doesn’t he feel anything for me? Why didn’t anything change for him? “Delaney, that’s not fair—”

  “Oh, I’m sorry I have feelings.” I shoot him a deliberately annoyed look, and he stares at me, exasperated. “What did you think would happen?”

  “I thought we’d just sleep together and things would be fine.”

  Things would be fine, not get messy. This is messy. I’m making this messy. I blink back my tears and then turn to head inside with Wilbur still asleep against my neck. I reach for the door and I almost pull it, but then I look back at him. “If you wanted us to just sleep together and for everything to be fine, then maybe instead of telling me that I’m remarkable or that my face is incomparable or that you’d pick me out of all the fucking puppies, you should have told me that my pussy is great and you love fucking it. Because that’s all you wanted.” I pause at the door, and I’m shaking mad. I look over my shoulder, glaring as I yell, “And another thing, Reed. I know you feel more for me than just a fuck, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll know what it’s actually like to be happy.”

  With that, I pull the door open as he calls my name. Since I don’t want to talk to him, I lock the back door so he has to go around to the front of the clinic. It gives me time to put Wilbur in Reed’s office and then tell the office manager I’m sick. When I see him come through the front, I head out the back. It may make me a coward, but I’m fucking tired of people using me. Yes, I know I knew from the rip what we were doing, but surely, surely, he feels what I feel. I mean, how does he look me in the eye and say those things?

  Does he not mean them?

  I didn’t drive to work, I rode in with Reed, so instead of going home, I walk to the Blu, where I know Gen is. It’s a shorter walk, and I know he’d never expect me to go there. I hold myself together pretty well as I walk. I keep looking behind me to see if Reed is coming, but I know he won’t leave the clinic. He has an afternoon of patients, and I hope someone can help him. I actually hope a flock of ducks comes in and pecks his eyes out. Jerk.

  My lips are trembling, and my chest just fucking hurts. I can’t let anyone know, though. I say hi to everyone, I wave, and I smile like my heart isn’t shattering into a million pieces in my chest. I really fucked up here. God, I’m so stupid. When I reach the Blu, I know Gen is on the back patio Theo built for her back when he bought the place. He always knew he’d get Gen back, and he wanted to give her the house that inspired her.

  Why can’t I get that?

  Gen looks up, her blond hair blowing in the breeze as I come around the house. Her lips spread into a huge grin when she sees me, but then I watch her face change, and I know it’s because I don’t even reach her before I’m sobbing. She gets up, coming toward me, and I wrap my arms around her. She doesn’t ask what’s wrong or even if I’m okay. She just holds me as I cry. She’s always been a good shoulder to cry on, never prying.

  When I lift up my head, wiping my tears free of my face, I shake my head. “So, what’s up?”

  She takes my wrist in her hand. “Nothing. Just writing.”

  I nod, my lips trembling as I draw in a sharp breath. “That’s nice. Think you can write me a happily ever after? One that doesn’t involve Reed’s dumb ass?”

  Her lips turn down as she wraps her other arm around me, kissing my temple. “Come on. I’ve got four bottles of wine for now, but Theo will get us more.”

  I’m not certain the wine will help, but it sure will dull the pain.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Reed

  “So,” Devin says as he lifts a barrel and puts it on the shelf. “Do I need to guess why you’re in my distillery when you never step foot in here?”

  I lean my head against the wall of the barrel house my family has kept the barrels in my whole life. I was never interested in the family business, so I didn’t play in here as much as Devin did. He lived in here. Even so, though, I love the coolness of the space and the sense of security it gives me. There isn’t a time I don’t remember my father sitting in here. When we fucked up growing up, we’d meet him here, which makes sense why I came here today between work and the block party.

  “I fucked up. Really, really bad.”

  Devin grimaces. “Delaney?”

  “Yeah,” I say softly, running my fingers through my hair and then down my face. I rub my fingers along the hair on my jaw and shake my head. “She heard me on the phone with Noah. I wasn’t trying to hide it from her or anything, but I honestly didn’t think she’d get as mad as she did.”

  “What were you two talking about?” Devin asks, sitting back on a barrel. “You leaving?”

  “Same thing Mom got mad about,” I answer, my heart feeling dead in my chest. “I don’t know why the two of them thought I wasn’t leaving—”

  “Because you’ve seemed happy.”

  I turn to study the barrels as he talks.

  “I mean, we all see you with her, and you aren’t even the same guy. You smile and you laugh. You hate this town, apparently, but when she is around, I can’t tell.”

  I can’t argue with him. He’s right. It’s easy to ignore the shit that upsets me in Spring Grove when the sunshine that is Delaney is shining on me. She makes everything better. But I have a life in Lexington.

  When I look back at Devin, he’s shrugging as a grin pulls at his lips. “I don’t think you expected to come here and not hate this town as much as you did as a kid. Things change, even when they seem like they didn’t. You’ve changed just from being here, and I don’t think you want to accept that. You want to stay angry, hate it here, and leave. But have you thought about what’s going to happen when you do? Is there something or someone that can replace Del?”

  No.

  I swallow hard as I look away. “It doesn’t matter. I want more than what this town can give me.”

  “What’s more?”

  I hold my hands out. “I want my half of the clinic, I want my apartment with its modern amenities, and I want my life. I am happy in Lexington.”

  He doesn’t seem to believe me. He narrows his eyes as he holds my gaze. “Are you? I mean, before, I never heard from or saw you. I hear from you every day now. I get to play ball with you and Bryce. I get to see you on Sunday with our family. We’re a functioning unit now, and then add in Delaney, Theo, Holden, and Gen even, all of us, our crew. That’s where I see you happy, man.”

  I shake my head, unable to allow him to guilt me into feeling like I’m doing something wrong. “I never said I was staying. I have a life.”

  “True, but life changes. In the blink of an eye, man,” he stresses before snapping his fingers. He then looks to the ceiling. “I was ready to marry the love of my life, and she didn’t walk down the aisle, Reed. You remember how hurt I was, how I thought I had it all. And then it was gone—”

  “Dude, I get it, but what does that have to do with me? Also, maybe it’s time to let Cataway go…”

  “One, fuck you. And two, I’m getting to my point if you’d shut your trap for two seconds,” he sneers, and I