Presley may hide the pain of Todd’s suicide well, and she puts up a really good front. I admire her for that, but there’s a lot of hurt that we both carry, but she can’t hide it from me. “Todd did a lot of damage to us, though.”

She leans back in her chair, looks out the window, and then turns back to me. “Yeah. He really did.” Presley and the boys have struggled, but with Zach, her family, and Wyatt . . . they’ve been okay. “But we have choices, babe. We can sit around and feel sorry for ourselves or we can rise up. I didn’t want to lose my house, my job, my business, and my life, but I did. I came here, sucked it up, worked my ass off, and by some grace of God, I found my way back to Zach. It was a gift, and maybe Todd is up there giving you one too.”

Tears form in her eyes but she holds them back. I know how much she loved my brother. I also know that since she came back to Bell Buckle, we’ve barely spoken about him. A few times of course regarding the kids, but not about what she and I went through. I’m not sure why that is, but we skate around the surface.

However, the last thing my brother would ever want is me pregnant with a cowboy from Tennessee’s baby. He hated this place. And I’m pretty sure he hated the Hennington family. Well, one of them at least.

The thought of him behind this at all is hilarious. And somewhat gross.

“You think Todd’s gift to me is a baby?” I try to hold back the laugh, but it tumbles from my lips.

“No!” She giggles, clearly following where I’m going with this. “I think his gift is for you to no longer be alone.”

“The baby?”

She shakes her head and looks at me like I’m being dense. “No, babe. Wyatt.”

“Maybe.” I shrug. “Although I’m surprised it would come in the form of your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”

Presley practically shoots coffee out of her nose as she laughs. “I can’t imagine he’s happy about that. I have to believe he’s doing what he can to make sure we’re all taken care of, even though he’s not here anymore.”

“Do you miss him?”

She places her cup down and draws her bottom lip in. “I miss a lot of things.”

I give her a few seconds as she seems to weigh her words.

“I miss the happy times. I miss the way he would look at me.” Presley’s eyes move back to mine, and I see the tears there. “He looked at me as if I were the reason he existed. That’s not something I’ll ever forget. To be loved by him was really all-encompassing. But I’m angry. I’m angry that a man could look at me like that and chose to leave. I’m livid that he took that love from me and left me with a mess. It makes me believe that all I had was a lie—a big, horrible lie. And sometimes the anger is so great that I can’t see anything else. It’s been two years, and there are nights when I close my eyes and can still see him there motionless as I beg for him to come back to life. I will never forget that either. It’s a really hard thing to be tied up in two such conflicting emotions.”

For all the things that she’s struggled through, I can’t imagine what she went through that day. I was there for the after, but I can’t possibly fathom finding him.

I just can’t.

“I’m glad you have Zach.” I genuinely am.

“Zach makes me not so angry anymore. He loves the boys. You should see him coaching baseball with Cayden. It’s hysterical. He’ll do the things their father decided not to be a part of. But more than that,” she takes my hand, “he loves me. And I think you’re starting to see that loving someone is a gift. It’s not that you’re incapable, like your mother, it’s that there wasn’t anyone worthy of it.”

“I don’t love Wyatt.”

She leans back and grins. “You sure about that?”

“I don’t. It’s crazy soon. I’ve been here what? Almost a month?”

“You told me once that Todd fell in love with me the minute he saw me,” she retorts.

Damn her and her elephant memory. “I thought he was insane.”

“Maybe it’s a family trait.”

“Bitch.” I laugh.

Presley shrugs and goes back to her coffee.

I think about Wyatt and the way he looks at me. How his eyes held mine the other night when I was in the kitchen cooking. I felt it all the way down to my toes. No one has ever looked at me like that.

“Now, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“I’m going to help Mrs. Kannan in an hour,” I admit.

Since the festival I’ve been stopping in here and there. She’s the sweetest woman with the biggest mouth, and like almost everything else in this town, I’m drawn to her. Yesterday she showed me a lot about wedding cakes. I think it’s definitely something we could expand on at the store. While cupcake cakes are something we do, she was showing me ways we could incorporate different tiers with the same concept.

It’s amazing to watch her work. But I think the thing I’ve been most astounded by is her ability to know every single customer. She knows what they like, their favorite cake, and what they last ordered. It’s remarkable and something I really admire.

“Don’t ever let your guard down, my friend.” Presley shakes her head, and I know all too well she’s right.

“They truly are master manipulators.”

She laughs. “I’m telling you, they could take over the world if they ever got bored with just controlling Bell Buckle. We’re just lucky they mostly use their powers for good.”

“Yeah.” I think about how they’ve used their powers thus far. If it weren’t for them, maybe Wyatt and I wouldn’t be going on this date. Or maybe this was inevitable all along.

“I’M IN TENNESSEE,” I TELL my mother as I sit on the bed. I haven’t spoken to her since I temporarily moved here. I’ve avoided her calls long enough. She doesn’t really care about me, she just needs to keep up her appearances. However, Presley sent me a text telling me that my mother has been calling her and the boys to check on me.

“That would’ve been something to tell me, don’t you think?” She pauses. “I shouldn’t have to find this out by talking to Cayden. Of all the things, Angelina, why didn’t you tell me you moved there?” I’ve barely talked to her this last year, but suddenly she’s hurt. I have so many spiteful things to say, but I also know she’s in pain. No mother should ever have to bury their child. Let alone knowing how that child died.

“I didn’t move here. I’m staying here for a few months.”

“Semantics,” she dismisses.

“Well, I’m really sorry, Ma. It was never because I wanted to hurt you. I honestly didn’t think much of it. You got the information from a few preteens. Maybe they’re assuming something else? I’m only staying for a few months.”

At least that’s what I keep deluding myself into believing.

Presley and Wyatt keep making plans for six months out. They’re completely ignoring my constant reminders that I have a business to run and a partner who expects me back in about two months from now.

“You never call me anymore,” she complains. “Your father and I are still alive, you know?”