Rough Terrain (Vista Falls #1)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “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?”

  “I don’t think so.” Sage couldn’t believe he’d have looked at her the way he did if he had a wife and kids waiting on him at home.

  “He doesn’t,” Gabby piped up, shooting a guilty look in Sage’s direction.

  “How do you know that?” Sage held her breath. She didn’t want to hear that her best friend had betrayed her by maintaining a friendship with her ex behind her back.

  “It’s not what you think,” Gabby said, looking panic-stricken. “We just connected on social media a while back. We’ve chatted a bit about our lives and stuff. That’s how I know he’s still single.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Sage asked, trying to make sense of her friend’s confession. If their situations had been reversed and she’d reconnected with Colt, she couldn’t imagine not telling Gabby the second it happened.

  “I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” Gabby admitted. “And I wanted to get to know him again before I decided whether he deserved another shot with my best friend.”

  “What are you talking about?” Sage asked, glancing in Wes’s direction. He was standing at the bar, surrounded by a group of guys he used to play football with, laughing and talking as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “Wes isn’t interested in me anymore. What we had was a long time ago. And I don’t have to remind you the way it ended.”

  “Yet he came back,” their friend Jenna reminded her. “That has to count for something.”

  “He came back because his father died,” Sage said, reaching for her drink to wash away the guilt she still felt whenever she thought of the way her father had treated Wes’s dad. His parents had always been kind to her, even after she put their grandchild up for adoption. “His family needed him.”

  “Maybe fate brought him back here,” Meg suggested with a smile as she toyed with her straw. “Same place your love story began. Wouldn’t it be romantic if you fell for your first love all over again?”

  “You need to quit watching those sappy romantic dramas,” Sage said, reaching for her cell phone when it buzzed with a message. “Not everyone gets a happy ending.” The message wasn’t important, but at least it gave her a reprieve.

  “But you guys could,” Gabby said as she sneaked a peek at Wes. “It’s obvious he’s still into you.”

  Sage wanted to grill her friend about the messages she’d exchanged with her ex, but doing so would have meant admitting she was still interested, and her pride wouldn’t let her do that. “Have you asked Wes about Colt?” she asked Gabby, trying to deflect her friends’ interest in her situation.

  “Oh yeah,” Jenna said, squeezing Gabby’s arm. “If Wes is back, that means Colt is too. Have you seen him, talked to him?”

  “As a matter of fact, he passed by my flower shop the other day.”

  Sage gaped at her friend, unable to believe she’d kept that juicy tidbit to herself. “And? What did he say? How did he look?”

  “Ugh.” Gabby downed her drink. “Way better than he has any right to look. He should be bald with a pot belly by now.”

  The ladies laughed in sympathetic agreement as Sage wondered if thinning hair would have done anything to diminish her attraction to Wes. Probably not. He was the only man she’d ever met who could make her feel like a giddy teenager just by uttering her name.

  “I don’t think he would have come in to see me at all,” Gabby continued. “But I was changing out a window display just as he was leaving the bank next door. I guess he would have felt guilty for walking right by without saying hi.”

  “Was it weird seeing him again?” Sage asked, hoping she wasn’t the only one reduced to mush at the sight of a man she should have been over years ago.

  “Yeah, it was. But it was kind of nice too. It took me back.”

  Back to a time Sage sometimes wished she could forget. “Did he ask what you’ve been up to? Whether you were married or had kids?” Sage should have asked Wes those questions, but she’d been afraid of the answer.

  “I told him a bit about the divorce,” Gabby said, propping her chin on her hand. “But I didn’t want to make it seem like I’m not over it. ‘Cause I totally am.”

  Gabby had given up on her marriage long before she signed the divorced papers. Her ex was a nice enough guy, but they’d come together for the wrong reason—because they were both lonely and trying to get over other people.

  “Well, this has been fun, ladies,” Sage said, reaching into her purse for enough cash to cover her part of the tab. “But I’ve got another early morning, so I’ve got to call it a night.”

  “Any offers on the dealership yet?” Jenna asked as Sage slapped two twenties on the table.

  “I wish.” A buyer would mean their family would have enough money to pay for her father’s care, support her parents’ lifestyle, and pay for her brother’s last year of medical school. All of her prayers would be answered in one fell swoop.

  “You’ll find someone,” Gabby assured her with a weak smile that said she wasn’t at all convinced. “As soon as the economy turns around, you’ll see.”

  “How have Colt and Wes managed to grow their business while everyone else seems to be struggling?” Meg asked.

  “I guess they have the magic touch,” Jenna said, prompting Sage and Gabby to share a look that said they could attest to that.

  Chapter Three

  Wes was grateful Gabby was the last in her group to leave. It meant he could have his first face-to-face conversation with her in years. After they shared a brief hug, Gabby invited him to sit down.

  “So how did your talk with Sage go?” she asked before sipping her water.

  “She didn’t say?” Wes asked, unable to believe they hadn’t pumped her for information as soon as she returned to the table.

  “I want to hear it from you,” Gabby said, regarding him carefully as she sat back, crossing her arms.

  His best friend’s ex was as beautiful as he remembered, with long blond hair, bright green eyes, and a ready smile that made everyone feel at ease. But Wes had been one of the few guys in high school who hadn’t made a play for her. Probably because he’d been too busy falling in love and planning a future with Sage.

  “I got the feelin
g she didn’t want to talk about the past,” he admitted, running his thumb over his life line. He did that sometimes to remind himself that even though he’d made a lot of mistakes, he had time left to make things right.

  “Can you blame her?” Gabby asked gently. “It’s taken her a long time to get over what happened. Honestly, I’m not sure that she ever has.”

  “Neither have I.” Wes eased back in the wooden chair as he ran a hand over his mouth. “There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about my son.”

  “I know Sage feels the same way.” She looked torn before asking, “Have you read her book?”

  “No. She told me about it tonight.”

  “You need to read it.” She covered his hand with hers. “But I have to warn you I cried all the way through it.”

  Wes suspected he might as well. His emotions were always close to the surface when he thought about the adoption that never should have happened. He didn’t know if he and Sage would have survived the stress of getting married and having a baby so young, but they shouldn’t have been robbed of the chance to try. “Did she write it under her own name?”

  “Yeah, you can buy a copy at Wright’s bookstore. They always have plenty on hand.”

  “In a town this size, it took a hell of a lot of courage to write something so personal and attach her own name to it.” Wes didn’t know if he would have had the guts to do that. “Did she take any flak from people?”

  “Not really,” Gabby said, shaking her head slowly. “A lot of people were surprised since she left town before she’d even started to show and didn’t return for more than a year. By then she’d lost all the baby weight and…”

  “What?” Wes asked, leaning forward. “Why’d you stop?”

  “I just feel like this is Sage’s story to tell. Not mine.”

  “But what if she won’t tell me?” His biggest concern was that she would continue shutting him down, especially where their son was concerned. That was why he had to ask… “Has she heard from him?” It killed Wes that he didn’t even know his own son’s name.