Home Again: A Whiskey Ridge Romance

by Rachel Hanna

  “He did? I bet that was a shock. Only a few people on Earth have heard Brick Collier apologize.”

  Emmy chuckled. “Yeah, it was a little jarring.”

  “So how did you feel about his apology?”

  “I don’t know yet. Still processing it, I guess. My mind definitely doesn’t want to accept it, but my heart is giving me problems.”

  Nash smiled. “Your heart has always given you problems, Emmy Moore. And that’s because you have a big heart.”

  Butterflies bounced around her stomach, Sometimes she hated the way Nash made her feel because she knew it was ending soon. Thinking of letting him go back to Vegas made her heart ache.

  “Here we are,” Nash said as they pulled up in front of her house. “Want me to wait here?”

  “Why don’t you come inside for a bit? The fireworks don’t start for at least another hour, right?”

  Nash checked his watch and nodded before following her inside.

  “Oh, I like what you’ve done with the entryway. Nice Feng Shui,” Nash said.

  Emmy looked at him and laughed. “Feng Shui?”

  “I read a magazine article at my dentist’s office once.”

  Emmy giggled at that. Nash could always make her laugh. “And what was this article about exactly?”

  “Feng Shui and romance.”

  “What?”

  “Yep. Apparently, the way you decorate can help you get more romance in your life,” Nash said, looking around. “For instance, you have two candlesticks together right here.”

  “Okay…”

  “Well, that enhances your chances of romance.”

  “Ah, I see,” Emmy said, walking up beside him. “What else can I do to increase my chance for romance?”

  Nash cleared his throat, the same way he always had when he got nervous. “Well, there are a few ways but I’d say the best way to increase your chance for romance is to skip the fireworks and stay here with me tonight.”

  Emmy’s heart started pounding against her chest so hard that she was afraid an ambulance would need to be called.

  “What?”

  Nash turned around and looked at her. “I can’t do this anymore, Emmy.”

  “Do what?”

  “This cat and mouse game.”

  “I don’t know what you…”

  “Do you still have feelings for me?”

  “What does it matter, Nash? This will all be over soon, and I’ll be left holding the bag again. I can’t put myself through that.”

  Nash took both of her hands. “Let me ask you this. If I left tomorrow and went back to Vegas, would you be upset?”

  “Of course I would, Nash. I love having you here. I can’t deny that.”

  “And if I spent tonight holding you and kissing you, would that make my leaving any worse?”

  She looked up at him, and all she could see was the boy she’d fallen in love with so many years ago. All she wanted to do was get wrapped up in his arms and forget anything bad had ever happened in her life. The miscarriage. Him leaving her. Her marriage to Steve.

  Tonight, she just wanted to be with Nash.

  “One night,” Emmy said, all the while knowing that one night with Nash was going to lead to a lifetime of wanting him.

  Hours had passed. Nash had texted his father, letting him know Emmy wasn’t feeling well and they were just going to hang out at her house for the evening.

  But this had been the best night of his life. Kissing her had taken him back to being a kid, but she definitely kissed like a woman these days.

  They had slow danced to old songs, reminisced about old memories and held each other close all night. Tonight, they would make new memories that would last them a lifetime, but Nash was having a hard time picturing a lifetime without her.

  As he laid back against the cushy sofa, her head resting against his chest, he tried to imagine a life without her. He tried to envision coming home for a visit and seeing her with someone else. Dating other men. Possibly marrying one. How would he feel about that?

  He thought about his options, the ones she knew nothing about. The changes he was thinking of making in his life. The new man he wanted to become for her. For him.

  He could feel her softly sleeping on his chest, and all he wanted was to feel that way every day of his life. But would he resent her for taking him away from his career? Was she taking him away? Or did a bull stepping on him already do that?

  So many questions and feelings. And yet he felt more at peace right now than he had in years. Suddenly Vegas didn’t feel like home. Whiskey Ridge didn’t feel like home.

  Emmy felt like home.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” Nash said as Emmy lifted her head from his chest. She couldn’t recall ever sleeping so soundly in her life.

  “Wow, how long did I sleep?” she asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. They were still piled on her sofa, sunlight peeking through the miniblinds.

  “Let’s see… about ten hours?” Nash said, smiling.

  “Sorry. I guess I wasn’t very good company. But I slept so well.”

  Nash stood up and pulled her into a hug. “I’m not complaining, Em.”

  “Oh, gosh, what time is it?”

  “It’s eight-fifteen…”

  “I’m late for work!” she said, rushing around the living room like a bat out of hell.

  “Em, it’s okay! I called your assistant, and she said your first appointment cancelled this morning. You don’t have anyone until eleven.”

  Emmy stopped running around and took in a deep breath. “Oh, thank God!”

  Nash walked over to her and slid his arms around her waist from behind, pressing his lips to her ear. “I like taking care of you, Emmy Moore. You know that, right?”

  Emmy smiled. She’d longed to hear that from him for so many years. But he was leaving soon, and she was falling fast. This wasn’t good.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. One night. That’s all it had been. One amazing night, and now it was over. They’d gotten the closure they needed. They’d missed the fireworks on the square in order to make fireworks of their own.

  “Breakfast?” Nash asked.

  “I’m starving.”

  “I think I saw you have some eggs in there. Why don’t I whip up some French toast while you take a quick shower?”

  “I could get used to this,” Emmy said. Nash turned her around to face him.

  “Last night was…”

  “Amazing,” she said, finishing his sentence. “I’ll never forget it.”

  “Neither will I,” he said, kissing her softly.

  Emmy stepped back reluctantly. “Better go get ready so we have time to eat.”

  Nash stood on the deck at his father’s house, staring out into the wooded expanse. When he’d first come back to Whiskey Ridge, it didn’t feel like home anymore. Everything seemed foreign, and he’d wanted to board the first plane back to Vegas.

  And then he saw Emmy.

  Things were different, and that thought terrified him. What if he could finally have everything he ever wanted?

  “Looking good, my boy,” Brick said as he walked out on the deck. “Steady as I’ve ever seen you.”

  “Yeah. I’m feeling back to normal. Emmy’s a miracle worker.”

  Brick leaned against the deck and looked out into the woods. “That she is.”

  “I think my therapy is almost over.”

  “You sound a little sad about that.”

  Nash cleared his throat. “Nah. I need to get back to regular life.”

  Brick laughed. “You don’t really think I believe that do you?”

  “Believe what?” Nash asked, turning toward his father.

  “That you can leave her again.”

  “I don’t have much of a choice, now do I? My career is in Vegas, and if I don’t go back, I lose it all. My income, my reputation, my future.”

  “Is that what you see for your future, Nash? Riding bulls out West while Emmy lives right here i
n your hometown?”

  Nash sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “My choices are very limited, Dad.”

  “No, they’re not. I want to talk to you about something…”

  Emmy wiped down her kitchen counters and looked out the window toward the river. She could just see the edge of the rock that Billy had jumped off of as a kid. Every time she saw it, it made her laugh.

  Those really had been good times. And now Nash was going to be leaving her all over again.

  The doorbell rang, so she tossed the dirty rag through the laundry room door as she made her way to the foyer.

  “Nash? What’re you doing here?”

  Nash was standing there smiling. “I brought you a gift.”

  “A gift?”

  He reached down behind the rocking chair that was beside him and pulled out the most gorgeous red wooden birdhouse. It was huge!

  “Oh my goodness! How beautiful.”

  “I saw it in that bird feed store down on the square and thought you might like it. You can hang it on the deck and watch the birds through the window.”

  Emmy smiled. “Thank you. It’s just wonderful, Nash. And I can think of you when I look at it.”

  Nash put the birdhouse down and put his arms around her waist, pulling her toward him. He kissed the top of her head.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Okay, but first can you help me with something?”

  “Sure.”

  “The dishwasher isn’t working, and it leaked all over the floor this morning. Think you can take a look at it?”

  Nash followed her inside. Sure enough, the dishwasher was leaking onto the hardwood floors, a trickle rolling down the stainless steel right onto the floor.

  “I would call my landlord, but you know he’s elderly and they’re traveling…”

  Nash crouched on the floor and started tinkering with it while Emmy put on a pot of coffee. Even though it was hot outside, she had to have her coffee. It was like the blood in her veins.

  “That should do it,” Nash said as he dusted off the front of his jeans.

  “Mr. Fix It,” Emmy said with a smile as she handed him a cup of black coffee. Nash’s phone rang in his pocket.

  He looked at the screen. “Dang. I need to take this. I’ll be right back.” He stepped out onto the front porch.

  Emmy stood in the kitchen for a moment, watching him out the front window. He was so gorgeous. How was it possible he’d gotten more handsome over all these years?

  Still, his face looked worried right now, like he was having an intense conversation with someone. She wondered who it was. Why were his eyebrows knitted together so tightly as he spoke?

  Emmy couldn’t help herself as she got closer to the window, which happened to be slightly cracked from her morning cleaning routine. Would it be so bad if she just listened in? Maybe she could help him with whatever the problem was…

  “I don’t know how I’m going to tell her, honestly. I hope she’ll be happy for me, but I’m not sure…”

  Tell who? Her? What did he need to tell her? Now she was more convinced than ever that she should listen in.

  “You’re right. I have to get back to my career before I don’t have one. But I don’t know how Emmy’s going to feel about this…”

  It was her. What was he keeping from her?

  “I know it’s time. I’m basically healed. I’ve stayed in therapy longer because I wanted to spend more time with her…”

  Aw. That was nice.

  “But the rodeo business waits for no one, ya know? I can’t let all my years of hard work go to waste, and it’s the only thing I’m trained to do anyway. So, yeah, I’ll fly out to Vegas and…”

  Emmy backed away from the window and leaned against the foyer wall. He was leaving soon. None of this had really meant anything to him. The moment she’d let her heart open for Nash Collier had been the moment she’d lost control of her life for the second time. She wasn’t going to get knocked down in his wake yet again.

  She quickly ran back to the kitchen and threw some cold water on her face. She wasn’t going to cry. No way. She’d shed way too many tears over men in her life, and she wasn’t doing it again.

  “Sorry about that,” he said as he walked back into the kitchen. “It was my Dad.”

  “Right. Okay. Well, listen, I’ve got a ton to do today, Nash. Thanks for fixing my dishwasher.”

  Nash looked confused. “Wait. Are you telling me to leave?”

  “Kind of. No offense, but I have to go see my Mom and then I have some grocery shopping to do. Can we chat tomorrow at therapy?”

  “Um… I guess so. It’s just I had something I wanted to talk to you about…”

  Emmy pushed on his shoulder, moving him toward the front door. “Okay then, so we’ll talk more about that tomorrow. Be safe,” she said, opening the front door. Nash stood there a moment and looked at her before he walked outside.

  Emmy quickly shut the door and leaned against it before sliding down to the floor in a puddle of unwelcome tears.

  Chapter 14

  Nash was confused. He’d thought he was making strides with Emmy and that maybe they could be more than just friends. But the way she’d basically thrown him out of her house yesterday had confused him.

  As he walked into therapy, he wondered if he’d made her angry in some way. Had he given her mixed signals? Had their night together been just that - one night?

  “Good morning,” he said when he saw her standing in the doorway of the therapy room.

  “Morning, Nash,” she said quickly. “Listen, we’re going to get you started on the treadmill first today. Do twenty minutes on incline, and I’ll check back with you after that.”

  Today, she was all business. No facial expression, very little eye contact. He just didn’t understand it. It was like they didn’t even know each other.

  Was this her way of telling him they didn’t have a future together?

  The whole time he walked, he watched her. She didn’t look his way. She worked with other patients, laughing and smiling, but apparently he didn’t warrant that from her today.

  When he finished, he got off the treadmill and stood beside it. Emmy walked over with papers in her hands.

  “Congratulations, Nash. You’ve officially graduated from physical therapy. These are your release papers. I recommend you follow up with a qualified orthopedic doctor in Vegas, just to be sure you don’t need to have a therapist on hand out there as well.”

  “Vegas? But I…”

  She looked up at him, her face impassable. “I’ve got other patients, so I really can’t talk much now. But, again, congratulations. I know you’ve been wanting to get back to your home, and I wish you the best.”

  And with that, she walked away.

  Emmy didn’t want to go home. She knew Nash would likely be looking for her there, and she just couldn’t deal with another goodbye.

  He had a life in Vegas, and he needed - and wanted, apparently - to get back to it. As far as she was concerned, she’d done her job and done him a favor by helping him heal and then letting him go.

  It was because she loved him that she was making it easy for him to leave.

  “You want another glass of wine?” Debbie asked as they sat on her sun porch at the end of a long hard day.

  “No thanks. No amount of wine is going to change how I feel.”

  “I’m sorry, Em. Honestly, I thought he’d stay.”

  “There’s no reason for him to stay here, Deb. His career and life are in Vegas.”

  “Well maybe you could go there?”

  “He didn’t ask me, first of all. And I love my job here. Plus, my mother needs me whether she wants to admit it or not.”

  “Long distance relationships can sometimes work…”

  “No.”

  “But do you really think freezing him out like this is the way to end things?”

  Emmy sighed. “I hate doing this, Deb. But I have to protect myself this t
ime, and I just can’t do the whole emotional goodbye thing. It was devastating to lose Nash the first time. I can only imagine what a second time might do to me. This is self preservation.”

  “I wish I could help.”

  “Me too,” Emmy said, leaning her head back against the chair.

  Nash had called multiple times and texted even more, but Emmy had ignored them. She’d taken a couple of days off work just to avoid seeing him if he stopped by. It was ridiculous really, but she just wanted a clean break.

  She felt stupid for falling for him again, but that was exactly what she’d done. She’d promised herself that it was only a kiss… and then only one night… but things were never that way with Nash. They couldn’t be.

  She’d heard through the grapevine that he was leaving today. In fact, he was already on his way to the airport. It was over. He’d go back to his life, find a new love and that would be it.

  She’d stay in Whiskey Ridge, grow old and gray and maybe take up knitting.

  Okay, so maybe she was being a tad bit negative.

  Days passed, and there were no more phone calls or texts. He’d gotten the message, apparently. While she should’ve been relieved, she wasn’t. She felt empty.

  “Earth to Emmy,” Pauline said as she waved her hand in front of her daughter’s face. Pauline had finally gotten around to going over to Emmy’s new place for dinner.

  “Sorry, Mom. I was just thinking about some stuff.”

  “You mean you were thinking about Nash,” Pauline said pointedly before taking a drink of her sweet tea. Pauline had always been a sweet tea addict, often joking that the blood in her veins had been replaced with it years ago.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Sweetie, it’s the same lovesick look you had on your face as a teenager. I remember when Nash went out of town for the weekend and you sat around with that forlorn look on your face the whole dang time.”

  Emmy smiled. “Young love.”

  “Old love, young love. It’s all the same. When you find the one for you, no one else will do. Hey, I’m a poet and didn’t know it!” Pauline giggled at her own joke as Emmy thought about what she’d just said.