“Candace!” Arabella cried out.
Greer covered her face with her hands and groaned. “God, Candace.”
“She’s a single mom? And Bishop is dating her? Who is it?” I stood and started to pace.
Greer stood as well. “She’s not from Boggy Creek.”
Arabella followed Greer’s lead. “She’s a botanist or horticulturist. Or something like that. She’s been at your folks’ flower farm a few times.”
Greer nodded. “That’s how she met Bishop—going to the tree farm. Something about a beetle or something. She works for the state.”
“Jax?” I asked.
The three of them stared at me with open mouths.
“You know her?” Greer gasped.
“My mom said there was a horticulturist in the greenhouse with my dad yesterday. Her name was Jax.” I closed my eyes and dropped my head back. “Oh my God. Her behavior now makes so much sense.”
“What do you mean?” Greer probed.
I let out a frustrated laugh and fell back onto the sofa. “She didn’t want me to meet this Jax. She did everything in her power to keep me from even seeing her, actually. Then, when my father walked in, he…” Furrowing my brows, I shook my head. “That bastard. He laughed and told me I had shit timing.”
Candace jumped up. She put her hands on her hips and nearly growled, “Your father said that to you?”
“What?” Greer gasped. “Pete said that?”
I nodded. “He still hasn’t forgiven me for leaving.”
“Sounds like someone needs a bit of Jesus in his life,” Candace mumbled.
I pressed my hand to my stomach and started to rock back and forth. “Oh my God. Oh. My. God. What am I going to do? No, wait—I knew this was a possibility. It’s okay…” Tears built in my eyes and I forced myself to keep repeating that it was okay. “I knew…I knew there was a chance I could have lost him. I still need…I need…” My voice cracked, but I went on. “I still need to tell him.”
Greer sat on the coffee table and grabbed my hand. “No, you have not lost him. Listen, I saw how torn up Bishop was when you left. Kyle and Hunter tried to help him, but…well…let’s just say Bishop wasn’t in a good place for a long time. He kind of lost his mind for a bit, got a little crazy, and wasn’t exactly innocent when it came to hooking up with random women.”
I blinked rapidly. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re doing a bad job, Greer.”
“I’m just being honest with you. Bishop did sleep around, but not as much as people say. He’s a big flirt—which he’s always been—but with him being single, folks just assume he’s—”
Arabella shot Greer a dirty look and cut her off. “What I think Greer is trying to say, Abby, is don’t give up hope. Just because he’s found someone who’s made him look twice for the first time since you, it doesn’t mean he’s in love with her.”
I brought my hand to my mouth and gagged.
“You made her sick!” Candace yelled. Grabbing my hand, she dragged me over to a small trash can. I dropped to my knees and threw up.
Someone rubbed their hand over my back. When I had finally emptied my stomach, I dropped back onto my ass and looked up at Arabella. Her blue eyes were filled with so much love. I hated that I had walked away from her. Especially knowing how much she’d needed me.
“I’m so sorry I left, Bella. Do you forgive me?”
A tear slipped free as she sat down and reached for my hands. “Of course I do, Abby.”
“What if I’ve lost him? What if I’m too late?”
She looked over at Candace and Greer and then back to me. “Just know that the three of us are here for you.”
Greer sat down next to us and then looked up at Candace.
Candace snorted. “Okay, these are like $250 jeans. You really want me to sit on the ground in them?”
“Candace!” Greer growled.
She sat down, and Arabella squeezed my hands. “You’re not alone anymore, Abby.”
The tears came again as I practically threw myself at the three of them.
Candace turned my head toward Greer and whispered, “Cry on her ten-dollar sweatshirt, sweetie.”
Bishop
Kyle opened the door to his duplex and blinked a few times. “Bishop? What in the hell time is it?”
I pushed past him. “I don’t know, early.”
“The fuck are you doing here at the crack of dawn, dude?”
I made a beeline for his kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed a beer.
“Bishop, you want to tell me why you’re here drinking my beer first thing in the morning? I’m pretty damn sure you’ve got beer at your house.”
“Jax wanted to have sex.”
Kyle stared at me with a blank expression. Then he dropped his head forward and gave it a quick shake. “And?”
“Did you hear me? She wanted to have sex. Not only did she want to have sex, but she wanted to do it in one of the chairs in the game room. She fucking crawled on top of me. Took off her shirt and bra and was more than ready.”
His eyes went wide. “Well, damn. Did you?”
I stared at him with a look that said he was a dumbass. “No! Have you ever known me to sleep with another woman in that house?”
Kyle scrubbed his hand down his face and sighed. “Give me a minute; I’m still trying to wake up.”
“No, Kyle. I have never brought another woman there. Honestly, I didn’t think Jax was going to want to take that next step. She has a kid!”
Kyle poured himself a glass of milk and then leaned against the island. “And why would you think that’d make her not want to have sex?”
I shrugged. “She’s a mom.”
Laughing, Kyle said, “So, because she’s a mom, you didn’t think she’d want to fuck? Hello, how did she get the kid she already has?”
“That’s not what I meant. I figured she’d want to wait a bit longer. Get to know me a little better. I mean, she has Ashley to think about.”
Kyle stared at me for a long moment before he shrugged. “Well, maybe she has a healthy sexual appetite. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I know that. I think.” I rubbed at the back of my neck.
“What happened after she took her shirt and bra off?”
“I tried to get into it, but my fucking dick wouldn’t even come up. I felt nothing. No desire to be with her. Nothing.”
“Okay, so did you stop it?”
“Yes, and she wasn’t too pleased. I told her I couldn’t do it in my house. I told her I wanted to have sex with her, just not in the house. And she said she was going to have her mom take Ashley back to Boston for a few days and we could…”
“Fuck at her house.”
I shot him a dirty look. “Yes.”
“Okay, what happened after that? Did you at least make out with her?”
I shook my head. “I took her home.”
“Without even getting to second or third base?”
I nodded and took a long drink of my beer.
“Wow. I have to admit, Bishop, I’m kind of surprised. She was offering up sex and you turned it down…”
“It didn’t feel right. Not in the house.”
Kyle blew out a breath. “Dude, someday you’re going to have to move on. Are you going to sell the house?”
“No.”
“Then you need to work past this. Maybe you need to be with Jax on neutral ground. But I think you need to ask yourself a bigger question.”
I raised my brows. “What’s that?”
“Why did you really say no to Jax last night?”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Bishop, why did you say no? Was it because the idea of fucking her on a chair that Abby picked out was too much? Or was it because you wanted Jax to be Abby in your lap wanting to have sex?”
I stared at Kyle, letting his words sink in.
He nodded and held up his milk. “That’s right, I can get deep with shit.”<
br />
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I like Jax, and I adore Ashley. I want to be with her.”
Kyle stared at me for a minute. “Do you? Or do you simply like the idea of being with her? You just said you like Jax and adore her kid.”
I swallowed hard and looked down at my beer.
“Dude, you had a pretty powerful love with Abby. If I had to wager, I’d bet you a million dollars that Abby is just as fucking miserable as you. A love like what you two shared…I don’t know if it truly goes away, Bishop.”
“So what you’re saying is, I’m going to be alone the rest of my goddamn life because I can’t move on from the past?”
He shrugged. “I’m saying if you were truly over Abby, you’d have let Jax fuck you in that chair last night. You would more than like her, you’d want her. And you wouldn’t be using her kid as a buffer between the two of you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but then quickly shut it.
Kyle nodded again. “I’m going to start charging for my fucking services when it comes to you, Hunter, and Adam.”
“Shit,” I whispered as I dropped my head and stared at Kyle’s tiled floor. “What do I do?”
“Depends. I mean, this is the first woman I’ve seen you interested in. If you truly want to see where things go, then you’re going to have to take the next step.”
I nodded.
Kyle finished his milk, rinsed out the glass, and set it in the sink before he headed back out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts. But then he stopped and turned. “You might also want to ask yourself what attracts you to Jax so much.”
I pulled my head back in confusion.
“Is it Jax you really like, or the idea that she comes with a kid?”
It felt like my entire body had slammed into a brick wall. “No. No, that’s not it.”
He gave me a questioning look. “Lock the door when you leave.”
My phone buzzed in my back pocket again as I placed a stone on the new firepit Ken and I were building.
Ken had worked on the tree farm since we were in high school together, and he was the one who had talked me into working here one summer. Mr. Redmen had taught us both everything we needed to know about growing Christmas trees. From pruning them in the summer to when you needed to stop selling to ensure you had a good season the next year.
“Bishop, just answer the damn phone, will you?”
Sighing, I wiped the sweat from my brow. Even though it was cold and snowing, I was sweating from all the heavy lifting. I pulled my phone out to see it was Jax. My phone had gone off a few times earlier, and I had ignored it. I wasn’t sure why I was avoiding her, but something Kyle had said last night had clearly gotten under my skin.
Hitting her number, I walked a few feet away.
“Hey, how’s it going with the firepit?” Jax asked in a cheerful voice.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I replied, “It’s going. Sorry I missed your calls—I couldn’t grab my phone.”
“Calls? I’ve only called the one time.”
Frowning, I pulled the phone away from my ear and put her on speakerphone.
“I was seeing if you wanted to meet for lunch. My mom took Ashley back to Boston, so it would just be the two of us.”
Kyle’s words from last night rushed through my mind. Maybe you need to be with Jax on neutral ground.
My mind was screaming for me to say yes. Too bad my damn heart won out. “I can’t meet today for lunch. I’m sorry, Jax.”
A moment of silence filled the line before I heard an exhale of air. “You still love her.”
My heart felt like it skipped a beat or two at her words. “What?”
A soft laugh came through the phone. “Bishop, I’ve seen that look before. The one you had in your eyes last night. It took me a really long time before I stopped seeing it in my own eyes. Eight years, to be exact. It’s okay if you’re not ready to move on—”
“Jax, that’s not it.”
“Wait. Let me finish. My feelings aren’t hurt; I’m not upset. I know how much you adore Ashley. And I know a part of you likes me. But it was pretty clear to me last night, Bishop, that you’re still very much in love with your ex-wife.”
“It was just the house, Jax. That’s it.” When she didn’t say anything, I went on. “Listen, I’ll come over tonight and bring us some dinner. We can pick up where we left off last night.”
“Bishop, you don’t have to—”
“I want to, Jax. I’ve just got a lot to do around here before the season officially kicks off on Thanksgiving weekend, and I can’t break for lunch. That’s it, I swear.”
She sighed. “Okay. Come over for dinner. But don’t bring anything. I’ll cook us something. How about we say six?”
A strange feeling hit me right in the middle of my chest. Every single part of me screamed to tell her I just remembered something and I couldn’t make it. My heart felt like it was hammering in my chest, and I couldn’t figure out what in the hell was wrong with me. I wanted to have dinner with Jax. I needed to move on, goddammit. Tonight was the night.
“Six sounds good. Do me a favor?”
“Anything,” she purred.
“Wear that sexy-ass bra again.”
“Should I throw in the matching panties?”
I smiled. “Yes. I’ll see you later.”
“See you later, sexy man.”
The call ended, and I saw I’d missed three others. I hit my screen—and my knees nearly buckled when I saw her name.
Abby.
Why in the hell was she suddenly calling me out of the blue?
A shiver went through my body, and it had nothing to do with the cold weather outside. She was here. Not just in town, but here at the tree farm. I could feel it.
I slowly turned and looked down the hill toward the barn that held the gift shop. Abby was getting out of her car.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, my hand dropping to my side.
I stared at her as she walked over to Bryce and hugged him. He spun her around, and I could hear her laughter drift up the hill.
“Bishop? Bishop?”
At the sound of Ken’s voice, I snapped my head to the left.
He handed me my phone. “You, um, you dropped your phone.”
Absentmindedly, I reached for it, then turned back to look at Abby and Bryce talking.
I heard Ken’s intake of air before he asked, “Did you know she was in town?”
I shook my head. “No. That’s who kept calling. I mean, it was Abby calling.”
“You want me to tell her you’re not here?” Ken asked.
Shaking my head, I replied, “No.”
It took me a few moments to snap out of the shocked daze of seeing Abby on the farm.
My shock quickly turned to anger. “What in the fuck is she doing here? Why now?”
Ken laughed. “I’m telling you, women have radar. She probably sensed you were moving on.”
I looked at Ken. “What?”
He shrugged. “I’m just saying. Either that or someone told her.”
That made me look back down the hill. Had someone told Abby I was dating Jax? Greer? Arabella? From what I could tell, neither one of them had kept in contact with her. Her parents, maybe? I knew they knew. They’d seen me out with Jax and Ashley a couple of times. Crystal had smiled and been polite, but I could see the disappointment in Pete’s eyes. Not that I was moving on, just that I wasn’t with his daughter anymore.
After drawing in a deep breath, I exhaled slowly. “Well, the only way I’m going to find out what she wants is to go ask.”
Bryce pointed up the hill toward my house that stood on the highest point of the farm’s nearly two-hundred acres.
As I started toward my truck, Ken reached for my arm. “Bishop…I never said anything to you because it wasn’t any of my business. But I know Abby was pregnant, and I know she lost the baby.”
I looked away and clenched my jaw tight.
“When
I was in college, my sister Kate found out she was pregnant. It was a one-night-stand kind of thing. My folks threw a fit; Kate wasn’t even sure what she was going to do. She was so scared. But I remember watching her with her hand on her stomach and this smile on her face. I knew she had fallen in love with that little bean growing inside of her. She lost the baby not long after she found out she was expecting. My folks were over-the-moon happy, but Kate…something happened to her. She quit school, withdrew from everyone—including me for a while. It fucked her up in the head, and she did some stupid shit.”
I looked at Ken and pulled my brows in. “What are you trying to say, Ken?”
He gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “I’m just saying, Abby didn’t act like herself after she lost your child. Her behavior reminded me of Kate’s. I don’t know…maybe I just thought you should hear that.”
“How long did it take your sister to come back to herself? A month? Six? Two fucking years?” I nearly shouted.
He flinched, looked down at the ground, and kicked at something.
I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Sorry. I’m just a little on edge. Thank you, Ken. I appreciate you trying.”
He lifted his gaze to meet mine. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it. He looked at the firepit. “I’ll get back to work on this.”
I nodded and watched as he walked back over to the pit. Turning, I looked back up the hill that led to my house and saw that Abby was on her way up the long drive.
By the time I pulled up to my place, Abby was sitting on the front porch steps. I looked away and focused on parking my truck next to her car. The same damn car she’d been in when she drove away from the farm. From me. From the promise she’d made.
Opening the truck door, I slipped out and then slammed it. When I rounded the back of my truck, Abby stood, and it felt like someone had sucker punched me right in the gut.
She was even more beautiful than I remembered. And I had memorized every inch of her years ago. Her light brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and I could practically see her hazel eyes sparkle as I made my way toward her.
She was fiddling with something in her hands, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“Bishop,” she said softly when I came to a stop at the bottom of the steps. Our eyes locked, and I had to fight like hell not to react to the tears building in hers.
She's the One (Boggy Creek Valley Book 3) Page 7