Shelby would go to her grave remembering exactly what Batton had said when he broke up with her. “Your place is here, and I don’t want to tie you to something that you don’t want.”
“But I want you.”
He hadn’t said another word, just turned and walked away, ending their relationship and leaving Sugar Cove.
“You okay over there?” her grandmother asked.
She blinked and inhaled sharply, clearing the memory from her head. “Oh yeah, I’m fine.”
“Well, it’s about time for me to get out of here.” She untied her apron and moved to head into the back. “Want me to wait for you? My legs were feeling tired this morning, so I drove.”
Shelby’s relief was about to arrive anytime. “Nah. You go on ahead. I’ll walk home.”
She lifted one gray brow. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Her grandmother left and a few minutes later Shelby’s relief arrived. After working on the previous day’s tally and gathering the cash for the bank deposit, she headed out.
She had only just reached the road when a sleek black Tesla pulled into the parking lot. The sun reflected off the windshield, making it impossible to see who was driving the vehicle, see if it was someone she knew.
The car door opened, and her heart stuttered. Batton, wearing slim dark jeans and a white T-shirt, got out, his gaze landing directly onto her.
Fire burned in her veins. What was he doing here? Did he think it was okay for him to come to her store? The place he’d abandoned her to?
Her body screamed at her to cross the road, to keep on her way, but her mind yelled something entirely different, insisting that she give him what for.
Her mind won.
She charged over, hands curled into fists, brows pinched together. “What are you doing here?”
His eyes widened in surprise before narrowing. “Is that the friendly greeting you give all your customers?”
“Very funny. I run into you everywhere I go, even when I’m doing my best to avoid you. But here you are, on my turf.”
“I didn’t realize this was West Side Story.”
His mother had a thing for old musicals. Many a Saturday night after supper was spent sitting on the couch with her, his dad and Batton’s siblings as they watched musicals that his mother loved.
She smiled at the reference but didn’t laugh. “I’m pretty sure that I made myself clear the last time I saw you—I don’t want to see you.”
Was he trying to torture her with his presence? He’d asked her out, and she’d said no. That should have been the end of it. Batton could help his family and then leave just like he had done in the past.
He shoulders sagged. “Shelby, my mom asked for one of your grandmother’s sandwiches.”
“She’s gone for the day.”
“Then I’ll come back another time.”
He moved to climb back into the Tesla when she said, “No.”
“What?”
“No. I don’t want you coming here and upending my life.” She took a step toward him and stared up into eyes that she’d once loved with all her heart. “You’ve already done enough damage.”
He rocked back onto his heels. “Shelby.” The hurt in his voice nearly melted the ice coating her heart. “I only did what I thought was right.”
“Right?” Was he kidding? “You broke up with me and left this town. We were supposed to leave together, Batton—you and me. But you abandoned me here.”
“To be with your grandmother,” he murmured. He tipped his head back and stared into the sky. His shoulders slumped in defeat. “You were worried about leaving her. Do you remember?” He leveled his gaze back on her. “You were concerned about how she’d do without you. You basically told me that you wanted me to break up with you so that you wouldn’t have to come with me, so that you wouldn’t feel guilty for leaving this town.”
Her lower lip quivered. “I never—”
“Yes, you did,” he said firmly. “You absolutely told me that. You wanted an excuse to stay, so I gave it to you. But you’ve blamed me all this time for hurting you, when I was just as hurt, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to go. Don’t you think it crushed me to do that?”
His voice broke, and so did a sheet of ice that had frosted over her heart. It cracked and fell away. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because you would have denied it.” One side of his mouth quirked into the lopsided smile she had loved. “I knew you better than anyone back then. That’s exactly what you would have done.”
She exhaled a staggering breath, forcing herself to remember. She did recall the guilt that plagued her every time she thought about leaving her grandmother. She couldn’t abandon the woman who’d taken care of her for so long.
She dropped her face into her hands. Batton was right. For all these years she’d blamed him for their breakup because he had broken her heart. But when she allowed herself to fall back into the past, she remembered the guilt and worry that she’d been wrapped up in.
She lifted her gaze back to him, expecting him to be angry, but he only smiled and reached out, pushing away a stray strand of hair that the wind had whipped over her mouth.
A shiver rocked her body. How could she have forgotten what being around him was like? How whenever they touched, it was electric, and she could never get enough of him holding her hand, rubbing her back or even squeezing her knee?
“So,” she said.
“So,” he repeated.
“I guess that I’ve been blaming you for something that I shouldn’t have. You’re right, I pushed you away because I was worried about her.” It was shameful how she’d blamed him all these years. She felt awful. Shelby shook her head, hoping that the movement would toss the feeling away, but it only intensified. “I’m sorry.”
He squeezed her shoulder gently. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for. Your grandmother needed you, and you were right to stay. I’m only sorry that I didn’t fight harder.”
He would have fought for her? It felt like a giant hand was squeezing every bit of life from her heart. Pain rocked through her body. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I couldn’t leave then, just like I can’t leave now.”
One side of his mouth turned up slightly. “What do we do?”
“What do we do?” she repeated as if saying the words would cause them to make more sense.
He rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze dragging from her and scanning left and right, as if waiting for someone to drive down the road. “What I mean is—we can stay like we are, and you can be mean to me whenever we run into each other, or…”
“Or what?” she asked, tilting her head to get a better look at him. Those blue eyes were ringed in gold, and when he looked fully at her, the irises widened, their darkness swallowing the blue.
“Or you can take me up on my offer to go out with me.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
Because wouldn’t they just wind up at the same place? Him leaving and her staying? “How will it be different?”
He shifted his weight, which he only did when he was either uncomfortable, thinking or both. “Shelby, I may have left this town, but I never stopped thinking about you. Not once. You were never far from my mind, and yes, I’ve dated since leaving but no one ever compared to you.”
The last bit of ice clinging to her heart cracked off then, falling into the abyss. She licked her lips, and he watched, his gaze flicking to her mouth before landing back on her eyes. “I…I understand. I know what you mean.”
Even though she’d had crushes and had dated other men, none of them had ever came close to Batton. Even though she longed for Ted to look at her with something other than sisterly affection, he still wasn’t all that she wanted or even needed.
“So then how about it?” he asked, his lips tipping into a smile and his dimple winking at her from his smoothly shaven face. “Would you go out with me?”
Every cell in her body wanted to leap and scream a resounding yes, but her mind took a different turn. “But what about when you leave? Because you and I both know you’re not staying here, Batton. You’re only here to help your family for a while.”
“Shelby, I’m…not so sure that I’m going back.”
Her stomach fell. “What?”
“Yeah, there are things going on, and it might be best if I stay.”
“What about your job?”
He shrugged. “I can get another one, or I can start my own firm.”
“You say it like it’s so simple, to leave a life and start another one.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” he said as his fingers trailed down the bare flesh of her arm, “it’s that there’s nothing to be afraid of in life. And if you are afraid, the only thing that’ll lead to is more fear.”
Batton, staying? There really wasn’t any reason for her not to go out with him. He might remain in town, which would mean that she wouldn’t get attached and then have to deal with him abandoning her and Sugar Cove again. For once Shelby could let her heart go without worrying about whether or not it would get stomped on.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
His eyes sparkled. “Okay, what?”
How adorably annoying. He was going to make her say it. “Okay, Batton, you win. I’ll go out with you.”
“I don’t want you to say it in order to please me. If you’re going to do it, I want you to do it because it’s what you want.”
He was teasing her now. She rolled her eyes even though she wasn’t really irritated. “It’s what I really want.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, rubbing his chin. “Because like I said—”
She reached out and tickled his stomach, causing him to flinch. “It’s what I want. Now stop asking me or else I might change my mind.”
A slow smile spread across his gorgeous face. “If that’s the case, how about we go out tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” It was so soon. A knot of worry was building up in her throat, but she swallowed, pushing it back down. There wasn’t anything to fear. There was no reason why they couldn’t try again, was there? “Tomorrow sounds good. I’d like that.”
He started to retreat back to his car. “Pick you up at six?”
“Okay.”
“You still living at the same place?”
She pointed toward the house on stilts. “We sure are.”
“Then I’ll see you then. Tell your grandmother I said hello. I can’t wait to see her.”
She laughed. “You’re more excited to see her than me.”
“Absolutely not. But she won my heart a long time ago.”
“You’re terrible.”
“Don’t worry. She could never replace you.”
With that, she turned and walked toward her house, her heart feeling just a teensy bit lighter.