Sable Peak (The Edens)

It was an effort not to rip the door at Eden Coffee off its hinges. The bell that jingled overhead was too fucking cheerful. So was my sister’s waiting smile. Not even the smell of cinnamon and sugar could sweeten my mood.

One look at my sour expression and Lyla straightened behind the counter. “Hi,” she drawled. “Bad day?”

I pointed toward the hall that led to the kitchen. “Is Vera back there?”

“No.” Her eyebrows came together. “She called in sick today.”

“Fuck.” I rubbed a hand over my jaw. Not a chance she was actually sick.

“What’s going on?” Lyla asked.

“She was supposed to meet me at the airfield this morning. Never showed.” I’d waited around for an hour, texting and calling to make sure she was okay. Then I’d realized she’d stood me up.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

I’d spent three hours cleaning the hangar and killing time, hoping it would burn off my frustration before I tracked Vera down at the coffee shop. The hangar was spotless. And I was still fucking pissed. I had been since the moment Vera had left the house last night.

I’d hit the brakes after that kiss and now I was the bad guy? No. Fuck no. She didn’t get to keep running away from me. Avoiding me. Standing me up.

Especially after that kiss.

It was the game changer. Everything was different now.

There wasn’t just something between us. There was something life-changing. And the chemistry? It was unlike anything I’d felt before. From the moment my tongue had touched Vera’s, from the second I’d tasted her sweet lips, I’d been hooked. Not a chance I’d let her go now.

Did she have a clue how hard it had been for me to stop that kiss? Every cell in my being had vibrated with the need to claim her. Keep her. But I’d fought back the desire to carry her into my bedroom and worship her until dawn.

For once in my goddamn life, I wasn’t going to screw up a relationship with sex.

Apparently, that made me an asshole.

“Earth to Matty.” Lyla snapped her fingers in front of my face. “What is going on?”

“Nothing. I just need to talk to Vera.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing.” She sighed. “I’m trying really hard not to interfere and ask about that night at Willie’s.”

Meaning either I spilled, or she was going to ask. By some streak of luck, I’d managed to avoid discussing that night with anyone other than Mom and Vance’s warning at the hotel. Given the look on Lyla’s face, that streak was about to suffer a quick, efficient death. Might as well get it over with.

“Go ahead. Interfere.”

Lyla gave me a sad smile. “None of us realized she felt that way about you. I guess I owe you an apology. I would have warned you.”

“Don’t apologize.” I waved it off. “We’ve been spending time together. I’m teaching her how to fly.”

“Oh.” Surprise flickered in my sister’s blue eyes. “She didn’t mention that.”

“It’s new.”

“Do you think this is smart? Teaching her? I don’t want her to get her hopes up.”

Lyla assumed I’d turned Vera down. Or maybe Lyla and Vance had hoped that would be the case. Did they not think I was good enough? “I’m not teaching her to fly out of guilt, Lyla,” I snapped. “She asked. I agreed.”

“All right.” Lyla held up a hand. “I’ll stop and mind my own business. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you wouldn’t be anything but kind to her. I just … love her. And the trauma she’s endured. It’s unthinkable.”

“Yes, it is.” I nodded. “But she doesn’t want your pity. And she’s not getting mine. That’s not what this is about.”

“Then what is it about?”

“I like her,” I admitted.

“You do?” Lyla’s smile was too big. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really. She’s … Vera.” I wanted Vera.

And I wanted us both to walk away unscathed.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I told Lyla. “Just give me time to figure it out.”

Vera and I were not on the same wavelength at the moment, and adding my family into the mix would only make it worse.

“I can do that,” she said.

“Thanks.”

Another customer came through the door, so I shifted out of the way.

“I’ll let you get back to work.”

“You could stay. We could talk. Catch up.”

“I need to get Alaina,” I lied. Mom was babysitting and she’d told me not to rush home, wanting the time with her granddaughter.

With a wave, I left the coffee shop and retreated to my truck.

Downtown Quincy was soaked from all the rain these past few days. The red brick buildings seemed brighter, their gutters running on full. The trees were flourishing with the water, their leaves glistening and green. My tires sloshed across the pavement as I headed down Main, and I cracked the window.

Fresh rain was a favorite smell, but like the cleaning at the hangar, it did nothing to improve my mood. When I pulled off the highway and passed beneath the ranch’s archway, my hands were still strangling the wheel.

My frustration spiked when I pulled up to my parents’ house. The parking space beside the barn—Vera’s space—was empty.

“Sick, huh?” I scoffed, gritting my teeth as I killed the engine. Then I slammed my door too hard before stomping up the porch to Mom and Dad’s.

I was one foot inside before I remembered what Vera had told me about the doorbell. So I retreated to the porch and hit the button.

Tiny feet pounded on the floor inside. Allie came running around the corner with Mom following close behind.

“Daddy!” Allie’s smile was a rainbow through the clouds, and for the first time in hours, I smiled.

“Hey, Sprout.” I swept her into my arms. “How was your morning?”

“Good,” Mom answered for her. “How was flying?”

“I didn’t go. Vera, um … canceled.”

“Really? She took off this morning. I figured she was going to meet you.”

“Nope,” I muttered.

Mom was the only one who knew I’d been spending time with Vera. I’d asked her to keep it quiet. There weren’t many secrets between my family members, but Mom was the vault. When you asked her to keep something quiet, her lips stayed sealed.

“Thanks for watching Allie.”

“Of course. Are you set on taking her home? Eloise just called. I guess they’re doing a story time reading at the library and she was going to take Ophelia. Asked if Allie wanted to go too.”

“I don’t have it in me for a story time reading, Mom.”

“Oh, not you. Me. I needed to buzz into town anyway and hit the grocery store. Allie can come along.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Your dad has gone to Griffin’s for the afternoon. We’ll get out of here. Seems like you might need an afternoon to yourself. Go for a ride or something. Your dad brought Saturn, Neptune and Mars into the small pasture the other day because he was thinking about going for a ride if the weather cleared up. Maybe the rain will stop.”

Even if it didn’t, a hard ride sounded like a damn good idea. “Deal.”

I helped get Allie loaded in my truck, letting Mom take it instead of swapping the car seat to her Escalade, and as they drove down the lane, I headed for the stables.

Saturn wasn’t at all happy when I caught him with a lead rope and hauled him into a stall. He didn’t like to be away from his friends. But when I swung into my saddle and rode him out of the arena, he perked up.

My horse loved his friends. But he really loved to run.

I gave him his head, and with no particular destination in mind, I set out on a long ride through meadows and past towering trees. By the time we made it back to the stables, the tops of my jeans and coat were soaked. The rain had slowed to a sprinkle but hadn’t entirely stopped.

My body was drained, from the ride and a sleepless night, and I was ready for a hot shower and a warm meal. My mood was better. Not great, but better.

“Thanks, bud.” I ran a hand down Saturn’s nose before letting him free to roam the pasture and join the others. Then I put my tack away and shut off the stable’s lights.

The crunch of tires on gravel sounded as I reached the door.

Vera’s Honda eased into the parking space beside the barn. If my truck had been outside Mom and Dad’s, would she have even come home?

I marched straight for the barn, the frustration from earlier returning with a vengeance. Guess that ride hadn’t really helped.

“Vera,” I snapped the moment she stepped out of her car.

Her face whipped my way.

One look at her red-rimmed eyes and my stomach dropped. “What’s wrong?”

Had something happened today? Was she really sick?

I closed the distance between us, taking her in from head to toe.

She looked a lot like me—rain slogged and exhausted. The scent of pine and earth clung to her clothes and hair. Okay, so she hadn’t spent the day at the hospital. She’d gone hiking again, hadn’t she?

Had something happened on a trail? A too-close encounter with an animal or something?

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” She looked on the verge of tears as she closed her car’s door and walked for the barn.

“Vera.” I followed. Not a chance she was running away from me again. “What the hell is going on?”

“Sorry, I wasn’t feeling like flying today.” She trudged to the loft.

I stayed close, worried that she’d falter and fall.

There was a weariness to her movements, a sluggish weight, that I’d never seen before. Like she was using every bit of strength to keep her chin up. To keep herself moving forward.

When she reached the door, her shoulders sagged. She stared at the handle like she didn’t have the energy to turn it.

“I’ll get it.” I slid up behind her, one hand on the small of her back as I opened the door and followed her inside. “Vera, talk to me.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugged. “Just an overcast day.”

“Why?”

“I went hiking.”

“Did something happen?”

“No.”

I locked eyes with hers. “Don’t lie to me.”

She dropped her chin.

“Hey.” I came closer, tugging the zipper on her coat free. With it gone, I stripped mine off, tossing both with a thud to the floor. Then I hooked a finger under her chin.

The despair in her eyes was like a knife to my heart.

Did she have any idea how hard I’d work to never see that look again?

“Is this about last night?”

She shrugged.

“So yes and no?”

“Yes and no.”

“What can I do?”

Another shrug.

“Peach. Throw me a bone.” I slid my hand across her cheek, my fingertips diving into her hair. She must have worn a hat on her hike today, because only the ends were damp.

“Why do you call me Peach?”

So she had noticed. She hadn’t reacted when I’d said it last night. I’d assumed either she hadn’t heard it or she didn’t like it.

I threaded my fingers through her hair. “Because your hair reminds me of a sun-ripened peach on a hot summer day. Because you’re sweet. And because it’s my favorite fruit.”

“No, it’s not. You like strawberries best.”

“Not anymore,” I murmured, bending to take her lips.

She sank into the kiss, like every muscle in her body instantly relaxed. Like the world beyond us just disappeared.

I hummed and dragged my tongue across her bottom lip, testing and tasting. Then I delved deep, her soft lips and sweet taste like heaven.

Like last night, it took a conscious effort to tear myself away. But I kept her face in my hands and dropped my forehead to hers. When I cracked my eyes open, hers were waiting. “Why’d you leave last night?”

“You pushed me away.”

I blinked. Pushed her away? “I stopped us before we went too far.”

“Too far?” Her eyes narrowed, then she broke free of my hold. “I’ve spent the past two years chasing normal, Mateo. I want people to treat me like they treated me before. I want to be the person who I was before, and that just feels impossible. If not for all the fucked-up shit in my life, would you really have stopped? I want to forget. I want … you. But not if you’re going to tiptoe around me. Not if you’re going to treat me like I’m fragile.”

The hurt in those beautiful eyes was a slap in the face. She thought I’d stopped because I pitied her.

Fuck that. I closed the distance between us, taking her face in my hands. Then I kissed her. Hard. I plundered her mouth and pressed my body against hers so she could feel exactly how much I wanted her.

She whimpered as my arousal dug into her hip. When I ripped my mouth away, we were both breathless.

“I want you. So much I can’t see straight. But I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t want sex to be all we have. I don’t want to wake up in bed one morning and have you tell me it’s been fun and all, but a relationship isn’t really what you’re after. That the months we’ve been together meant nothing. And I don’t want to walk away and find out nine months later I have a daughter no one was ever going to fucking tell me about. That is why I stopped kissing you last night.”

The color drained from her face as the words poured from my mouth. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Oh.”