Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Mia’s expression softened in a way Pike knew he didn’t deserve. “You’re a sweetheart, but I don’t think so. Tulsi’s got a lot of pride. She wouldn’t want charity from a friend, especially not one she had a crush on for forever.”
Pike blinked, wondering if maybe Mia wasn’t as clueless as he thought, but then his sister added in an urgent voice—
“But don’t ever tell her I told you that, okay? She would kill me dead and then die of embarrassment herself. And then Clementine would have to grow up without a mother or a cool Aunt Mia. And she needs me to teach her how to take over as the prankster of Lonesome Point when I retire.”
Pike laughed. “Like that’s going to happen anytime soon. Gram told me about those naked cowboy blow up dolls you put in her barn. She thinks you traumatized the horses.”
Mia grinned. “I was going to get her with those a long time ago at the ghost town, but the timing was off. I just wish I could have been there to see her face.”
“You should ease up. Gram’s getting up there. You’re going to give her a heart attack one of these days.”
“Nah,” Mia said, waving her hand in the air as she trotted up the steps beside him. “Sugar Britches loves it when I mess with her. It’s all part of our twisted and wonderful relationship. I prank her, she treats me like her indentured servant—it all works out.”
“She’s still dumping the ghost town stuff on you?” Pike asked, holding open the door for Mia before following her into the lasagna-scented house. His mother looked up from the island in the kitchen, as they walked in, and smiled. His dad was already parked at the table attacking a salad, obviously intending to eat dinner with the family after all.
“Totally, but I don’t mind,” Mia said. “The benefit concert was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. It was amazing to see Bubba up on stage.”
Pike and Mia joined their mother in the kitchen, pouring wine, while she carved up the lasagna, and helping to bring the side dishes to the table. Over dinner, they talked about the concert and the wedding, Mom’s volunteer work at the hospital, Dad’s new ideas for the ranch, and Pike’s flight down from Arizona after his vintage Mustang died just outside of Phoenix. They avoided talk of baseball or baseball injuries, and at the end of the meal, his father walked him to the door and gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.
It wasn’t a hug or an apology, but it was as close as Jim Sherman ever got to “I’m sorry,” and as Pike followed Mia down the steps, he felt guilty all over again.
His family wasn’t perfect, but he had a mother who adored him, a father who loved him in his own frustrating way, and a sister who was one of his best friends. Meanwhile, Tulsi had a disapproving father she’d been intimidated by for most of her life, a mouse of a mom who lived in her husband’s shadow, and a sister who’d run off when Tulsi was fourteen never to be seen in Lonesome Point again. Thank God for Mia, or Tulsi might not have made it through having a baby at eighteen. His sister was an amazing woman and a wonderful friend, but when Mia dropped him at her store and left to go see Tulsi, Pike couldn’t help feeling that it should be him.
It should have been him who stood by Tulsi all those years ago, and it should be him going to her now. As he stood on the front porch of Lavender and Lace, watching Mia’s truck drive away, the truth suddenly hit him—hard, making his chest ache.
He was still in love. He was still in love with Tulsi Hearst, after all these years, after all the water under the bridge. He didn’t want to leave the past behind and move on; he wanted to reach back across time, take eighteen-year-old Tulsi’s hand and never let go. But it was impossible. She wanted nothing to do with him. She’d made that clear this afternoon.
It was like his coach said—you can lay down and quit or you can get up and fight, but there’s no going back. There was no way back to the Tulsi he’d known, but maybe there was a way to get close to her again, to bridge the distance between them and reclaim the friendship he’d lost. The truth was he wanted more than friendship, but he’d count it as a victory just to be able to look into Tulsi’s eyes and know she didn’t hate him anymore.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Tulsi
It was the worst night ever and it was all Pike Sherman’s fault.