Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,25

just kind of a known fact that they’d get married and give birth to the next generation of Fawn Hill’s popular kids. But then, one day, she just packed up and left. Broke his heart, from the gossip spewed around town. And then, about three weeks after she left, his father passed away. It was a horrible, horrible time. I don’t know if he’s ever quite recovered.”

This new information changes the light I see Keaton Nash in. From first glance, I thought he was a hot animal doctor. After talking on different occasions, I know he’s a small-town boy with a big heart and speaks honestly. But with this new download from Lily? I get a glimpse of the hurt lingering around Keaton Nash.

Thinking about it now, his whole aura is tinged with sadness. He might not show it, but it’s there, buried under the surface. I’d nicked it once, and he’d snapped at me for it. Having the woman you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with up and leave you? That changed a person. It said to me that Keaton wasn’t as put together as he tried to appear, that he had demons and heartbreak lurking close by.

But losing your father, the man who groomed you for your career, pass away shortly after that? It altered a person. Tragedy would always warp the soul and take just a little piece of humanity away from the body.

“Wow, I … I had no idea.”

Lily tilts her head. “No, you wouldn’t, would you? No outsider would. That’s the thing about living here … everyone knows your secrets. Maybe Keaton thought you could be his clean slate.”

And I’d dirtied his slate right back up again with my refusals. I’d basically told him that I thought he was too … small for me. Too pure. Too good.

I had a feeling, now, that I knew very little about the man.

“Maybe he was.” I pondered, looking out the cafe window and across the street at his office.

15

Presley

Apparently, Fawn Hill moms and twenty-somethings can spread news faster than a viral meme.

Within three days, my next yoga class was the talk of the town, and Lily had booked my next Friday class to the max. She’d had so much interest, that she’d asked if I would be open to hosting a Saturday morning class as well. Both paid for by the attendees, and I had, hopefully, found myself a new gig.

I thought life in rural Pennsylvania was going to be slow and boring, but between learning the ropes at the bookshop and planning my weekly yoga classes, I was pretty damn busy.

In New York, I’d worked double waitressing shifts and taught five yoga classes a week. I was burnt out all the time, rarely went out with friends, and had zero direction. When I was in it, I thought I was happy. That I was hustling, grinding as a twenty-something and living my life my own way. I would never be the professional career person that my brother and sister were. I reveled in the fact that I was the family’s black sheep. It was my spiteful cross that I bared and I wore my scarlet letter proudly.

But now, I wondered, for what? I wasn’t working toward anything. If I had to be honest, I was miserable.

Pulling out clothes now, in preparation for tomorrow, my Saturday morning class, I can’t seem to find my favorite sports bra. Pale pink, crisscrossing straps in the back, keeps my girls in place and supported.

“Where the hell …” I muse as I rifle through drawers.

And then I hear it. The burp from the other side of my bed. Rounding the queen frame, I look down.

Right into the guilty face of Chance, my grandmother’s bad, meddling dog.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Both hands fly to my hips as if giving this creature attitude will force my bra to magically appear from his stomach.

Shit. Well, I have other bras, but the dog should probably get checked out.

I walk down the stairs of my grandmother’s house. It’s a two-story colonial with three bedrooms. The design is old, but she keeps it neat, and there is a certain charm about living in a home with so much history and character. There is even one of those old ironing boards slash desks that flips down from a wall in the kitchen.

When I find my grandma, she is sitting in the recliner she’s laid claim to, no one else can sit there, watching