Southern Secrets (Southern #7) - Natasha Madison Page 0,80

blink away the stinging of the tears that threaten to come.

The soft knock on the door makes me shake my head. I walk over, wondering which family member could be here so early. I don’t even check, and when I open the door, my body tenses up while my heart starts to beat for the first time in three days without pain. "Asher." His name falls off my lips in a whisper.

"I know you don’t want me here," he says, and I take a second while he is talking to look at him. He is wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, nothing he hasn’t worn before, but it feels like home to me. His eyes are red, and it looks like he hasn’t slept in three days. His face is covered with a beard, and his brown eyes have no shine in them. No light. "I just need five minutes of your time, and then I’ll be gone.” He looks at me, and my hand doesn’t move from the door handle as I grip it with everything in me to stay in place. "I’m leaving town," he says the three words that I was hoping to hear, yet make the pain in my chest feel like someone is setting my body on fire. It’s a pain I’ve never felt before. A pain that goes deep to your bones. "I tried to stay, and I made reasons for staying, but it’s just too much," he says, his voice almost breaking as he looks down and sniffles. "Not being able to be with you or see you. I just … there is no reason for me to stay." My tongue feels like it’s a hundred pounds. "But I wanted to let you know that what happened between us was nothing that I planned. Falling in love with you."

"Was a lie,” I finally say, and if he didn’t look like he was in pain before, I know my words cut him.

"Nothing about how I felt for you was a lie. Nothing about what we shared was a lie." He shakes his head. "What I felt for you was the most real thing I’ve ever felt. What I felt for you …" His eyes fill with tears, and a smile fills his face. "What I felt for you will never go away. It will stay with me until the day I die. You, Amelia McIntyre, will forever be the love of my life." My hands shake. "I hope you find someone who can give you everything you deserve," he says, turning and walking down the steps. He turns back one last time. "I love you, Amelia." The tears run down his face. "Until my last dying breath, I’ll love you." He takes one last look at me and turns around to walk back to his truck.

My feet don’t move from the spot even after the red lights from his truck disappear in the distance. The tears continue rolling down my face, one after another. When my hand finally lets go of the door handle, I shut the door softly.

The shower helps wash away the tears, and when I walk into the barn forty-five minutes later, my grandfather is there waiting for me. I look at him, shocked when he walks over to me. "What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Was wondering if you had time to take a ride with your grandfather," he says, and I see that my horse is there and saddled already. "Figured you needed to clear your head."

I swallow, nodding, and walk to my horse with his arms around my shoulders. I put my foot in the stirrup and push myself up. We ride side by side down the path he used to take me when I was a little girl. "I remember when I used to take you down this path." My grandfather starts talking. "And you wouldn’t stop talking. You would talk about the air and the trees." I smile at him. "It was the part I enjoyed most," he says softly. "So what’s on your mind?" he asks, and when I look over at him, I can’t help but cry. "Might as well get it all out."

"Nothing really," I say as he stops our horses when we get closer to the creek. He gets off his horse, and I follow, getting off mine. He grabs the reins to both horses and leads them to the water.

"Let’s go sit down," he says, pointing at the rock where