glass on the bar.
Briggs grimaced and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “If Suzanne asks me about this and I forgot to mention it, she’ll cut me off for a week.”
“You scared of your wife?” Roman asked with a smirk.
“Yeah. And if she was yours you would be too.” Briggs returned his attention to me. “A friend of hers from high school moved back to town.”
“No.” I cut him off before it went any further.
“She’s not bad looking,” he pleaded.
“Tell Suzanne I’m not ready or whatever you want to.” Maybe I should switch to liquor. “Or why not Roman?”
They glanced at each other, a little too nervously for my liking.
“He’s uh—he’s been kinda seeing someone.”
“Yeah?” I punched him in the arm. “Who’s the lucky girl? Anybody I know?”
“Is there anybody in this town we don’t know?” Clark muttered.
“So about Suzanne’s friend . . .” Briggs nudged me with his shoulder.
“What don’t you want me to know?”
“Oh shit.” Clark glanced past me and downed the rest of his beer. “I gotta take a piss.”
“Hey.”
Everything in me seized.
The soft lilt had greeted me more mornings than I could count. I thought that would always be the sound I woke to. Seeing her face was a direct arrow to my chest. Still flawless. Those lips formed a shy smile, and I scowled, knowing what they were capable of. Her hair was a blonde halo that fell halfway down her back.
I wanted to look away, but couldn’t. This ache, this reminder of everything that had gone wrong in my life stared at me. Begging for forgiveness, understanding, and something else I couldn’t decipher.
“Roman.” I pointed a finger at him. “What the hell?”
He ignored me and touched Celia’s shoulder. “I won’t be far.”
A look passed between them, one I wasn’t sure I liked. One I wasn’t sure why I cared.
I spun on my barstool to face the mirrored wall of liquor bottles.
“Holt.”
I stiffened. How many times had she said my name? Why does it still affect me?
“You don’t take hints too well.”
She wedged between the barstool Roman vacated and mine. Her floral scent nauseated me. Honey. That was what I craved. I edged my fingernail under the label on my bottle, ripping it down the center.
“You just left.”
I whipped around on the stool and stared at her incredulously. “Why would I stay? What’s left here for me?”
She stepped between my legs, and I recoiled. “Me.”
I wanted her out of my space and put my hands on her hips to back her up. Stubborn woman wouldn’t budge.
“I don’t want you.”
“I screwed up. I know that.”
I glared at her. “If he weren’t dead, would you still feel that way?”
She flinched. “I’m sorry. I love you.”
“Don’t say that to me.” I peeled her hand off my arm. “You don’t get to say that.”
I looked away. Those words used to mean everything. I thought they did to her too.
“It’s true,” she pleaded. “I’m lost without you. Roman understands that.”
“Roman?” I asked incredulously. One of my friends? The woman had no boundaries.
She paled. “I thought he told you.”
“Told me what?”
“It’s nothing. You’re home now. We can figure this out. Get back to where we used to be.”
“There is no going back,” I spat.
“Please. I made mistakes—”
“Mistakes? I doubt Cameron or Roman would be too happy to hear that.”
“I was scared. I knew you wanted to get married, but I was afraid everything would change.”
I gaped at her. “So you got serious with my best friend behind my back?” I pushed to my feet, towering over her. “Did you know he was about to propose?”
Her lips parted, her expression as if I’d slapped her. “What?”
“When a man’s dying, he confesses a lot.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Well, now you do. His last words were how sorry he was, but he loved you and wanted me to look out for you.”
She touched her throat as her eyes glassed over.
I looked away. “You loved him too.”
She nodded, a few tears escaping down her cheeks. “I loved you too.”
“I don’t believe you. If you had, you couldn’t have done that to me. Either of you.”
“Holt. Please.” She grabbed my arm. “Give me another chance. Let me prove to you how much you mean to me.”
“I’m not a stand-in, Celia. I’m not giving you a second chance.”
“We deserve it.” Her nails dug into my forearm, and I shrugged her off.
“Love doesn’t look like this. I want more in life than a woman who plays with the emotions of men she supposedly loves for her own