Clara rolled her eyes. “Y’all know how I am. I pay little attention to things outside of my immediate orbit. They aren’t from around here, obviously.”
“No, Becky Lee is from Knoxville. I guess some of them might be there. I know one of her brothers is in Oregon, and one is in Texas? I think? I don’t keep track of her entire family, Clara.”
“That’s right. You just keep track of Garrett. You were lookin’ to get a peek at him just as much as Sadie was lookin’ for Barrett back then. Don’t bother trying to deny it,” she shot back.
Leo barked out a laugh. “It’s almost man-candy time, Clara. Let Molly be—for now.”
“Fine, you’re off the hook, sugar plum—for now, anyway. Just know, the time for denial is over.” She winked at me and crossed the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee.
I decided to go back to eating my breakfast and ignored them. “Whatever, y’all,” I mumbled.
“The time is nigh, and you know it. Change is afoot. The era of dickhead Chrises is finally over. You don’t just kiss the love of your life at Genie’s and then let him slip away.” She held out her hand and Leo smacked it as he walked by to go out to the porch.
The pfft of air that escaped me would have blown my curls back if my hair had been down. “Again, I say whatever, and I would also like to add that y’all have lost your dang minds. I’m not even a hundred percent sure we kissed anyway.”
Clara’s eyebrows shot up as she sipped her coffee. “Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?” she finally asked.
Chapter 3
Garrett
Halfway out to my truck I realized I was smiling, and I quickly wiped it off my face. Molly probably didn’t remember any of what had happened between us last night. If one of the two people involved in a situation didn’t know it occurred, then it had to be like that tree-falling-in-the-woods thing, meaning nothing happened and I had no reason to smile this morning. With a heave, I tossed my tool bag into the back of my old Chevy truck, then climbed inside the cab. But that didn’t mean something couldn’t happen in the future. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of her over the years. I thought of her a lot, even when I shouldn’t have, even when I was engaged to someone else. Molly had been an integral part of my life growing up—until she wasn’t.
My family owned Monroe & Sons, a construction company located in Green Valley, passed from father to son and serving this community for over sixty years. My brother, Barrett, the oldest, was our architect. Everett, our carpenter, had switched to part time to open a gamer shop in town, and Wyatt wasn’t part of the business at all; he was a Green Valley deputy sheriff. Currently, I was a foreman with my own crew, but after my father retired, I would take over—we’d signed papers on Friday to make it all official. I had always expected to share the responsibility with my brothers, but I was the only one of us interested in running the business. The thought of handling it by myself was daunting, but I enjoyed learning the ropes from my father. I also knew, no matter what my mother said, he would never retire until he was good and ready. I figured I had at least a decade left to learn from him.
When I turned eighteen my immediate goal had been to get away from Green Valley. I wanted to be and see and do something else. My brothers had grown up with clear ambitions, some of which were outside of joining the family business. Not me. I had always wanted to end up working for my father, I had no doubts about that. But before I joined the company, I needed to be more than just the youngest Monroe boy, more than my family’s reputation. After college I enlisted in the Marines with the goal of becoming a combat engineer, and I did it. Returning to Green Valley was like slipping into a warm bath: comforting, familiar, safe, but boring. I think I forgot how to live when I came back here.
This morning was one of those rare times since leaving the Marines that it felt like something different was on the horizon. This felt so much better than the steady monotony I had allowed myself to sink into when I returned to town almost four years ago. I had been one of the lucky ones, managing to get through my service relatively unscathed and unencumbered by the harsh memories that plagued so many others.
Gravel crunched under my tires as I turned my old truck around to head for the highway, wincing as the sun hit my windshield to momentarily blind me. When my vision cleared, it was met by the majesty of Green Valley in the fall. Colorful trees rose in the mist as the elevation dropped and the road wound down toward town. It was peaceful and familiar; it was home. Despite the boredom, I never wanted to leave again.
I stopped at Daisy’s Nut House for coffee on my way to the inn. I needed something to keep me awake. I’d suffered from insomnia off and on since I was a kid, but lately it was nonstop. If it kept up, I would be forced to take a sick day just to get some sleep. I was exhausted and already struggling to keep my eyes open.
Once I was out of the hills, the drive to the inn went quick. Traffic was sparse since it was so early.
Briefly, I wondered how Molly was feeling. An involuntary grin crossed my face as I recalled her words when I dropped her off, “I love your almost-beard. When did you get so sexy, Garrett?” She had hugged me and mumbled loudly into my chest, then snapped a selfie before she went inside her house. There was no way she’d remember what she said; she’d been too drunk. But I couldn’t get her words out of my mind.
Maybe this change in outlook was due to Molly?
Or maybe it was because being around her last night had evoked memories of a time in my life that existed before I had strayed so far away from what I had wanted to be. I had wanted to see the world and then settle down with a family, to have a wife and kids of my own. I wanted a life like my parents had. But here I was, thirty years old with none of those things. Maybe my ex had left me gun-shy. Or maybe I just needed to relearn how to love the simple things in life and appreciate the fact that I was lucky enough to still have one.
I rolled my window down to let the soft breeze fill the cab of my truck. Along with the whiff of fresh mountain air, I caught the scent of Molly’s perfume still lingering on my jacket, warm and sweet, like night-blooming jasmine and tequila or a summer breeze. She was an irresistible cocktail I wanted to drink all the way down. I never knew she smelled so good. I never knew her skin was so soft and that her lips tasted so sweet. I had never allowed myself to fully imagine a lot of things when it came to her.
The last time I’d actually touched her was to give her a hug at her dad’s funeral. The girl I grew up with had been a tiny bag of bones, full of planes and angles, and always willing to throw an elbow whenever I pissed her off. This Molly had curves for days, was warm and soft pressed against me when I held her, and made me ache to feel even more.
After pulling into the inn’s parking lot, I stopped alongside my oldest brother Barrett’s truck and spotted my father’s cargo van next to it. My crew would be here within the hour. I always arrived on-site early, especially on the first day of a job. We didn’t usually work on weekends but would sometimes make exceptions to keep our scheduling on track or for special clients like Molly’s family.
“Hey there, Garrett!” My eyes shot to the porch and widened when I saw Clara Hill sitting on a rocking chair sipping coffee and grinning at me like she knew all my secrets. Between Molly, Leo, and Willa, she probably did.