Page 19 of Everyone Loved Her

“I don’t need your number, Garrett,” Beth said. “I don’t want to be friends.”

“We don’t have to be friends,” he reasoned, slowing down as he turned down her old driveway. His time with her was coming to a close. For all he knew, it’d be the last time for them to talk for another sixteen years—which is why hehadto forcehimself to say everything he needed to. “We don’t have to talk. We don’t have to do anything at all, but if you ever need anything, I’ll be here for you.”

She furrowed her brow at him. “Why?”

Garrett took a deep breath, forcing himself to say the words he hadn’t ever managed to admit. “Because I loved you, too, Beth. All the stuff we did all those years ago, it wasn’t a game for me. I just needed some time to figure out how to tell your brother. That’s it. I wanted you more than anything.”

She shook her head, opening her mouth as he put the truck in park outside the barn. His dad’s truck was no longer parked in the driveway, but Blaze and Andrea, Beth’s mom, remained on the porch, as if they were waiting for him to make it back with her.

“Here,” Garrett flipped up the console, grabbing a pen and pocket-sized notebook. He flipped open and scribbled down his number. “Just in case.” He tore the page and held it out to her.

“Can I ask you something?” Beth said, her eyes jumping from the paper to his eyes.

“Yeah, of course.” Garrett dropped his arm to rest on the console when she didn’t take it. “What is it?”

“How different do you think things would be if that night had never happened?”

His mind flashed to imagined wedding bells, kids in a yard, and his arm wrapped around her waist—something he had thought about extensively over the years but refused to admit. “I don’t know.”

She nodded, and then plucked the paper from his hand. “Guess we’ll never know.”

He watched her climb out, slam the truck door, and thenwalk across the yard to the back porch. As he put the truck in reverse, his eyes caught Beth crumple up the paper and toss it into the unlit chimenea in the corner.

And whatever hope he had, dissipated as quickly as it had come.

Chapter 10

“Well?”Mom asked me, curiosity written all over her face.

I raised a brow. “Well,what?”

She shrugged, but I could see she was way more invested than what she let on. “What was that about? With Garrett?”

“Just catching up.” My head was still spinning from his familiar cologne, and the three words he threw at me without any kind of warning. He’d always known I’d loved him, because my stupid seventeen-year-old self couldn’t keep my mouth shut. He’dneversaid it back.

Well, I guess he had now. Just sixteen years too late.

Blaze stood watching, leaning against the railing, a few feet from where I had just trashed Garrett’s number. “I didn’t know you were close to the town drunk. He sure got spiffed up to see you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know about any of that.”

Blaze chuckled. “About him being the town drunk? Or showing his face sober for the first time in years the night after some girl shows up murdered?”

“Hey,” Mom spoke up, warning him. “No need to go there.He was just stopping by to talk to Beth. They haven’t seen each other since…” Her voice trailed off, and clearly, she was rethinking what she wanted to say. “They haven’t seen each other in years. He’s always been respectful toward her.”

“Right,” Blaze grunted. “I gotta get to work. I’ll see y’all this evening.” With that, he pushed himself up off the porch, his muddy boots leaving tracks across the white, chipped paint. As his shoulder brushed mine, he paused, leaning down to my ear and saying in a low voice, “Be careful with him, Beth. He’s not the kid you used to know. Trust me.”

I shifted my gaze up at him, but didn’t have a chance to say anything before he was thundering off down the steps and back out toward the barn. I watched him, and then innately shifted my gaze to the driveway, where Garrett’s truck had just been. I went back to the chimenea, and plucked the paper back out as a deep, unhealed heartache came throbbing back. My decade long marriage had hurt but finally healed…

And that was one thing I couldn’t say about Garrett.

“He has a lot of problems,” Mom’s voice cut through my thoughts as I shoved the paper into my pocket.

“Who? Blaze?” I raised my brows.

She chuckled, shaking her head. “You know who I’m talking about.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t have to worry about that. He just wanted toclear the air.” I used his words with the same bitterness I had felt when he’d said them. “He needed to talk so he could move on or something.”