Page 11 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

She clapped so suddenly that I jumped.“You saw him, didn’t you?Finally!”She waved me on, momentum taking over.“So?What do you think of grown-up Timothy Hurst?”

“His dog got a tail laceration.”That was a safe description of events.“He was…surprised to see me.”

My mouth pressed into a thin line.How did I explain that the air had shifted the second he walked in?That something I’d buried so deep I thought it was gone had ignited like it had been waiting?

Whatever we had years ago had been something softer than whatever the hell this seemed to be.This was standing too close to a live wire and pretending I couldn’t feel the current crawling under my skin.So, I did what I always did when faced with sharp feelings.I shut it down.Locked it away.Pretended I didn’t feel anything.

His blue eyes had flicked to mine and then dropped.Not subtle.Not accidental.He’d done a quick sweep that took me in.Something in him reacted before he could stop it.I caught the flash of surprise, and the sharp, almost disbelieving heat.Then it hit me too—hot and electric.I’d been seen in a way I wasn’t ready for by the one man I was terrified to face.

He still had those long legs.Still so?—

Nope.Absolutely not.I cut the thought off hard.It might burn me if I let it finish.

“That’s it?That’s all you have for me?He wassurprisedto see you?”She giggled, bright and sharp, like this was one of her K-dramas.“I’ll bet he shit a brick.A McClary on sacred Hurst turf.Considering you two used to be?—”

“We weren’t anything.”The words came out too fast.Misty had caught me one day at the lake with him.Of course my curious little sister followed me when I skipped school.We had a huge fight about me meeting up with him.She even accused me of screwing him to get back at Dad.I denied it, and eventually she left it alone.Until Dad got the secret out of her.Then things turned nasty, not that I blamed Misty.She’d gotten beaten over it too.

I hadn’t told anyone about those days at the lake, not my ex-husband, not Misty, and not the therapist I’d seen for a few years.I never wanted to revisit those quiet, stolen pieces of time or the way silence with Timothy had felt safe.Then things got complicated.They changed when he decided he wanted to save me.That hewantedme.

I shoveled the thoughts down before they could surface.

“All right.”Misty’s fingers worried the edge of her blanket, like she debated how much to say.“I’m not telling you this to stir anything up.You deserve to know what you walked away from and what you disappearing did to him.”

I stilled, every instinct in me going quiet except the one that leaned in.My pulse kicked up, traitorous and eager.Don’t stop, I wanted to say.Tell me everything.I wanted to hear every rumor and every ugly little truth about Timothy Hurst.I needed to know what had shaped him into the man who could walk into a room and undo me without even trying.

It wasn’t just that he’d filled out.He’d grown into himself in a way that overwhelmed.The years had carved him into the kind of man you noticed whether you wanted to or not.

I didn’t want to notice.I wanted to look past him, through him, and pretend he didn’t land in my chest like a dropped weight.

It wasn’t the broad shoulders or the restrained confidence or the way he carried himself like he knew exactly where he stood that got to me.It was the depth of distress and grief in his gaze that went far deeper than him despising the fact I was in his space.Something in life had taken a blade to him and he’d learned how to keep standing anyway.I couldn’t stop wondering what, beyond his youngest brother’s death and, perhaps, me leaving, had done that to him.

“After you left, he started bulldozing through life.He got mean about it.He ran people over to get his way and barely noticed who he hurt.”She paused, sounding tired clear down to her bones.“Everyone knows his father’s heart attack dumped the dairy farm and HVAC business on him when he wasn’t even twenty.It made him a driven asshole for years, but we all saw he got shit done.He did very well for himself.Dad hated it.”Her gaze lifted to mine.“But something about Timothy changed about three years ago.Maybe becoming a single dad.Maybe therapy.Maybe finally having someone besides himself to care about.”A faint shrug.“I hear he can still be a nasty bastard sometimes.”

Good for him.I nodded even though the conversation was starting to feel like a door I didn’t want opened.I’d heard he had a daughter.I wondered if she was like him.

Misty studied me when I didn’t respond, something more careful settling into her expression.“We don’t have to talk about it,” she said, quieter.“I know I push.”A faint, almost apologetic smile flickered.“Occupational hazard of being stuck in a bed with nothing but other people’s lives for entertainment.Now, to be fair, you ran away and married someone who looks just like him.”

“I did not.”My stomach twisted.“Justin isnothinglike him.”

Misty was already pulling up a picture, shoving the phone toward me.“Bull.Shit.”

I didn’t look at the picture.If I looked, I’d see it—the overlap.The similar angles.A mistake—mymistake—wearing a different name.I’d get swamped in the pain of a marriage with so much distance and hurt that he turned to someone else more than once.

“So you have a type.Who cares?”There was no bite to it now, only her attempt to lighten things.

“I do not have a type.”I didn’t like thinking about either of them.It hurt too much.“Timothy Hurst is not, nor will he willeverbe, my type.”I exhaled hard, trying to steady something inside me that had started to slip.“He was an absolute ass to me today.”

And Justin?—

I cut that thought off before it could finish forming.The signed divorce papers sat like a weight in the back of my mind.Final.Done.

“Anything else exciting?”Misty asked, easing back against the pillows.

I latched onto the opening.“I’ve got a date tomorrow.”

Her eyes widened, cautious now.“Someone local?”

“Guy at the hardware store.”I shrugged, aiming for casual and landing somewhere short of it.“He helped me figure out what screw I needed for the blinds.Then he asked me out.”