Rough Terrain (Vista Falls #1) (14 page)

“I don’t feel we’ve earned the right to call him that.” Sage knew it took a lot more than biology to make a person a parent. “Maybe someday we will but not right now.”

Wes reached for her hand. “I know what you mean, but seriously, there’s no denying it, is there?”

She laughed. “If his hair was a little longer, he’d look exactly like you did at that age.”

“And English is his favorite subject,” Wes reminded her. “He may not like reading, but he loves writing. He sure as hell didn’t get that from me.”

She appreciated his attempt to remind her that Nick had some of her traits too, but it was obvious Nick and Wes were more alike. Not that she minded. She was just thrilled to be getting to know him after all these years.

“How do you think your parents will react if we bring him to town?” Wes asked, squeezing her hand. “You think they’ll give you a hard time?”

“Honestly? I don’t give a damn what they think about it. They may have been able to bully me back then—I was just a kid. But now I’m all grown up, and I can decide for myself whether I want Nick to be a part of my life. And I do.” Sage could tell Wes was relieved she wasn’t the same insecure girl she’d been back then, eager to please her parents and afraid to rock the boat.

“Still, it’s probably not a good idea to get your old man all riled up. He is still recovering from that stroke, right?”

“Yeah.” When her phone rang, Sage used her free hand to grab it from her purse, smiling when Gabby’s face appeared on the Facetime screen. “Hey, girl. What’s up?”

“I couldn’t wait ‘til tomorrow to find out,” she said. “How did it go with Nick?”

“He’s a great kid, Gab. I know I don’t have the right to be, but I am so proud of him.”

Wes smiled as he released her hand and turned the volume down on the radio so they could chat. He curled both hands around the wheel instead of taking her hand again.

“Was it weird?” Gabby asked. “Or awkward?”

“Honestly, no,” Sage said, shaking her head. “Not at all. I was just telling Wes I can’t believe how easy it was.”

“Hi, Wes,” Gabby said, grinning.

Sage turned the screen so Wes could see Gabby. “Hey, beautiful. Thanks for calling to check in.” He glanced at the digital clock on his dash. “It’s after midnight. Isn’t it past your bedtime?"

“Ugh, I had a date tonight,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “I just got in.”

“Didn’t go well?” Wes asked, smiling.

“He’s the town vet, and he bored me with the details of this dog who had an obstruction. Apparently he had to perform a very delicate procedure to remove a chewed sock from his stomach. Like I want to hear about
that
over my filet, right?”

“Should I assume you won’t be seeing him again?” Wes asked.

“Probably not, but you know how it is around here. Slim pickings. We can’t be too choosy or we’ll be sitting home every night, according to my mother.” She laughed. “Have I mentioned she’s eager for grandchildren?”

“Sounds like my mother,” Wes said, grinning.

Sage listened to the exchange, knowing her own parents were in no hurry to add to their family. They believed it would be several years before her brother was stable enough to think about settling down, and they hadn’t asked her whether there was a man in her life since before Wes moved back to town.

“Well, I’ll let you guys go,” Gabby said, stifling a yawn. “You wanna meet for breakfast in the morning, Sage?”

“I have a few things to take care of at work.”

“Okay, I’ll bring coffees and pastries by around ten. I should pass by the shop too. I just hired a new high school student to work Saturdays, and I want to make sure she’s working out.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you then,” Sage said before disconnecting the call.

“You think Gabby’s ready for another relationship?” Wes asked, as they passed the sign welcoming them to Vista Falls.

“I don’t know.” Sage was impressed by how mature her friend had been about the demise of her marriage, claiming she didn’t blame her ex-husband for anything. “I know she wants some stability in her life. She’s got a great little home of her own, and her business is doing well, but I think she misses being married.”

“Was her ex a decent guy?” Wes asked, turning down the side street leading to her house.

“Yeah, he was. I thought they were really compatible. They had a lot of the same interests.”

“Why do you think it didn’t work out?” Wes asked, pulling into her drive.

“Right from the start, Gab said she didn’t have that crazy chemistry with him she used to have with Colt, but she convinced herself that what she had with Colt was so intense because they were just kids. She thought a more mature love was supposed to be tamer, I guess.”

“What do you think about that?” Wes asked, releasing his seat belt and shifting to face her as he curled his hand around her headrest. “You think just because we’re older, we should settle for boring and predictable?”

“No.” She sighed. “I guess that’s why I’m still single though. Unrealistic expectations.”

“Who says we can’t have as adults the kind of love we had as teenagers?”

Sage didn’t know if he was talking about them specifically or speaking in general terms, and she was too afraid to ask. “That honeymoon phase can’t last forever, can it?” she asked, opting to believe he was speaking about the population at large.

“I don’t know about that. My parents were in love right up until the end. I don’t remember a time when my old man left the house without kissing my mom good-bye. And we’re not talking about just some perfunctory peck on the cheek. I mean a full-on kiss.”

Sage smiled as she settled her purse in her lap. “I remember that about your parents. They were always so affectionate with each other. It must have been so hard for your mom to lose him. He was more than her life partner. He was her best friend, wasn’t he?”

“Sure was.” Wes hesitated before he added, “I guess that’s why I never got married. I’ve only found the kind of love they had one time in my life, and I’m not willing to settle for less.”

“I’m not willing to settle either. I’d rather be alone than have a marriage like my parents have.” She knew that sounded harsh, but she’d always been honest with Wes. She’d never had any reason to hold back with him.

“You can have whatever kind of relationship you want,” he said, sliding a strand of her hair through his fingers. “You just have to be willing to put yourself out there. Get clear about what you want and go for it.”

“What if I’m not sure I can have what I want?” It was becoming increasingly clear to her with every moment they spent together that she still wanted the same thing she’d always wanted—Wes.

“Tell me what you want.” His gaze passed between her mouth and eyes as he waited for her response.

“Maybe I want a second chance.” That was just about the scariest thing she’d ever said, but it was also the most truthful. “Is that crazy?”

“A second chance with me?” he murmured, moving in closer.

“A second chance for us. To maybe get it right this time.” She didn’t know if that was even possible, but she wanted to try, so at least she wouldn’t be left wondering for the rest of her life.

“I want that too.” His lips were hovering above hers when he whispered, “I want that more than I’ve wanted anything in a really long time.” His kiss was slow and thorough, as though he intended to make up for every second they’d lost. “But we need to take it slow.”

“I know.” His kiss made it difficult to breathe, but she was trying to keep her voice level when she said, “Because of Nick.”

“And us. We’ve screwed this up once before. I don’t intend to let that happen again.”

Sage smiled as she curled her hand around the back of his neck. “I don’t either.”

***

Nick pulled the blankets up to cover his bare chest when his girlfriend finally picked up the phone after his fourth failed attempt to call her. She’d slipped out of the stadium before he could find her and hadn’t texted to let him know where she’d be.

“Hey, how’d it go tonight?” she asked.

“Where’d you go after the game?”

“Just out for a burger with everybody. I thought I’d see you there. Didn’t you say Wes wanted to—”

“We went for a steak instead.”

“I guess with his money, he can eat like a king, huh?” She giggled. “So what was Daddy Warbucks like anyhow?”

Nick hadn’t thought twice about Wes’s money. He’d been more interested in getting to know him. “He was cool. So was Sage. I liked them.”

“So you’re gonna see them again?”

“Yeah, I think so. They invited me to Vista Falls. Maybe I’ll go next weekend.”

“You think they’ll take you in this summer so you don’t have to move up to God’s country with your mom?”

Nick knew it was too soon to ask Sage or Wes to take him in for the whole summer, but he hoped to work his way up to it. His mother would never let him stay home alone for the whole summer, and staying with his overprotective grandparents would have been even worse than being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cell service or Wi-Fi for two months. “Even if they do, it’s still an hour away. It wouldn’t be easy for us to see each other.”

“Wes could have his chauffeur drive you back here every weekend.”

Even though Nick barely knew his birth father, he didn’t appreciate Maggie making assumptions about him. “Wes isn’t like that. He drives a pickup truck.”

“Ugh. Why, when he could drive some hot sports car?”

“Turns out he’s not into that shit.” Unlike Maggie, Nick liked that the Wes he’d seen in the company’s promo videos was the same guy he’d met tonight. Wes didn’t pretend to be someone he wasn’t for the sake of his public image.

“I thought growing up in that shitty little town would have made him want the best of everything. If I had that kind of money, you’d never see me living in Brock, let alone driving some stupid truck.”

Nick didn’t happen to agree, and he said pointedly, “I guess somewhere along the way, he realized money doesn’t make him happy.”

“Easy for him to say. He’s got more than he’ll ever spend. Tell him to send some of it this way.”

Maggie always seemed to have her hand out rather than trying to pay her own way. That was one of the things that bugged Nick about her. Even though she had a part-time job at the local convenience store, she was always the last one to reach into her wallet when they went out with friends.

“Wes has worked his ass off for everything’s he’s got.”

“How do you know? You barely know the guy.”

As soon as Nick had found out Wes was his birth father, he’d done his homework, watching every video and reading every article he could find about him online. By now, Nick could probably have written Wes’s biography without any input from the man himself. “I know what kind of guy he is.”

“You haven’t said much about Sage. What’s she like?”

He thought of the book she’d written. The story she’d told… about her feelings for him. “She and Wes seem like a real couple. It’s hard to believe they’re not.”

“How do you know they’re not sleeping together? Just because they’re not married doesn’t mean they’re not messing around.”

“I guess.” That would certainly have explained the chemistry between them. “Doesn’t matter anyhow. The only thing that matters is they seem stoked about getting to know me, and I feel the same way.”

“I would too if I were you.” She snorted. “Can you imagine the kind of wheels that guy will buy you when you get your license? Especially with all the guilt he must feel about bailing on you.”

“He didn’t bail on me.”

There was a big difference between putting a baby up for adoption and being a deadbeat dad who didn’t even try to live up to his responsibilities. Nick couldn’t pretend he hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about why Sage and Wes hadn’t reached out to him before, but he hoped to be able to ask them that question someday.

“Call it what you want,” she said, sighing. “He probably feels guilty for splitting, and I say milk it.”

This conversation was leaving a bitter taste in Nick’s mouth. “I gotta go. I’m tired.”

“Yeah, sure. Will I see tomorrow?”

“Probably not ‘til tomorrow night. Text me in the morning.”

“Okay, love you.”

For the first time, Nick found it difficult to mimic the sentiment. “You too. Night.”

“Okay, tell me everything,” Gabby said, depositing two takeout coffees on Sage’s desk along with an aromatic paper bag.

Sage dove into the bag, inhaling the chocolate scent as if she’d been on a hunger strike. “Oh my God, that smells so good. I haven’t had one of these in weeks.”

Gabby peeled the lid back on her coffee. “Enough about the pastry. Tell me about Nick. And Wes. I know there were things you couldn’t say last night with him being right there and all.”

When they’d been dating, Sage had rarely held back with Wes. She told him everything she told Gabby. But things were different now. “Like I said, Nick’s a great kid. And he seems open to getting to know us better, which is a huge relief. I was afraid maybe he was just luring us out there to tell us he hated us for giving him up.”

“How was he with Wes?” Gabby took a sip of her coffee. “They hit it off?”

“To tell you the truth, I think there was a bit of hero worship going on there.” Sage had caught Nick hanging on Wes’s every word and knew Wes must have sensed it too, though he didn’t mention it.

“Can you blame him? Any kid would be proud to have a dad like that. Small-town boy makes it big? It’s a great story.”

“Wes wasn’t the only small-town boy who made it big.” They hadn’t talked much about Colt since he’d returned, and Sage wanted to know how her friend really felt about her ex living a stone’s throw away.

“No, he wasn’t,” Gabby said, taking her croissant out of the bag and setting it on a paper napkin. She popped a bite into her mouth. “I’m really proud of Colt too. I think what they’ve accomplished is fantastic. And coming back here to help the people in Vista Falls who’ve been having a tough time by employing all those people…” She smiled. “It’s like Christmas came early for those folks.”