Sweet as Honey (Aster Valley 2)

I closed my eyes and took a breath. The familiar warmth of Truman’s body pressed against my back, and I saw his hands on the front of my shirt, holding on to me. I covered one of his hands with mine. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Call me as soon as you know something.”

“Your phone wasn’t picking up,” she said, the accusation bitter in her voice.

“It will now, unless it’s turned off on the plane.”

“Okay. But… hurry, Sam. We need you.”

I ended the call and pulled out my own phone to make sure I’d hear it when she called again. Sure enough, there were several missed calls.

“I have to go,” I told Tiller and Mikey before turning to Truman. “I’m sorry.”

He looked up at me, suddenly a little hesitant the way he was when I’d first met him. “Do you want… I mean… what can I do to help?”

“Just look out for yourself, okay? Ask Tiller and Mikey for help if you need it.”

Truman looked suddenly annoyed. “I’m talking about you. You shouldn’t have to go down there to deal with a family emergency by yourself.”

I saw Mikey press his hand to his chest out of the corner of my eye. He was such a fucking romantic.

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

“I’ll go,” Mikey said. “I agree with Truman. You shouldn’t be alone.”

I nodded at him and turned to pack my things, trying hard not to feel swamped with guilt over not being there for my family. Whether I liked it or not, I was the steady one, the strong one, the one they all relied on to carry us through hard times.

And I wasn’t there.

Truman followed me back to the bedroom. An awkward silence fell between us until he finally broke it.

“Are you coming back?” Then he quickly added, “Never mind. I’m sorry for that. You shouldn’t have to even spare a thought for—”

I grabbed him and kissed him hard on the mouth, trying my best to punish those lips for ever uttering a single word that implied I wouldn’t rush back here to him as soon as I was able. Because there was one thing I was quickly figuring out.

Despite not being relationship material, I was having surprisingly strong feelings about attempting a relationship with this particular man.

How was it possible I could go from knowing with complete clarity I didn’t want or need a man in my life that way to obsessing over this near stranger? I’d never ached for comfort and companionship the way I ached for more time with Truman Sweet. The timing was awful. The last thing I needed right now was another person to care about, and the last thing he needed was someone else acting like they had a say in his life.

I stepped back from the kiss and bit back the words that were threatening to spill out of my mouth.

Truman’s hands clutched my shirt in fistfuls of fabric that caught some of my chest hair in his grip with a sharp sting. I didn’t care. I wanted to feel the pain along with the pleasure, to imprint every sensory detail of his touch onto my brain to carry with me back to Texas.

I could no longer hold back what I wanted to say.

“Be strong,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Be fierce. Don’t let anyone fuck with you, okay? If you don’t feel safe at the farm, you come here and stay with Tiller.”

Truman’s eyes were huge behind his glasses. “You think I’m not safe?”

I cupped his face in my hands. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I do know that someone deliberately burned down the shop and someone left you that threatening note. So you might want to either sleep with a baseball bat under your pillow or consider staying somewhere else.”

I was trying so hard not to boss him around. He needed to follow his own gut, but fuck if it wasn’t hard to keep from insisting.

“Maybe I could stay with Chaya,” he said.

I nodded. “Perfect. She’s scary as shit.”

That surprised a laugh out of him, but he didn’t disagree. I kissed him again. “And call me or text me to tell me how it’s going. You won’t be interrupting me. You’ll be putting my mind at ease.”

His face softened into a shy smile. “You too?”

I nodded. “Promise.” And then kissed him again until Mikey called out for me to get a move on.

Before boarding the plane in Denver, I tried calling Sophie, but there was no answer. Mikey did his best to distract me, but my mind went to horrible places, imagining the worst.

When we finally landed in Houston, I realized I didn’t even know what hospital to go to. I tried Sophie’s phone again, and this time she picked up.

“What hospital?”

“What?”

“Soph, I’m here. What hospital do I need to come to?” There was a beat of silence, and my stomach dropped. “Sophie, is she okay? Is she…?”