Feisty Red (Three Chicks Brewery 2)

He nodded, and seeing that he didn’t feel the need to hide anything, he added, “Among other things.”

Elizabeth remained stone-faced. She uncrossed her legs then crossed them again, regarding Sullivan intently. “Just so I have all the facts: you’ve reunited with the woman you say you left behind, only to find out you have a son you didn’t know about. This is a lot for anyone, Sullivan. How are you feeling about all this?”

Good. Amazing. Happy. But considering the tension on Elizabeth’s face, he figured that was the wrong answer. “How should I be feeling about this?” he asked.

She responded with a soft smile. “That’s not for me to answer, Sullivan.”

His chest squeezed. He tried to sort through all he felt, but it seemed impossible. He looked to her window, where a tree danced in the wind. “I’m not sure I need to feel anything. It is what it is. We can only move forward now, and everyone seems happy.”

“Interesting perspective,” Elizabeth said.

Sullivan’s gaze snapped to her, his chest heating under the firmness in her eyes. “But you think it’s wrong?”

“No perspective is wrong,” Elizabeth countered gently. “But I would ask you: how is that perspective working for you in your life?”

His lips parted to say everything was fine and things were good, but he shut his mouth tight. For nearly seven years, he’d been running from his choice to leave River Rock behind. He’d taken women to his bed to forget the one woman who held his heart. Now he was back, and while he felt like he and Clara were healing, he still had a lot to face. “I’d say that perhaps my perspective needs some tweaking.”

Elizabeth gave a gentle nod. “If I could offer you some advice, I would say this: you need to go back, Sullivan, revisit the pivotal moments that shaped your life up until this point and face them. Not only for yourself, but for your son.” And for the mother of your child, she didn’t say aloud, but he heard anyway. She set her paper down on the table. “You’re with me because something in your life isn’t working and it’s leading you on a path that’s hurting you. But to work on that, you need to face the things that put you on this path in the first place. There are no shortcuts.”

He glanced away to the window again, swallowing hard. “I can’t face the reason I left River Rock. Both of them are dead.”

“Here on Earth,” she said so softly, drawing Sullivan’s gaze again. She placed a hand on her chest. “But not here.” She tapped her chest once more. “Here, they are never dead.”

Sullivan felt the ground shake beneath him. He rose, moved to the window, and stared out, wishing he could get in a big gulp of fresh air. “So, what are you suggesting here? I go and chat it out with my parents in the cemetery?”

“If that would help, then, yes,” Elizabeth said, matter-of-factly from behind him. “I’m not here to give you the answers, Sullivan. I’m here to help guide you. Your life is yours. The time we’ve had together is all we’ve got. Have you done everything you came here to do?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “And what if I haven’t?”

Her smile became all too knowing. “Then, you owe it to yourself to find peace. If you feel you’ve got what you needed out of our sessions then great, but—”

“You think I haven’t?”

Again, she gave a polite smile. “I think you’ve shown up. But you’re edgy. I can see you’re looking for peace, Sullivan, and to find that, you need to put in the work. You need to face things you don’t want to face. And ask hard questions.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What questions?”

“Why did you run from a woman you obviously loved? Why has it taken you seven years to come home?” She hesitated like she knew those questions were like knives to Sullivan’s gut. “Go back to the place where you hit a dead end and your life forked in a new direction. See what you find there.”

Sullivan looked back out the window, watching the leaves flickering on the branches. He knew exactly where he needed to go to find that fork in his life. The one place he hadn’t been since he was twenty-one years old.

Home.

The gloomy, rainy morning had come and gone, and Clara had finished up lunch and put her dirty dishes in the dishwasher when there was a knock at the door. With Amelia busy in the brewery, Clara hurried to answer, expecting a delivery. However, when she opened the door, she found Sullivan, looking…different. There was a stillness about him that she’d never seen before as rain battered the ground. “Is everything okay?” she asked, opening the door wider.

He gave a small nod. “I know you’re working, but could you take some time away and come with me somewhere?”

She glanced at her watch. 12:32. “I’ve got an hour or so before I’ve got a meeting scheduled with our lawyer to finalize the contracts.”

“I’ll get you back before it starts,” he promised.

Lost in the tense set of his eyes, she recognized that dark pain. “Should I be worried?”

“No, I’m all right,” he said, twining his warm fingers with hers, holding strong. “Truly. I just want you with me.”

Her heart flipped, overexposing all the soft spots to him, and she went with him without further thought. Curious, but letting him think through whatever was on his mind, she stayed silent next to him on the drive as the windshield wipers worked to clear the sheet of rain off the windshield. Until she realized he was heading to the one place she thought he’d never go: his childhood home. The light blue two-story house with the simple perennial gardens. “Have you been by here yet?” she asked, wondering why he’d come here.

He shook his head, put the truck in park, and turned it off, emotion filling his eyes.