Midlife Do Over

“All right, Pip. I’m going. For now.”

I nodded because there was nothing else to say.

He stopped at the gate in the fence and turned to me, a sad, slightly disappointed look on his face. “For what it’s worth, Pip, I did think of asking you. Thought long and hard about it for a few weeks, but I didn’t want you to give up your dreams for me. We both deserved to go after our dreams, sweetheart.”

I wanted to believe him, but I couldn’t. I just did not believe him. “Bull. There are still colleges in Nashville to this day. Memphis too. I wouldn’t have had to give up my dreams, I could have chased them right alongside you. The truth that it took me a long time to see, is that you couldn’t wait to be rid of me so you could be free to bang your way through Nashville, which I’m sure you did. So, congratulations.” Just thinking of how easily, how quickly he walked away when I’d been planning for our future, stung. My eyes burned with unshed tears and I rushed inside and slammed the door.

He didn’t get it and he never would. I had to face those facts all over again and that had me questioning my decision to return to Carson Creek.

Chapter 17

Ryan

Pippa was giving me the cold shoulder, but it was the real cold shoulder, not that passive aggressive thing women did where they want you to know that they were ignoring you on purpose. No, she was polite and civil whenever we spoke, she answered my questions when absolutely necessary, but only about the restaurant. It was annoying, and worse, my anger started to get the best of me.

“Is there anything else you need, Mr. Gregory?”

I sucked in a breath at her words and my nostrils flared. My pulse sped up as fury roared through my veins. “I’ve been buried deep inside you and you’re still addressing me like we’re strangers?”

Pippa, for her part, gave a defiant nod, her expression bewildered like I was the one out of line. “Sex is an intimate act, but that doesn’t make us not strangers Ryan.”

“Crazy damn woman,” I grumbled and walked out of the manager’s office inside Dark Horse. I felt the curious stares of employees on me. But I ignored them all and stepped out into the Tennessee sunshine to jump in to my truck. I needed to talk to someone, and I had just the person in mind.

I found a parking spot just off Main Street and walked the block and a half to the Carson Creek Daily Journal offices where my sister spent her days. I stopped at the reception desk to make sure Lacey was in, but her loud, amused laughter caught my attention before the words left my mouth.

I frowned at her all too amused expression. “And just what the hell is so funny?”

“You,” she pointed and gasped with laughter. “Another fight with Pippa?”

“Is it that obvious?”

Lacey shrugged. “Only because I’ve seen that expression many, many times. Want to talk about it?”

I nodded and she motioned for me to follow her into her office that used to be our dad’s for decades before he finally retired. Sort of retired, anyway. I dropped down in the comfortable leather chair with a sigh. “I just can’t win with that woman.”

“Maybe stop trying to win and start being honest about what you really want.”

“I can’t,” I growled, still angry that Pippa had reverted back to her perfect imitation of a robot. “I thought I’d see her again and it would be weird for a minute, and then we’d become some sort of friends and go on about our lives. But that didn’t happen, dammit. She still does it for me Lacey.” Which I could live with if she didn’t hate my guts.

Lacey nodded, her lips curled into a small, sympathetic smile. “What you need to do, dear brother, is make up for the past and do it properly. Once you do that, show her that you want her outside of the bedroom too.”

I frowned across the big desk that had been there for as long as I could remember. “Who said anything about the bedroom?”

“Oh come on, Ry. I remember you two the first time around, as soon as you started getting naked together you couldn’t get enough of each other. You skipped over the apology part and went straight to the sex, and she probably thinks that’s all you wanted.”

I nodded at her accurate assessment of Pippa’s perspective. “How in the hell am I supposed to make up for the past? I can’t apologize because that would mean saying I did something wrong, and I didn’t.”

Lacey rolled her eyes and let out a low, almost frustrated groan. “Pippa was always your biggest fan, Ry. I highly doubt she’s upset that you left, more like that you left without her.”