Divided Interests (Southern Bride 3)

I placed my hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you, Milo. I’m going to go change.”

Thirty minutes later, I walked into Chuck’s Place. I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face when I saw Lucas. He sat at the bar, staring at a glass of beer. My heart hammered in my chest, and I had to focus on keeping my breathing even. He was so handsome. Even in this dark bar, he stood out. He always had. There had always been something so different about Lucas Foster. From the first moment we met, I knew my life would never be the same, even at such a young age. What started out as friendship didn’t take long to morph into something more.

I slid onto the bar stool next to him and flashed a smile at Chuck.

“Well, if it isn’t Paige Miller. I heard you were back in town.”

“I see you are, too.”

He nodded. “This town is my home. What can I do for you?”

After a quick glance at Lucas, who was staring at me, I focused back on Chuck. “Maybe a water with lemon?”

He winked. “Coming up.”

“What are you doing here?” Lucas asked. He wasn’t drunk; I could tell. But something was for sure weighing heavy on his mind.

“Milo told me you were here.”

He rolled his eyes and let out a grunt before taking a long drink of his beer.

“Want to talk about it?” I asked, bumping his shoulder with mine.

Lucas looked directly into my eyes. “You know I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you, Paige. Even when I was with her, all I could see or think about was you. All I could do was curse myself for walking away from you.”

“Why did you stand me up for dinner?” I asked, giving a quick nod to Chuck when he placed my water in front of me. “If you still loved me, Lucas, why would you hurt me again? Why would you stay in a relationship with another woman? Why travel with her and do all the things I wanted to do, but with her?”

His eyes glassed over, and he took another drink of his beer.

“Because I’m an asshole. That’s why your brother is right, Paige. I don’t deserve you. You deserve someone who is going to treat you like you are a princess. No, a fucking queen, because you are.”

With a laugh, I shook my head. “I don’t know about queen, but I’ll take princess.”

Lucas stared down at his beer. “I know Granddad was ashamed of me.”

“He was not,” I countered.

“He was. Look at the lengths he went to just to bring us together. I don’t know if he wanted us to get back together, but I’m positive he wanted me to man up and tell you I’m sorry for what I did. For how I treated you. I wish I could go back in time. I’d do so many things differently.”

It broke my heart to hear the hurt and regret in his voice. “He loved you very much.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, he did, and I let her come between me and family. Even right up until the very end.”

He grew quiet, and I let him be in his own thoughts for a moment or two.

“Lucas, can I ask you a question?”

Turning his whole body, Lucas looked at me. “Of course, you can. I don’t want there to be anything unsaid between us anymore.”

I chewed on my lip for a quick moment, then asked, “If you were so unhappy with her, why did you stay as long as you did? Why did you allow her to put a rift between you and your family?”

His eyes turned sad. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Maybe because I was afraid of failing again, even though I knew it was never going to work out. She was a distraction from everything that reminded me of you. And Johnson City reminded me of you. Maybe deep down it was me avoiding home and all the ghosts of memories that I’d be forced to face, and I used her as an excuse.”

“And one day you woke up and decided you were done?”

He laughed. “Nah, I decided I was done a long time ago. But seeing you, that day on the front porch of Granddad’s house, of the house we once dreamed about owning, knowing that we both held a piece of it, I knew the charade was over. It wasn’t fair to Bianca, and it wasn’t fair to me. Truth be told, I knew on the plane ride back that I was going to end things. She caused me to miss my granddad’s fucking funeral. I just didn’t want to deal with it until after coming home and all of that.”

I nodded. “If William hadn’t left me the house, would you have sold it?”