Mine to Take (Southern Weddings #5)(33)

“I’ll be back.” I walk over and kiss my mother and then my father. “And you get me the whole weekend.” His eyes light up.

“Until Sunday night?” he asks.

“No.” I shake my head. “Until Monday morning.”

I get into the truck with my grandfather, and I’m pulling up to my great-grandparents’ place in a matter of minutes. The whole family lives about five minutes from each other in every single direction. My grandfather owns most, if not all, of the land in town. He may be the biggest tech guy out there, but his heart is at the farm.

I get out of the truck and practically run toward my horse. My great-grandfather is standing there holding her reins. “Sunshine,” he calls me, and all I can do is smile at him. He wears the same thing as my grandfather but with his cowboy hat on his head. The only time he takes that thing off his head is to go to sleep.

“Grandpa Billy,” I say his name as I run to him, just like I did when I was a little girl. He gives me a hug with only one hand. He kisses my cheek. The horse sniffs me as I get closer to her and rub her neck. “Hi, Peaches,” I coo softly, “I missed you. I’m going to go change into my boots and come back.” I rush over to the area where everyone has a locker with their name on it. We are so many that we had to have three rooms. I open my locker, kicking off my sneakers and putting on my riding boots. Before walking out, I see the barn is empty, the horse is now outside. I make my way to my horse, which is right next to my grandfather Casey. He is on his black stallion as he holds the reins for my horse. I put my foot in the stirrup and swing my leg over. “Just like riding a bike.” I wink at him as he laughs.

We take off side by side slowly, and then when we are in the clear, we both push our horses. I put myself lower to pick up more speed. I don’t know how long we ride, but when he stops ahead of me, I slow my horse down as we make our way over to the creek for the horses to get some water.

“That felt good,” I say, getting off my horse and leading her to the water.

“What’s got your bees in a bonnet?” he asks and I just look down, kicking myself for thinking that I was covering up my shit.

“Nothing,” I say softly. The sound of birds chirping in the distance fills the quiet forest. “Just thinking of work,” I lie to him. He looks at me and I know he knows I’m lying, but he just lets it be. “Just working through something.”

He just nods at me. “You know I’m here, right?” he reminds me, and I can’t help the tear that escapes as I wipe it away. “Whatever it is you need, we are here.”

“I know,” I reply softly, and he drops it. We ride back, and instead of going back to my grandfather Billy’s barn, I ride over to my house.

My father is outside when I ride up. “I’ll take her back,” he offers when I hand him the reins. “Mom’s inside.” I walk up the back porch steps, taking off my boots before walking in. The smell of strawberry and lemon fills the house.

“Something smells amazing,” I say, walking into the massive kitchen my father has built for her, the basket of muffins on the counter.

“Don’t you touch that unless you wash your hands,” she scolds with her back to me, and I roll my eyes. “Then get your skinny ass on that stool so we can talk.”

I groan as I walk to the big stainless-steel sink, turning the water on, and washing my hands. I grab a strawberry muffin as soon as my hands are clean, sitting on the stool while my mother drizzles icing on her lemon cakes. “So talk,” she says, and I just look at her.

“I don’t know what to say,” I answer her honestly as my heart speeds up in my chest, and instead of enjoying the muffin, suddenly my stomach rises to my throat. I’ve been a fucking mess since he came into the office and told me the wedding was cancelled.

“How about you start with why you look like someone told you Santa wasn’t real?” she asks as she side-eyes me.

I look down, wondering how to say the next words but all words escape me. “I got my first client,” I say, and she looks over, smiling.

“Knew you would,” she states.

“It’s Matthew.” I say his name and her hand stops mid drizzle. “Yeah, that.”

“He’s getting married?” she asks in a whisper.

“No,” I reply. “Well, he was but the wedding is now cancelled.”

She puts the fork down. “What?”

“I don’t know, Mom,” I say, frustrated. “I don’t know anything. All I know is that I was fine. I was over him.”

She looks at me with her eyebrows going higher. “You were over him.” She picks up the way I phrased it past tense.

“I am over him,” I cover quickly, but then I put my hand on top of my head. “I thought I was.

“He’s been out of my life for the last two years.” I slap the island. “I didn’t even think about him except when it was the day of his birthday and our anniversary,” I admit for the first time ever. “But why, in just a couple of weeks, is he now consuming my thoughts all the time?” My voice goes louder and louder as I get more and more frustrated. “This whole thing is pissing me off because I’m not supposed to give a shit.”

“Maybe it’s because you didn’t get closure,” my mother suggests softly, and I tilt my head to the side. “Sending his stuff back to him with a guy who he always thought was into you isn’t closure.”