Page 67 of Second Chance Saloon

“You must talk to her quite a lot if you know all this,” she whispered. Her heart slammed against her ribcage.

Lyla, the best friend she’d ever had, not only got married but had a baby. And she wasn’t there for any of it. She’d wasted ten years of her life, missed milestones for people she loved …

Her heart cracked, exposing the fissure through its middle, with Mitch’s name etched there.

“Losing you brought us closer,” Mitch whispered.

A single tear fell into Jackie’s lap. “I’m glad you’ve had each other.”

Her clunky heart skipped a beat.

She didn’t notice Mitch’s hand moving, didn’t see it until she felt it just above her bare knee. Her skin rippled with goosebumps, his touch burning through her flesh.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you cry.” He didn’t squeeze her thigh, but he didn’t move to withdraw his hand either. “Sometimes, these things come out. They’re part of me, you know? I didn’t think.”

Jackie licked salt from her lips and straightened her back against the car seat.

His fingers twitched, inching higher up. “I hate to see you this sad.”

She sucked at the air. “Any sadness is of my own making. We both know that.”

She’d lost the only man she’d ever loved; she’d lost her best friend, and for what? It was all her fault. All her stupid, stupid idea of protecting them from hypothetical hurt. If she had a chance to turn back time, would she have done the same? Left without a proper goodbye, running from country to country, and away from her feelings and demons, neither of which had ever stayed far behind?

Without thinking, acting on some ancient instinct, she took one hand off the wheel and put it over Mitch’s.

He twined his fingers with hers, turning their joined hands palms-up. “Every storm runs out of rain, eventually. You shouldn’t let that sadness tell you what to do now.” He smoothed her skin with his thumb.

For a moment, all the outside world didn’t exist. Jackie had forgotten that Mitch should’ve been married now. She’d forgotten all the tears, all the pain, all the heartache. She’d forgotten the lonely nights when she watched the moon from wherever she was in the world, wondering if he was looking at the same moon elsewhere. She’d forgotten every other guy she’d been with, every time she’d let Mitch’s name slip off her tongue when she’d been with someone else.

In this single heartbeat, amid the charged silence broken only by the running engine as they moved closer to their destination, she was tempted to tell him everything. Or better yet, stop the car, angle her face to him and let her ravenous lips connect with his.

Knowing how good, how right, it’d feel didn’t help matters.

Then, the second was gone. Her lungs refilled with air, reason kicked back in, and she toed the gas pedal, swallowing the desire for something she had no right to crave.

“Jackie …” Mitch said and the mere sound of her name on his lips raised the hairs on her arms.

She groaned, energy sapping from her body. “This is such a bad idea.”

“You keep saying it, but I don’t understand why.”

Her heart throbbed as her brain flashed “caution” signs in bold red font.

Because I’m not strong enough to resist whatever pull you still have on me. Because I’m scared I’m going to fall for you all over again and my heart won’t recover this time. Because I don’t want to hurt you again.

She blinked, struggling to string together the words she wanted to say.

“Because you’ve been here less than a week, and I feel like I haven’t slept a wink. I can’t function with you nearby.”

Mitch opened his mouth, but Jackie continued, the feelings and confusion that had been brewing in her heart and mind since his arrival finally bubbling to the surface. “I thought I got over you. But it seems it was a lie.” She shook her head, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

A muscle in his jaw spasmed. “Jackie …” The low timbre of his voice filled the Jeep, signaling both desperate need and exasperation. He opened his mouth, drew in a breath and closed it, like he needed some extra air to process what he wanted to say. “Let’s not go there. I … I can’t go there with you, not unless you’re willing to go there with me too.”

He turned his head to look at her and the deep sorrow in his eyes punched a hole in her heart. It was so dense, so visceral, that she wanted to reach out to his face and melt that pain away, somehow.

Her lips tingled at the mere thought of kissing the sadness away, like she used to do when they were together. Always the right eyelid first, then the left one.

Jackie had no clue how she managed to notice the sign for their turn. Tires groaned against the dirt as they went off the paved road.