Page 5 of Hometown Hottie

“I’m just struggling to get my head wrapped around this.” He squinted at us. “You worked your butts off for years to get scholarships, to go to college, get drafted, rise up in the league, and now you’re just home?”

“You worked your ass off too.” Vance shrugged. “Yet, you turned it down before we even got to college.”

“Sure, but that’s just it. I never got the taste of the bright lights and big cities. Don’t get me wrong. I’m damn glad you guys are back. I guess I just don’t really understand it.”

“There ain’t no place like home, Ry,” I said honestly. “You just have to be gone long enough for that truth to really sink in.”

“It hits you in the nuts like a sack of bricks.” Vance brought his glass to his lips and took a long sip of his beer. “How have things been around here?”

Ryan chuckled, shrugging as he took a look around. “Much the same as always, boys. There have been a few new developments, but nothing major. Where are you staying now that you’re home?”

“I’m with my Mom,” I said. “I want to build my own place eventually, and in the meantime, I wanted to rent a townhouse while I searched for a property, but Momma wasn’t having it.”

Ryan grinned. “Good old Momma Drake. Let me guess, she told you that over her dead body were you paying to stay someplace else when she has a perfectly good house⁠—”

“Just standing there, mostly empty,” I finished for him, chortling. “Exactly, yeah. Vance is at his parents’ too.”

“Yeah, but the difference is that I’ve already gone to look at a few places to live. The other benefit about moving back here is that we’ll get way more bang for our buck. The old Granger place is on the market to buy for less than I paid for rent in a year back in New York. That big house on two acres of land with everything on it, and it costs a fraction of a fucking penthouse. It’s ridiculous.”

Ryan rocked his head from side to side, a flicker of something darker in his eyes as he nodded. “That’s great, man. The old Granger place is awesome.”

“It’s probably going to get condemned,” Vance joked. “If I buy it, I might as well build my own house because I’m going to have to do a lot of work, but I don’t know. I guess we’ll see how it goes.”

“How about you?” I asked Ryan. “How’s your family?”

While I didn’t specifically mention Nova, I was hoping he would bring her up. Sitting across from him now, looking into the big blue eyes he shared with his sister, I couldn’t not think about her. A pang of something shot through me, but it was gone too soon to identify what it had been.

“Same old, same old,” Ryan said unhelpfully. “My parents are still on the ranch. Dad still thinks that time stopped moving forward somewhere in the nineties and Mom still makes that mean chicken casserole if you guys are interested in coming for dinner sometime.”

“You still staying there?” Vance asked while I kept waiting for Ryan to mention the only member of his family he hadn’t brought up so far.

My friend nodded. “We converted the old barn into a shop and apartment for me.”

Since he was still silent on the subject, I reluctantly put it out there. “How’s Nova?”

God, I had such a thing for that girl back in the day. Ryan had shut it down pretty quickly, though. He even pursed his lips at me now. “She’s fine.”

Leaving it at that, he questioned Vance about what kind of work the Granger place would need and offered to help him patch it up if he decided to buy it. I took the time to wonder about what had happened to Nova Murphy.

She’d had the potential to be the great love of that part of my life, and I still wasn’t happy about the way things had ended with her. Not that I’d spent the last decade longing for her and obsessing over what might have been.

In fact, I’d gone the opposite way for a long time, but shit. Here I was, with her brother right across the table from me, talking about their ranch and their family. It was only natural to be thinking about her.

Wasn’t it?

I hadn’t seen her since before I’d even been drafted. While I had been home as often as I could make it to visit my mom, I’d never been in town for any extended periods of time and I’d never gone out enough to accidentally bump into the one who got away.

I was sure she’d long since moved on. She was probably married with a few kids by now, and the beer went sour in my mouth at the thought, so I banished it. Enough. We’re catching up with Ryan, not reliving the past right now.

Still, it looked like Nova Murphy wasn’t done haunting me just yet.

When I walked into my mother’s house later that afternoon, she was unpacking a beautiful box of pastries, humming under her breath when I joined her in the kitchen.

“How did it go with Ryan?” she asked, picking up the box and presenting me with a multitude of mouthwatering treats.

I swiped one as I nodded at her. The delicious flavor exploded in my mouth. I groaned and reached for another. “It was good, yeah. Where’d you get these from? They’re amazing.”

“Aren’t they?” She smiled. “Nova Murphy opened a bakery a few years ago and it’s the best in town. Ryan didn’t tell you?”

I shook my head. “Must’ve slipped his mind.”

“Well, it’s been years. I’m sure you boys had a lot to catch up on.” She gave me an indulgent smile when I reached for yet another pastry, leaving the box in front of me when I sat down at the breakfast bar.

“So, Nova has a bakery now, huh? That’s cool. Where’s it at?”

“Red Stone Ranch.” Mom gave me a weird look. “Did Ryan really not tell you about any of this?”

“Nope,” I said around a mouthful of fluffy, buttery pastry. “What is there to tell?”

“Not much, really. I just thought he’d have wanted to brag a little bit about his baby sister. She’s been working so hard, trying to help out her parents. She’s really stretched herself thin since she moved back after college, but she still volunteers at the library a few times a week to read to the kids. A real angel, that girl. I’d have thought her brother would be more proud of her.”

“I’m sure he is.”

I changed the subject after that, but Nova lingered on my mind long after I went to bed, tossing and turning as I thought about those big blue eyes and her long, dark blonde hair.

Once upon a time, I’d felt things for her that I hadn’t felt before or since, and while I hadn’t come back here for her, I wondered if I should pop in at this bakery tomorrow. See what all the fuss was about and maybe, just maybe, get to catch a glimpse of what my life might’ve been like if things had gone differently.