Page 73 of Hometown Hottie

35

NOVA

The sun had set and I still hadn’t heard from Carson. On edge, I sat on my front steps and stared into the distance, but there still wasn’t so much as a puff of dust that let me know there was a car on its way up. I sighed, dragged my fingers through my loose hair, and inhaled deeply before I got up.

Sitting around waiting for a man wasn’t quite my style. Not even if I had severely offended that man and owed him a serious apology.

He’d told me to be here when he arrived, but it was starting to look less and less likely that he was even coming, and I’d never done well listening to instructions anyway. Finally making my decision, I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and got up, heading in the direction of Ryan’s to talk to him.

I didn’t know where Carson had gone after he’d left the library, and the not knowing was starting to drive me a little bit crazy. Considering he’d been pretty pissed when he’d left, I was just hoping he hadn’t mouthed off about it to my brother and that I hadn’t unwittingly derailed their friendship in the process.

Feeling like I was walking a tight rope, I knocked on Ryan’s door before pushing it open to find him working in his shop in the converted barn he lived in. He looked up and shut off the table saw he’d been working with. “Hey, Nova. What’s up?”

Well, at least he didn’t seem pissed at me. “Nothing much. I just wanted to come check in with you. Any news about the ranch today?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t seen Mom or Dad. You?”

“Nope. Mom was heading to town the last time I saw her this morning and I think she said that Dad was with the hogs.”

“So he’s burying his head in the sand again.” Ryan groaned. “Damn it. I really thought he was done with that.”

“I don’t think that’s what he’s doing,” I said carefully. Ryan sent me a questioning frown. “Dad was ready to accept Carson’s offer from Frank, even if Carson hadn’t actually made an offer. That means he’s come around to the idea of selling a piece of the property. We were the ones who kicked up a big stink about it. I think he’s waiting for us to tell him whether to go ahead.”

“Maybe.” Ryan cocked a hip against his work bench and folded his arms, but his expression was soft as he looked at me. “I talked to Carson about it over the weekend and he’s serious about buying a part of the property. We made a deal to keep Frank out of it.”

“That sounds good.” I shifted on my feet, unease sweeping through me. I forced myself to keep looking directly at him instead of averting my gaze. “So, uh, you spoke to Carson about it over the weekend, but you didn’t talk to him again today?”

“No. Why?” He frowned. “You think he’s changed his mind?”

I shrugged. “It’s always possible. You know how he is, always going from one thing to the next.”

“What?” His frown deepened. He gave his head a quick shake and blinked hard before frowning at me some more. “No. I don’t know that about him. I might not be happy about him having to bail us out, but I trust him, Nova. He’s also the only option we’ve got if we want to keep the ranch. Why does it suddenly sound like you’re not so sure?”

“It’s not that,” I said tentatively. “It’s just, do you think he’s really going to do it?”

Ryan nodded. “I’m not sure who you were talking about when you said he’s always going from one thing to the next, but that’s not the Carson I know. He set his sights on football when he was five years old and he took it all the way. When he makes up his mind about something, he doesn’t waver and he doesn’t go on to the next thing, Nova. He never has.”

My heart thrummed in my chest. “Are you sure about that? Like you said, he is our only option if we want to keep the ranch. What if we make him angry and he decides against helping us?”

“It won’t happen. He’s not that guy, and I thought you knew that. He’s the guy who can be so pissed that he can’t see straight and he’ll still do whatever it is he said he was going to do. Why are we talking about this? Did you piss him off?”

I blinked innocently. “No, I’m, uh, I was just wondering if you’d heard from him.”

“I haven’t, but it’s not like I speak to him every day.” Ryan took a closer look at me, his features knitting before he blew out a heavy breath. “What are you not telling me, Nova?”

“Nothing,” I lied, but it wasn’t easy.

Ryan knew Carson better than most and I was dying to talk to him about the conversation we’d had earlier and get his take on it. But given that he was the one who’d insisted Carson wouldn’t settle down with a small town baker in the first place, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all. I was just torn about what to do, and my brother had always been a good sounding board.

Sure, these days, we definitely weren’t as close as we used to be, but he’d always been there for me, and that hadn’t changed. I needed him to be there for me now, and knowing that he wouldn’t support me on this hurt.

He wouldn’t support me if I decided to break down the walls I’d put up to keep Carson out. They were new walls, and breaking them down wouldn’t be particularly difficult, but despite everything Cassidy had said, I still didn’t know if I could get Ryan out of the way.

Those two sides of me were still at the war, the younger sister who respected her brother and didn’t want to hurt him, and the woman who knew he shouldn’t be so involved in her love life.

After a lifetime of being protected by him and trusting him implicitly, it went against the grain of my being to ignore his feelings about this—if there still was a this. I didn’t know if Carson had finally given up on me after what had happened today.

My brother leveled a puzzled look at me. “Are you okay? You seem a little off tonight.”