Page 53 of Heart Breaker

Something about that almost undoes me. Wes isn’t a man who seems naturally gentle. He’s controlled and steady and occasionally infuriating, but gentleness feels rarer somehow. Yet lately, with me, it keeps surfacing in all these quiet little ways. My throat tightens slightly around the emotion building there.

“So,” I say softly, desperate to break whatever this dangerously vulnerable thing between us is before I melt into a puddle on the floor, “is this the part where you finally tell me where you’re taking me tonight?”

One corner of his mouth lifts. “Nope.”

He pushes to his feet a second later, towering over me again while he unbuttons the cuffs of his shirt. “Get ready, Peach,” he says casually, tugging the loosened tie from around his neck free. “We need to leave soon.”

I huff at the nickname, shaking my head, but the truth is it hits me square in the chest every single time I hear it.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you call me Peach?”

The corner of his mouth lifts. “Because every time you’re near me, you smell like peaches.”

Warmth spreads deep in my chest.

“Do I at least get a hint where you’re taking me?”

Wes glances over his shoulder at me as he’s walking toward the door. “Just trust me, Peach. I think you’ll like it.”

TWENTY

Wes

I tap my thumb against the steering wheel as we pass through a familiar neighbourhood close to the freeway entrance. The streets are quieter here, lined with massive oak trees and houses tucked back from the road.

Lottie blinks over at me. “This is such a pretty area.”

Before I can think better of it, I nod toward the next intersection. “A few blocks down that way,” I say. “That’s where I grew up.”

Lottie turns in her seat, looking out the passenger window like she might somehow be able to see it from here. “What was it like?”

I glance briefly toward the street disappearing off to the right before looking back at the road. “Loud,” I admit, an uncomfortable knot twisting in my stomach as I think back to that time. “Four boys and one exhausted mom trying to keep us alive. Enough sporting gear in the garage that my parents had to park their cars in the driveway.”

Lottie laughs softly beside me. “Is your dad still there?”

My grip tightens against the steering wheel as I feel a familiar ache in my chest from the grief sitting inside of me. “Not anymore. He’s still in the treatment facility that Jesse got him into for his drinking after he was hit by a car last year.”

I can feel Lottie’s gaze shift to me. “Do you see him?”

“I haven’t had much to do with him for years,” I admit after a second. “Same with my brothers. Jesse’s the only one who never completely cut him out of his life.”

Lottie is quiet, giving me space to decide how much I want to say, which I’m grateful for. “I visited him in the hospital after the accident, and once in treatment. I’m just…” I exhale slowly. “I’m not ready for more than that yet.”

Silence settles briefly inside the car, but my thoughts carry on. Cutting my dad off wasn’t something I did impulsively. It wasn’t done out of anger so much as exhaustion. Things at home after my mom died were messy in ways I still don’t entirely know how to explain to people who didn’t live through it. The drinking got worse. The tension got worse. Everything felt unpredictable all the time, and after a while, being around him just started to feel too heavy. There’s a lot more to it than what I’ve told Lottie, but I don’t particularly want to unpack years of family dysfunction in the middle of our first date. Still, Lottie matters to me enough that I don’t want to shut her out completely either. So, I give her pieces of the truth, hoping that will be enough for tonight.

“Oh God,” Lottie murmurs. “That can’t be good.”

She nods toward the dash, where Victoria’s name is lighting up the screen.

A laugh slips quietly out of me as I hit the button on the steering wheel. “Hi Victoria. You’re on speaker with Lottie and me.”

“Well, hello to my favorite fake couple,” Victoria says brightly through the car speakers. “Lottie, my actress, thank you for publicly making out with your husband. The board is thrilled.”

Lottie laughs instantly beside me, and I have to bite back a wide grin. Apparently ten minutes alone in a car with Lottie is enough to wreck my ability to be chill.

“You’re welcome?” she says cautiously.

Victoria laughs. “The photos worked perfectly. The board relaxed immediately, the press bought every second of it, and now everyone thinks Wes Winters is hopelessly obsessed with his new wife.”