emotion, or both.
“Jeez, Nora, be careful!” Her brother steadied her against him and then stepped carefully to the side. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied, clutching her throbbing hip bone and staring at the proprietor of the machine shop. Todd Williams? How was this possible? He was staring back, but not in shock. Instead, he looked wary. Probably thought she’d smack him with her weed whacker. She’d certainly dreamed of smacking him plenty of times since the day he’d dumped her.
She’d know that face under the faded John Deere cap anywhere. The high cheekbones, the green eyes, the sandy hair, the wide mouth. Her college boyfriend. The guy who’d broken her heart into a million pieces nine years ago. Pieces she’d never been able to put back together in quite the same way.
Case in point. Right now she was a mess, while Todd seemed pretty calm. After all this time, it was still easier to be the dumper than the dumped.
Todd looked at Wade. “Afternoon.”
“Afternoon,” Wade returned the greeting. “I’m Wade Hoffman. Are you the owner of this shop?”
“I am,” Todd answered. He paused for a fraction of a second then gave his name. “Todd Williams.”
Nora felt suddenly nauseous, as if some part of her had been hoping that she’d been mistaken. Though she knew that was impossible.
“Good to meet you,” Wade said. “This is my sister, Nora. We’re hoping to get some work done on a bunch of equipment.”
“Hey, Todd.” She tried to make the words sound casual but instead there was an awkward squeak in her voice. Her face felt hot.
She saw him swallow once before he answered. “Hey, Nora.” His expression was guarded, his jaw tense.
Nora forced herself to keep her gaze steady. She waited for him to say more, the silence growing awkward in its length. Finally he broke it. “Long time, no see.”
“Wait, you know him?” Wade turned to look at Nora in surprise.
“We went to college together.” Todd stepped forward with his hand out. “Good to see you again.”
It wasn’t good to see him and the last thing she wanted to do was shake his hand. But no other option came to mind, so Nora set down one of her weed whackers and held her hand out. Glancing down, she realized she was still wearing her filthy leather glove. “Hang on,” she muttered, setting down the other tool to pull off her gloves, cursing this awful situation.
She’d wondered, over the years, what it would be like if she ever saw Todd again. In her imagination she’d always been well dressed, made-up, calm and in control. She’d pictured regret in his eyes when he looked at her and finally realized what he’d given up.
In reality, she must look pathetic. Sweaty, streaked in grease, staggering into her brother, in possession of stolen property. There certainly wasn’t any regret to be seen in Todd’s expression. Just discomfort while he waited with his hand out, and she wrestled with her glove, which was inexplicably stuck on her knuckles.
Finally her hand was free and he took it in his own. She should have left the glove on, because the touch of his skin brought it all back in an instant—how much she’d loved holding hands with him, how right it had felt to be linked together like that. All the years between them evaporated in his warm grip. Then his hand was gone and she was back in the present, standing in a machine shop with a stolen weed whacker on either side of her.
“What are you doing here?” She tried to sound as if she barely cared what his answer would be, but her words came out too abruptly. Wade glanced her way and she saw one of his eyebrows go up. For an instance she regretted how close she was with her brother. Nothing about this bizarre situation would get by him.
“Working.” He stated the obvious and left her feeling stupid.
“In Benson?” His presence here made no sense. It was as if she’d found a tropical plant growing out among all the high desert scrub.
“I came out here to do some environmental work a few years ago. I fell in love with the area. The work dried up, but I stayed.”
“I never knew you could fix things.” She should stop interrogating him, but how? She had so many questions.
He looked down for a minute, finally seeming as uncomfortable as she was. “Well, I learned an awful lot about how machines work in my...” He seemed to search for his words. “In my environmental career.”
“Huh.” Brilliant comeback, Nora. She tried to think of what to say next, but her mind lit on random details instead. The slight curl in his hair where it lay against his neck. The unique green-gold color of his eyes.
In college she’d loved the feeling that she could lose herself in those eyes like she might lose herself in a forest, walking from patches of dark green to sunlight. But then he’d left. And she’d still been lost. It had taken years to find herself again.
He broke the awkward silence. “So is this where you grew up?”
She listened, in between his stumbling words, for the regret she’d always wished he’d feel. Then she caught herself and stopped. Whatever he was feeling didn’t matter. They were ancient history and she needed to pull herself together.
But it was unfathomable. Todd Williams was a machine repair guy in Benson? The information ricocheted around her brain, disorienting her. “Yes. I...” She glanced at Wade, “I mean, we grew up on a ranch just outside town. Marker Ranch. It’s been empty for years. Wade is fixing it up again. I’m just helping him out for a while.”
“So you don’t live here. I mean, permanently.”
He seemed relieved. That stung. Nora willed a carefree note into her voice. “Nope. My work usually keeps me moving every few months.”
“Great.” Todd shifted uncomfortably and looked out into the parking lot, probably hoping some other customer would show up and rescue him.
There was another pause, and then Wade came to their rescue. “So where do you live—in town?”
“Actually I’ve got some land south of town.” Todd smiled and the enthusiasm in his expression made something inside Nora’s heart hurt. “I love it out there. I spend a lot of time working with horses, hiking, fishing and snowboarding come winter.”
“This area’s amazing for all of that. Do you fish?”
“Hell, yeah!”
Nora listened in disbelief as her brother and her ex started talking about the various local streams, the best trout and the best flies to catch them at this time of year. It all seemed so surreal that Nora stealthily reached down and pinched herself on her leg. It hurt, so, yes, this was really happening.
She stole a glance at Todd. He seemed taller, though that was hardly possible. Maybe it was the bulk on his frame now. He’d been slim in college, and he still didn’t seem to have an ounce of fat on him, but his thighs and arms were thick with muscle, his chest broad and his shoulders square. His face was different, as well. New lines were etched where there had previously been none. Smile lines crinkled around his eyes, and a faint furrow formed between his brows.
He’d worn his hair long in college, almost shoulder length. Now it was cropped pretty short, though still visibly shaggy and sun-bleached an inch or two below his ball cap in the back. It was eerie to see the ghost of the boy she’d known so well underneath the man—the stranger—he was now.
He glanced her way and caught her staring. So what? She had the right to stare after all these years. The last time she’d seen him, he’d dropped by her house on the way to the airport, his backpack slung over his shoulder, bulging with the supplies he was taking to the Amazon. He’d been off to save the rain forest, excited for his trip. She’d been miserable, so sad to say goodbye.
And now here he was. Laughing and ingratiating