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"Yeah, I will, but I let her go, and she moved on"

She frowned "Why did you break up with her? That’s a mystery no one has ever understood"

"It’s co anyone that Not Hannah Not a fucking soul

She nodded as if she understood, when I knew she didn’t, couldn’t and wouldn’t "Okay, Asher, I get it But when you’re tired of seeing her with your brother and you’re ready to et me I can wait"

"If that day ever coht a s her smile I didn’t want to think I’d been the one to take her ever-present so with you for moral support As a fellow e Hannah with ain, it could’ve s even more aard, too I shook et over and deal withbut thank you for asking, Hannah"

She shrugged her shoulders "Okay, good luck, then"

"Thanks" Best thing I could have hoped for was for Dixie not to be home Then I could unload, talk to Luke about work, and leave as quickly as possible

Loading the truck didn’t takeI was on the road and headed to the Monroe’s in about twenty ht have felt a false sense of security But that was all it would’ve been No matter as there, I had to face theh And if Dixie was there, then I’d have to talk to her Talk to her like irlfriend Accept what I said and what had to be, knowing she lovedthat my heart wasn’t the only one I broke If there had been a way to save Steel in all this, I would’ve done it, but I didn’t see any other way to escape the truth

Pulling the truck onto the dirt road that ran beside Luke’s big barn, I saw only his truck sitting there Relieved by that, I parked and ju soone in no time at all

"I can help you unload that, Asher" Dixie’s sweet, southern drawl stopped me inshit

Dixie Monroe

I’D HEARD DADDY on the phone placing his order from Watson’s Feed and Seed He didn’t know that Asher was likely to be delivering the order for them I did I kneould be hio on and eat with her, that I’d go out to the barn in case the delivery cah, he seemed fine with that I expected it to be harder He trusted ood fathers were

Asher’s back was still tothere I was relieved Hannah Watson didn’t climb from the truck I wasn’t sure what my plan would have been if she’d been there with hi to hi Even if he’d said it was over between us, I wanted to hear his voice again See if it was truly over between us

"Dad’s eating lunch," I said, hoping he’d look at uilty The last two days had been hard on hih on all of the a hard ti your daddy left you out here to take this delivery froht not have known you worked for Denver"