Maybe he should go into town. Try to see her one more time before he left and tell her…nothing. There was nothing he could say to make this any better. The phone beeped, ready to take his message.
“Hi, it’s Mitch. I’m leaving today and…I know I said I wouldn’t call or text, but it doesn’t feel right to not at least say goodbye, so…” He couldn’t find the words he wanted to say. That he could say, without making everything so much harder.
I wish I could find a way to make this work.
I’ll miss you.
I think I might be in love with you.
“So, anyway…goodbye, Paige.” He hit the end button and jerked his arm back to hurl the phone across the yard before common sense kicked in and he tucked it back in his pocket.
It was over. Nothing left to do but say goodbye to Josh and Rosie, then hit the road. He’d already stopped in at the police station to say goodbye to Drew, who was burying himself in work to take his mind off the end of his marriage.
“Stay off the ladders,” he told Josh when he and Rose came out to see him off.
“You worry about blowing shit up. Leave everything else to me.” They hugged, Mitch slapping Josh’s back and thankful to have his youngest brother back.
Then it was Rosie’s turn. As expected, she was weepy and didn’t want to let him go. “Don’t be gone three years this time.”
“I won’t.” Though he’d end up like Ryan, sticking close to the lodge and avoiding town because the memories sucked.
He let her fuss over him for a few more minutes, then he straddled the bike and fired the engine. They stood and waved as he went down the drive and he beeped the horn before he left the Northern Star Lodge behind him and headed into the heart of Whitford.
Mitch let the Harley roll to a stop at the intersection, then stood there, balancing the machine between his legs. Straight ahead lay the open road and New York City. Northern Star Demolition. Suitcases waiting to be packed for the next job.
To the left was the municipal parking lot, which was small, but plenty big enough for him to turn the bike around and point it back in the direction of the diner.
He could convince Paige to leave Whitford with him. She cared about him—maybe even loved him—and if he told her he wanted her to be a part of his life, she might leave the diner and her little trailer behind. But it would be his life they’d be living from then on.
Just make sure you both want the same thing in life, because it hurts like hell when you find out years into it that you don’t. The words Drew had said to him his first morning back in town echoed through his mind.
To Mitch, what Paige had was a job and a place to sleep. But to Paige, the diner and her trailer—and Whitford itself—were a dream she’d put her heart and soul into making come true.
A car Mitch hadn’t heard pull up behind him honked and he got the motorcycle rolling. Straight through the intersection and out of town.
Chapter Nineteen
There were worse things than people speculating on whether or not you were sleeping with a much-beloved hometown boy. The pitying glances were worse. The whispering behind hands was worse. The occasional pat on the hand. The often repeated refrain of it’s his loss. In the week since he’d left, she’d had to put up with it everywhere she went, even—or especially—at work.
Mitch Kowalski had broken Paige Sullivan’s heart and all of Whitford knew it.
Or thought they knew it, she fumed as she walked down the street with her library tote. Her heart wasn’t broken. Badly dented maybe, but not broken. For goodness’ sake, they were all acting like he’d jilted her at the altar.
Unfortunately, it was a hot and humid day and the tote was heavy since she’d gotten more books than usual—mostly thrillers and no romances—so she detoured into the park to rest for a few minutes. Of course, as soon as her butt met the bench she was hit by the memory of the day Mitch had sat down next to her and she’d thought he might kiss her.
So maybe her heart had a few cracks to go with the dents. And it certainly hadn’t helped when Josh and Andy showed up for breakfast that morning. With the blue eyes and the voice that was so similar to his brother’s, she found it painful to wait on Josh and, to make it worse, she could tell he realized that possibility too late. She’d put on her best smile, though, because she didn’t want Josh to feel awkward about eating at the diner. Or Ryan, who’d be spending some time in Whitford in the near future.
She’d been sitting there about five minutes, trying not to think about Mitch, when her cell phone rang. When she saw her mother’s name come up on the screen, she almost didn’t answer it. She really didn’t have the energy today. But it had been a while since they’d talked, so she answered it. “Hello.”
“You’ll never guess where I’m calling you from!”
Some kind of mental and/or emotional rehab center? “Where?”
“Costa Rica! Steven and I arrived this morning and it was such a whirlwind trip I didn’t have time to call you until now.”