Page 30 of Small Town, Big Storm

“I think I’ve already waited long enough, don’t you?”he says just as softly, calling back the earlier words that had me letting him into the bar in the first place.

Had me letting him in even though I’m nowhere near ready to talk about this.

Nowhere near ready to let him into my life again.

To let him into Holly’s.

Even though—with the last, at least—I don’t have any right to exclude him.

And, God, that pisses me off.

Seven years.Sevenfuckingyears I’ve done this alone, and he just marches back into town and?—

I clench my teeth together, take a breath.“Storm,” I begin.

“You stole seven years from me, Poppy,” he grits out.“Don’t even try to keep me out.”

Keep him out?

Keep himout?

I lose my hold on my temper.“You were gone!”I snap back.“I tried to call you when I found out I was pregnant.Tried to reach out to you through Rain and the team you were playing with.Hell, I even tracked down and called and emailed your agent multiple times.”I shove a hand through my ponytail.“And when that didn’t work, I even went to your freaking dad.”I laugh coldly.“You can imagine where that got me.”

Storm’s expression darkens.

“Exactly,” I mutter.

“You should have?—”

“What?”I throw my hands up.“Please tell me what the fuck I was supposed to do.Tell me how the great Storm Harrison would have fixed this.”

He looks away, jaw flexing.

But he doesn’t have a good answer for that.

Probably because there aren’t any.

“You were gone for seven years, Storm.Without a word, without a return visit.I”—I slam my fist to my chest—“Iwas the one who carried her, who nursed her, who lost sleep and changed diapers and figured out how to handle her three-nager temper tantrums.I’ve potty trained and kissed boo-boos and done homework that makes my head spin because common core is the devil, and I’ve done most of it alone.”

That’s not entirely fair.

Uncle Sully helped me.

But he wasn’t the diaper change and kissing boo-boo type.

Andhishead definitely would have spun while navigating common core if he’d been alive to see Holly bring home worksheets littered with it.

Storm is still for a long moment.

Long enough for the edges of my temper to soften.

Long enough for me to see the regret sitting heavy on his soul.

“I didn’t want that for you.”His eyes close, chest inflating and deflating on a sigh.“And I never would have wanted that for Holly.”

My heart convulses, tears clogging the back of my throat.“I know,” I whisper.

It’s why I tried so hard to find him.