Page 127 of The Beekeeper

“But what if I’m not?” I asked roughly. “Because I sure as hell am going to make more mistakes.”

“So am I. So is Paisley. So is Harper. Does that mean we all aren’t good enough?”

I frowned.

“We all make mistakes, but it doesn’t make us less.” He reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “You’re always enough for the people who love you.”

“It’s going to take me a while to really believe that.”

“We’ve all got plenty of time to prove it to you.”

“Are you just trying to be right again?” I poked, needing a little levity right now.

Wade cocked a smile. “This time? Yeah, I definitely am.”

“In the meantime, I need your help finding Harper.”

“It’s about damn time.” The words rang out loud from behind him.

Wade angled, and I saw the source of the blunt truth: Frankie Collins stood in the hallway with her weight cocked on one hip, her arms folded over her chest, and the most ‘scolding schoolteacher’ look I’d ever seen on her face.

“She didn’t leave,” Frankie said. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that. She did leave, but she’s coming back.”

“Where did she go?”

Frankie lifted her chin. “Why should I tell you?”

“Frankie,” Lou chimed in, her tone warning her twin to take it easy. “It’s not a secret. You don’t need to torture him⁠—”

“No, but I do need to protect her,” her twin countered, still glaring at me.

“Frankie, Harper is an adult⁠—”

“It’s okay, Lou,” I interrupted. I didn’t need my sister-in-law to fight my battles for me. Especially not this one. “I want to know where she is because I need to tell her I made a mistake. I never should’ve ended things. Never should’ve left.” I swallowed and scanned every set of eyes in the room.

For a second, I flashed back to one morning on the farm when Pais explained to me how bees in the hive fight off any intruders. The sister bees swarm around the outsider and start buzzing, fluttering their wings so fast and generating so much heat, they’re able to kill an intruder by overheating them. That was what I felt now. Their buzzing. Their protective heat. Their fear that their queen was in danger.

“Please, Frankie. I need to tell her I love her.” As soon as the words were out, I felt the air shift around us. The buzz of warning subsided and the heat started to fade. I’d already told Pais that I was in love with Harper. I told her it was the reason I made the mistake of leaving. Because what I felt for her scared me.

Slowly, Frankie dragged her eyes from me to Lou and gave her a small nod. I watched Lou approach and reach for Paisley’s hand.

“Pais, why don’t you come with me to get some water and snacks in the kitchen while Frankie explains how you guys will get to Harper?” Almost blinded by the pursuit of our queen, she eagerly went with Lou into the kitchen, leaving me alone with Frankie and my brother.

“Frankie—”

“What about Aria?”

Aria?

I felt myself tip back, the question so startling. “What…about her?” I looked to my brother and then to Frankie, both of them seeming to know something that I didn’t.

Frankie pulled out her phone and that was all it took for my heart to sink—to know it wasn’t just real mistakes I had to correct, but now imaginary ones, too.

“This.”

She passed me her cell and my stomach turned at the photos filling the screen—pictures of Aria and me from the two times we’d met at the coffee shop in town, the first time when I’d put in the offer on the house, and the second time to sign the paperwork and get the keys.

“She sold me the house,” I said and handed her phone back to her. “Nothing more.”