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On other nights, he might have made his rounds and said hello, maybe put a quarter down on the pool table to call next game or play darts with Ol’ Ray, listening to stories from his time in the mines. But not this time. He made his way straight to the bar and took a seat.

“Hey, Dusty, can I get a whiskey?”

Her cautious expression didn’t miss him.

Great. The whole fucking town knows and is going to walk on eggshells.

She swept her box braids off her shoulder and placed a glass of whiskey in front of him. “How ya doin, Asher?”

“You know me. I can’t complain.”

Her expression softened.

Asher worried she was going to ask about Sunny, but to his relief, someone down the bar called her name, and she tended to them.

Asher picked up his glass and sipped.

The amber liquid warmed his throat . . . Yeah, getting properly wasted did seem like a good idea.

“Asher,” a sing-song voice said from behind him. Meredith approached and cozied up to him. “I’m so glad you made it.”

Part of him thought about getting drunk and going home with her like he’d done before . . . But those days were over the moment Sunny came back to the Hollow.

“Alright, next up. . . .” the DJ said.

Then the opening to John Denver “Sunshine On My Shoulder” started.

His entire body froze. He should have stayed home. This moment had to happen sooner or later, but that did very little to prepare him for it.

Then he heard it. He heard her. It was so disorienting. A physical urge to run to her and sweep her into his arms and make her promise to never leave again flooded him, but his head was still stormy with anger.

She had left him. She had left all of them. She knew what it would do to him.

He turned slowly, and the sight of her onstage almost took his breath away. She was there, in jeans, with holes in the knees, a rainbow midriff top, and her long blonde hair hanging down with two small braids pulled back.

She hadn’t changed a bit, but he had. Something in him had hardened the day she left.

He should’ve gotten up to walk away, but he sat there, staring.

As the song ended, he stood, threw cash onto the bar, and headed out. But before he could get out of there, their eyes met.

What existed between them was still there, that undeniable connection.

He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t pretend like her walking away from him, from all of them, didn’t break something deep inside of him.

He broke his gaze and stepped outside.

The moon was out, along with a bite of chill in the air.

The sound from the bar swelled as the door opened behind him.

“Asher, wait!”

Even though a big part of him wanted to ignore her and continue his walk to his truck, he stopped.

She froze in her tracks, and they just stood there, taking each other in, neither of them knowing what to say. The moment hung heavy in the air.

“Hi . . .” She evaluated him with her lip trapped between her teeth.