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On the road that she wanted to use.

“Levi... I...”

“Do you see what you’re asking me? You’re not just asking me to give you access to my land again, which feels like giving blood, it really does. You’re asking me to let strangers drive up here. This is my home. And my family. And those are my parents. And this is sacred ground. And you think that I’m just being an asshole, and I’m not.” The words were heavy. It was all heavy. “And you... You’re a Sullivan. And it was your dad who talked me into giving up my fields, and when I say he took advantage of me...so much money, Quinn. He took so much money from us by drawing up an unfair deal and making sure I didn’t...that I didn’t know.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, horror mounting inside. “Maybe there’s a way... I’m sorry. I should just go. I...I should just go.”

Her dad had taken money from him. It wasn’t just a deal gone sour. It was theft.

From them.

And she had the nerve to ask him to help her, to help them, like he owed them.

He didn’t.

They owed him.

She got back in the truck, her heart pounding hard, so hard it was all she could hear. Staring at her own selfishness, her own inability to really understand that this man wasn’t simply being hardheaded for the sake of it, but that there was an emotional reason behind it and she hadn’t even asked, or bothered to dig deep enough, or really considered him as a human, and not just an obstacle, long enough to think that that might be the case.

No, there was something else. Something that made her feel like crying, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. He got into the car and didn’t say anything, and they drove back toward his house.

“I’m going to go home,” she said.

“You don’t have to leave...”

But she got out of the truck, and she went straight for her car. And he stood there leaning against the truck, watching her get in and pull out.

And then... For a reason she couldn’t quite understand, she did start to cry.

She just felt...bad.

She was so persistent. So insistent. So certain that she was smart, smarter than him. He was right—that was the thing. She had been so sure that she could come in and wow him with her knowledge. And she had never once considered him as a whole person.

She had started to. Talking to his sister, seeing the way that he viewed the land, those things made her feel like he was a whole person, but she still hadn’t...

She just felt terrible.

She felt like her old self. That girl who had gone around fighting people whenever they made her angry. That girl who hadn’t thought of anybody but herself. Who had never considered other people when she was acting out.

And she had nearly gotten herself pulverized, punched in the face by a boy, because she had picked a fight with the wrong guy, and, you know, she had deserved it. She really felt like she did.

But it wasn’t the punch to the face that had started her realizing she had to change.

It was nearly losing what she wanted to her temper.

It had changed her.

Except had it? Because she was still running around looking for an outlet for her emotions. Because she was still acting like she was right and everybody else was wrong.

Was that what had driven her dad?

She’d never considered that she could be like her dad. Because she was here and he was gone.

Because he hadn’t even liked her.

But how was she different?

She’d worried only recently she might be like her mom but...