Page 10 of Curve Balls and Second Chances (Pickwick Pirate Queens #1)
CHAPTER TEN
A cen stood behind the garage, pacing a slow trench into the gravel with the heel of his boots.
The June sun was already stretching its fingers across the sky, hot and unrelenting even this early in the morning.
The air smelled like oil, sun-warmed metal, and the faint sweetness of honeysuckle drifting from the hedges along the edge of the lot.
Crickets chirped lazily in the high grass near the fence line, and somewhere down the road, a dog barked at nothing.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, then yanked them back out, frustrated.
He couldn't get the image out of his head— Rose , laughing in that way she did when she was truly at ease. Rose , looking at him — that man , Declan , the way she used to look at Acen —like he was the only one in the room. Like she hadn’t been burned before.
He swallowed hard and kicked a loose rock, sending it skittering across the gravel. Dust rose in a lazy puff and drifted away. He’d told himself he was done. That he’d said what he needed to say, offered his apology like a grown man should, and left the rest in her hands.
But watching her ease into someone else’s orbit like it was the most natural thing in the world? That he couldn’t stomach.
He paced back the other way, jaw tight.
Around the corner came Riley , rag slung over one shoulder, grease smudged on the edge of his shirt. His boots crunched in the gravel as he approached, his face unreadable except for the glint in his eyes that said he’d seen more than Acen wanted him to.
“Don’t you have some real estate to sell instead of piddling around here with some old car?”
Riley stopped a few feet away, planted his feet, and crossed his arms. “ So . You gonna keep brooding back here like some kind of tragic country song, or you actually gonna do something?”
Acen didn’t answer. He just stared at the sun-drenched horizon past the tree line, jaw clenched tight enough to ache.
Riley tilted his head. “ You should’ve told her the truth back then.”
Acen finally turned to look at him, eyes narrowed. “ What good would that have done? It wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Maybe not,” Riley said evenly. “ But it would’ve mattered. To her. Hell , it would've mattered to me . You left us all in the dark.”
Acen blew out a slow breath. “ I didn’t know how. Everything was a mess. I figured the cleanest thing I could do was walk away.”
“Well, congratulations,” Riley said, spreading his hands. “ You did just that. Clean break and all. And now she’s out there having dinner with Mr . Perfect Hair last night while you’re stomping holes out here in gravel this morning.”
The sound of a lawnmower fired up in the distance, and a blue jay squawked noisily from the edge of the roof before taking off across the open lot. The sun beat down heavier now, casting harsh shadows across the edge of the garage and making the asphalt out front shimmer like a stovetop.
Acen scrubbed his hand down his face. “ It wasn’t just Briana . It was everything. My folks. My plans. Me not being good enough.”
“You’re telling me that now ?” Riley shook his head, incredulous. “ Man , if you’d said that to Rose twenty years ago, she might’ve understood. She might’ve even fought for you.”
Acen looked away, shame simmering low in his chest. “ She deserved better.”
“Maybe. But she wanted you , back then. And all she got was silence.” He crossed his arms. “ And I was too much of a coward to call you out on it all these years. I wanted to keep your friendship more than I wanted the truth for my sister. I’m no saint myself.”
A heavy pause settled between them, thick as the Tennessee humidity. The kind of silence that said neither of them really had the words to patch old wounds. Not completely.
Finally, Riley stepped closer, lowering his voice. “ You think Rose is the kind of woman you can wait on forever? She’s been standin’ on her own two feet for two decades. Built a life. Built a business . Built a damn softball team. All without you.”
“I know.”
“If you want her back, you’re gonna have to give her something real this time. Not half-truths and long looks from across the room.”
Acen stared down at the gravel, where his boots had worn a shallow groove. “ I don’t even know if she wants me.”
“Well,” Riley said, clapping a hand on his shoulder, “there’s one sure way to find out.”
Acen didn’t move.
Riley stepped back and gestured toward the lot, where the clatter of tools and voices floated from the open garage bay. “ Better do it soon, brother. Before that shiny new boy with the button-down charm makes her forget you ever existed.”
A truck rumbled by on the main road, radio blaring something twangy about second chances and broken hearts.
Acen barely heard it. His mind was full of Rose —how she’d looked in the golden light outside The Silver Catfish , hair falling loose around her shoulders.
The way her eyes had softened when she laughed with Declan . How easy it looked.
Too easy.
He wasn’t ready to give up. Not yet.
But easy? No . Nothing about Rose had ever been easy. And she was worth every damn mile of the uphill road.
He looked up, toward the tree line and the distant shimmer of the lake. Somewhere in that direction was a woman who used to know his every fault—and loved him anyway, for a while.
Maybe it wasn’t too late.
He straightened his shoulders and took a breath. Gravel crunched as he turned toward the front of the garage, boots scuffing the edge of his self-made path.
“Where you going?” Riley called after him.
Acen glanced back over his shoulder, something new in his eyes. “ I’ve got a plan.”
And just like that, he was gone—striding out from behind the garage into the heat and light of the morning, a man finally ready to tell the whole truth. Even if it meant standing in front of the fire.
Because when it came to Rose McAllister , half-measures just didn’t cut it anymore.