Page 19 of Curve Balls and Second Chances (Pickwick Pirate Queens #1)
CHAPTER NINETEEN
T he night had settled thick and heavy over Pickwick Bend , the kind of June air that clung like a second skin.
Rose sat on the porch swing with a glass of sweet tea sweating in her hand, bare feet propped on the railing.
The cicadas were carrying on like they had gossip of their own.
They’d been relentless this summer. And the faint glimmer of the lake showed between the pines down the hill.
A lightning bug flickered past, a soft glow in the dark, and for just a second she thought about being ten years old again, barefoot in the grass catching fireflies with Riley until their mama hollered them in.
Now she was thirty-eight, and fireflies didn’t answer the questions in her chest.
The screen door creaked open. Riley stepped out, a glass of tea in his hand, his ball cap pushed back like he’d given up on taming his hair. He’d come home with her after the big win to spend time with her and the team and ended up staying the night.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked.
“Couldn’t hear myself think with you pacing the kitchen half the night. When it got quiet I had to come investigate,” he said, settling into the rocking chair beside her. “ Figured if you’re keeping the whole house awake, might as well see what’s got your wheels turning.”
Rose shot him a look. “ Nosy much?”
“Twin perk,” he said with a lazy grin, rocking back. “ I can smell your trouble from a mile off. So … which flavor of headache tonight? Briana , Acen , or new boy Declan ?”
Rose groaned and sank lower into the swing. “ All of the above.”
“That bad, huh?”
She swirled the ice in her glass, watching it melt. “ Briana showed up at practice and then at the game like she owned the place. Smiled that poison smile at Acen and tried to undo the last twenty years in five minutes. Then she turned the charm on Declan . What a witch.”
Riley snorted. “ Yep . Heard all about it at the office. Nothing like a real estate agency for getting the best gossip. People in and out all day long.” He stretched. “ Sounds like Briana . Never could resist stirring a pot she had no business touching.”
“She still looks… perfect,” Rose admitted begrudgingly. “ Not a wrinkle, not a hair out of place. And Acen —” She broke off, shaking her head. “ Acen didn’t flinch. Just … stood there. Like she was a memory he’d already put in a box.”
“And you?” Riley asked softly.
Rose chewed her bottom lip. “ I don’t know. I thought I’d be furious. Maybe a little smug if she looked worse for wear. But all I felt was… tired. Like I’ve been carrying the weight of her betrayal around, and I finally set it down. Only now I don’t know what to do with empty hands.”
Riley tipped his glass toward her. “ That’s something, Rosie . Means you’re moving on, even if you don’t know which direction yet.”
She gave a hollow laugh. “ Yeah , except moving on apparently means letting a new man waltz in and share my cinnamon roll in front of half the town. And , of course, Acen saw it.”
Riley choked on his tea. “ Declan ? Lord have mercy, sis, you are really feeding the gossip mill around here lately.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Rose protested, but her cheeks heated anyway. “ He just sat down. Took a bite. But the way Acen looked at me…” She shivered, remembering. “ Like I’d let him walk into a gunfight without warning him.”
Riley studied her a long moment. “ So which way’s your heart leaning? Toward the man who broke it, or the man who hasn’t had the chance yet?”
Rose stared out at the trees, the cicadas buzzing louder. “ That’s the problem. One feels like home - even with all the cracks and ghosts. The other feels… easy. And I don’t trust easy.”
Riley rocked slowly, the creak of wood steady between them. “ Maybe it isn’t about easy or hard. Maybe it’s about who shows up when the mess hits. Because life in Pickwick Bend isn’t ever gonna be neat, sis. You just need the one who’ll sit on this porch with you after the dust settles.”
She blinked back sudden tears, throat tight. “ When’d you get so wise?”
He smirked. “ About the same time you started complicating your love life.”
Rose nudged his chair with her foot, laughing through the ache. “ You’re impossible.”
“Yep. But you’ll figure it out. You always do.”
For a while, they sat in silence, the night wrapping around them, both of them listening to the rhythm of the crickets and the lake. Rose didn’t have her answers yet. But at least, with Riley sitting there, she didn’t feel like she had to find them alone.
But the silence didn’t stay comfortable for long. Rose could still feel the knot in her stomach, the tug-of-war between past and future, Acen’s storm-colored eyes and Declan’s easy smile. She set her tea down on the porch rail and rubbed her palms against her thighs.
“You ever wonder,” she asked finally, “what our lives would’ve looked like if Briana had never come between me and Acen ? If I’d had the chance to see what it might’ve been without all the lies?”
Riley rocked slow, thoughtful. “ All the time. Not just for you, but for him too. He loved you, Rose . That was plain. Still might. But life’s full of detours. Some folks get back on the same road. Some don’t.”
Rose’s throat closed up. “ I see him now, and part of me still aches. But another part just… doesn’t trust him. Like even if he’s here now, what’s to stop him from running again?”
“Only way to know is to let him prove it.” Riley took a sip of his tea. “ Declan , though… he’s not carrying that history. Doesn’t mean he won’t make his own mistakes, but at least you’d be starting on level ground.”
Rose bit her lip. “ He makes me laugh, Riley . It’s been a long time since someone made me laugh just for the sake of it.”
Her brother smiled softly. “ Then maybe don’t throw that out just yet. Lord knows, laughter’s harder to come by than good catfish around here.”
Rose thought about the way Declan had leaned in at the coffee shop, bold enough to swipe the icing off her cinnamon roll with his thumb. About the way Acen’s jaw had tightened when he saw it.
The porch swing creaked as she shifted. “ I just don’t want to be the talk of the town again. Not like before. Not because of them.”
Riley gave a low laugh. “ Sis , you could bake a pie wrong in this town, and it’d be the talk for a week. You think dating drama’s gonna stay quiet? No chance. The question is - are you gonna let gossip decide your life?”
Rose let his words settle. The truth was, she didn’t know if she was strong enough to separate her heart from Pickwick Bend’s watchful eyes.
But as the night pressed in and the fireflies blinked along the yard, she knew one thing for certain: both men, Acen with his steady weight of history, and Declan with his bright new possibilities, were already tangled up in her future.
And Briana ? Briana wasn’t finished yet. Rose could feel it, the way you could smell rain before it fell.