Page 16 of Starting Over with You (Beer League Belles #2)

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

Kenni

I’m still queasy as I walk toward the police department. After making sure the kids I hired to clean Dean’s truck did a good job, I put his freshly cleaned hat on the dash and made my getaway without anyone seeing me.

Thank God for Google and my precious niece, or none of that would have happened.

As I make my way through town, I’m hit with a wave of nostalgia I wasn’t ready for.

This is my home, my safe space. The hot Tennessee air may be suffocating me, but for the first time in nineteen years, I can breathe.

The little town of Thistlebrook is stunning all year-round.

The mountains are an incredible backdrop, and the smell of cedar and pine adds to the ambiance.

So much has changed, but so much is still the same.

There are more businesses—new clothing stores, and we have a candy shop now.

Noelle’s is bustling with customers, and there is a line out the door of the outdoors shop.

Tourists are out in droves for our trails.

As I take a turn off Main Street, I take in the breathtaking steel structure that is the Ice Thistle.

I have a meeting with Jett and Fable Cook tomorrow to pitch my services.

Missy and Sadie have gotten me all kinds of interviews with folks wanting my services.

It’s exciting, for sure. I’ve hit the ground running, which is the only way I know how to do things.

I am a doer, a get-shit-done kind of gal, and I’m going to do that here.

I am going to make the best life imaginable.

I never should have left, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have the boys.

When I walk into the police station, my dad’s longtime assistant, Tammy, squeals when her green eyes fall on me.

My grin takes up my whole face as we embrace and hug each other tightly.

There was many a day when Tammy kept Missy and me when Dad was working late.

She would make us food and get us gifts for holidays.

She’s always been in our lives, and being in her arms has me all in my feelings.

I hug her tightly as I murmur, “I have missed these hugs.”

She squeezes me tightly. “Me too, my sweet girl. How are you?”

“I’m good,” I lie. I feel like shit, and I’ve come home with my tail between my legs after a failed marriage. But hey, I got puke out of a cowboy hat. “Doing big things.”

“Always,” she gushes, cupping my cheeks. “You’re stunning, Kenleigh. Always been the prettiest girl in Thistlebrook.”

My face warms from the praise as I wave her off. “Me? Look at you! I’m pretty sure you haven’t aged since I left.”

She taps my nose. “Sweetest girl, I know.”

“Sweet girls don’t go to the Thirsty Pine and get shit-faced without seeing their daddy first.”

I cringe at my dad’s booming voice. I knew he was going to give me a hard time for going to the bar instead of heading to his house for dinner. “I had to hear from my deputy that my daughters were dancing on a bar.”

I slowly turn to face my dad with a grimace on my face.

Willie Colburn has always been a big man.

He’s built like a rugby player and tall as all hell.

His hair is stark white now, as is his long beard that he braids down the front of his chest. He’s been growing that thing since I was a baby.

He has five beads in it, one each for Missy and me, then our kids.

I meet his pale-blue eyes, and I sigh deeply when he opens his arms to me.

I go right into them, wrapping myself around him as he does the same.

I haven’t seen him in over a year, so this hug is needed.

He kisses my temple, then the top of my head. “How you holding up?”

“Like a champ.”

He kisses me again and then presses his hand into my back. “Tammy, love, hold my calls.”

“Yes, Sheriff.”

She sends me a sweet smile before Dad guides me into his office.

It’s the same as it was when I was a teenager, decorated in leather and dark browns.

He has a wall full of photos of Missy and me from when we were younger, some even with Sadie in them, and then he’s got a bunch with him and his grandkids.

He tries hard, and even if his best isn’t quite good enough, I still love my dad fiercely.

I sit down across from him and grin when he hands me a Coke in a glass bottle and a bag of Doritos.

He winks. “Girl, you’ve been in this town not even twenty-four hours and already threw up all over Dean Moore’s truck?”

I look away sheepishly. “I had it cleaned.”

“That was his granddaddy’s hat you ruined.”

“I cleaned it too. It’s perfectly fine!”

He laughs, shaking his head. “You three gonna give me trouble again?”

I bring in my brows. “Did we stop and I didn’t know?”

He lets out a booming laugh, leaning back in his chair. “Fine, fine. The boys settled?”

“Yeah,” I say with a sigh. “They got there last night, settled in, and skated this morning with some of the guys they met at one of the camps they went to. The coach wants them to run a peewee camp with him. It raises money for the program.”

Dad smiles proudly. “Fantastic. I’m proud of those boys. ”

“Me too,” I say, emotion clogging my throat.

Dad looks me over, then narrows his gaze. “Tell me the truth. How’re you doing?”

I shrug, tracing the Coke logo with my nail. “It all doesn’t seem real, really.”

He nods slowly. “He called me.”

My face burns as I scrunch it up. “For what?”

“Asked me to talk some sense into you, to not do this when y’all only have a year left.” I just blink as I hold his stern gaze. “I told him to fuck off. That loving you right was supposed to be more important than that money.”

I press my lips together, our gazes locked. “You know?”

He scoffs, giving me a look. “Kenleigh, come on. Your sister has the biggest mouth on the mountain.”

I grin at that, looking back down at my bottle. I feel like I’m ten once again after stealing all his Reese’s and then lying that I didn’t take them. “Are you mad?”

“At you? Never. I don’t know how you stayed with him without killing him.”

“The boys.”

“I figured,” he says softly. “Of course, I wanted more for you and Missy. I didn’t want y’all to have failed relationships or a child out of wedlock. But at the end of the day, I don’t give a shit about any of it as long as my girls are happy.”

I meet his gaze, surprised by his statement. “I didn’t intend to have a failed relationship.”

He cocks a brow at me. “You got knocked up by a guy who didn’t see your worth, only what was between your legs.”

I grimace. “Wow. Thanks, Dad.”

He shrugs. “It was bound to happen. I’m just glad you screwed him over in the end.”

“My dad taught me well,” I throw back, waggling my brows.

Another booming laugh leaves him. “Child, don’t lie. That’s all your sister and Sadie. Petty, the lot of you.” I snicker as he continues to laugh, and then I sink my teeth into my lip as I meet his gaze. “You’re gonna be just fine, Kenleigh. You know that, right?”

I hold his gaze for a long time as I let his proclamation sink in. I came home with the hope that I would be just that. And while it’s still early, I know I want nothing more.

To be all right. Or better.

Be happy.

“I know, Daddy,” I whisper, and he gives me a nod.

“That’s my girl,” he says with a wink. “Now, do me a favor and stop terrorizing Dean Moore.”

I laugh at that. “What? I never?—”

“Kenleigh, I was told you jumped him like a deranged flying squirrel, then made him dance before you puked in his hat.” I can’t even keep my laughter in. “How long are you going to harass that boy until he does the smart thing and ignores you lot?”

I know the answer, but I don’t say it.

Dean is the one constant in our lives, and God, how I missed him over the last nineteen years.

I give my dad a conspiratorial look. “Who told you all that? Was it your deputy?”

Dad snorts. “You leave my deputy out of this.”

I glare. “You tell your deputy he’s married to my bestie, and he’s supposed to be on my side.”

“That boy has no clue who he married,” Dad says with a laugh. “And God help him, he’s about to learn the hard way.”

We have a good laugh about that, because he isn’t wrong. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna help Matt out and not tell his wife about his big mouth.