Page 29 of Wrecked for Love (Buffaloberry Hill #1)
ELIA
A month had passed, and like a miracle, my Chili Pepper was still here, splitting her time between The Willow and The Lazy Moose. She had kept her promise to stay, and I could only thank the stars or whatever cosmic forces had aligned in my favor.
Naturally, word spread about us. Small towns are worse than a megaphone when it comes to rumors. But Claire and I kept things just mysterious enough to make people wonder. Besides, keeping a secret wasn’t exactly a skill in high demand out here.
Of course, my best man Logan knew. And Hank? Forget about hiding anything from him. I foolishly stuck to the story that Claire and I were still figuring things out, taking our time. But my foreman was practically the land’s oracle. If it happened, Hank knew about it yesterday.
Maybe that was the thing about sharing. It wasn’t just about what you told people but what they already saw in you. Never figured I’d see it that way, but letting people in didn’t just mean talking. It made you feel like you belonged.
And yet, not everyone was here to share it with me. Those I’d lost were beyond my reach, but there was one person who wasn’t lost entirely.
I reached for the old tin box of knickknacks.
Claire’s necklace was no longer inside. It was right where it should be instead, resting against her skin, a reminder that she had found her way back to me.
But among the forgotten odds and ends, a crumpled piece of paper remained.
A phone number I didn’t want to acknowledge yet couldn’t bring myself to throw away.
I’d gotten it from one of Noah’s friends, but I’d never worked up the nerve to call. What would I even say? I hadn’t wanted to intrude. Noah had left for a reason—not because of me, exactly, but because of The Lazy Moose, because of Buffaloberry Hill itself.
But now, with Claire here, something in me ached to reach out.
To tell him where life had taken me. To hear his voice and know where life had taken him.
Maybe I had never let myself admit just how much I missed him.
And maybe I had let him go too easily, without a fight, without asking the questions that might have made him stay.
When things settled, you started to realize the parts of yourself you’d buried were still there, waiting.
Noah had always been the kind of kid who made you want to protect him—too sweet for the world we’d grown up in.
Tessa had taken it upon herself to shield him from everything, though he’d always claimed we ganged up on him.
But he was never the resentful type. He had this way of grinning through it, rolling his eyes like he was in on some joke the rest of us weren’t.
If I told him about Claire, he would’ve given me the biggest hug—one of those tight, unashamed ones that made you feel like your happiness was real.
If only life had been kinder. Noah hadn’t deserved the weight of the Lucas family tragedy. His heart was too good for it.
Propelled by a need stronger than hesitation, I dialed.
A woman answered, throwing me off. My thoughts kicked into overdrive. His girlfriend? His wife?
“Hi, my name is Elia Lucas. May I speak to Noah, please?”
A pause. Then, “I’m sorry. You’ve got the wrong number.”
“Are you sure? Someone gave me this number and said it belonged to Noah Lucas. He’s my brother.”
“Oh…that might explain it. I just got this phone. They recycle numbers all the time. It’s annoying.”
“I see. Sorry to bother you, but…do you know who had it before you? Was his name Noah?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name.”
I wanted to press—ask which city she was in, get a little more. But she hung up.
Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. And I wasn’t about to play the part of a desperate stalker.
Noah had made himself unreachable, determined to forget his past. And if anyone could understand that, it was me.
Life went on. Ranch work waited, and broken tools were as common as town gossip. I needed bolts, a heavy-duty chain, and a new round-point shovel because, apparently, my old one had run off with my patience. So, off to Paul’s hardware shop, I went.
When I walked in, instead of Paul, I found his daughter, Annette, at the counter. She mostly stayed in the back, like Claire used to, so we never really talked much.
“Hey there, Annette. How’s it going?” I asked, giving her a nod.
“School treating you okay? You ready for winter break yet?” It wasn’t like me to chit-chat, especially with teenagers, but for some reason, I found myself genuinely curious about how she was doing.
Maybe it was Claire softening me up a bit, or maybe I just wanted to make the girl smile for once.
Annette blinked at me, her mouth slightly open as if I’d just asked her to solve a complex math problem.
Small talk wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse.
And apparently, she wasn’t used to it either.
Usually, I just grunted my way through the shop, grabbed what I needed, and was on my way.
But today? Maybe it was the fact that Claire had put me in such a good mood that I felt like I could strike up a conversation with a fence post.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure what answer I expected. All I knew was that I wasn’t just here for bolts and wrenches. I was enjoying the small-town rhythm for once, and that involved a little conversation with the folks who kept this place running.
But Annette was beyond saving. For a second, I thought she might’ve swallowed her tongue. Without a word, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the stockroom.
I shook my head and laughed to myself, figuring I’d wait a bit. But then, I heard her voice carry through the thin walls.
“Claire! He spoke to me!” Annette’s voice was a blend of excitement and disbelief.
“Who are you talking about?” Claire asked, poking her head out from behind a shelf, her silhouette barely visible.
“Your ‘uh-um,’” she said. I could almost see her winking. Then her voice dropped slightly. “Elia. What did you do to him? He looked…different.”
“Different? How?” Claire said.
“Geez! Don’t you get it? He spoke to me. Normally, he just shows up, snags his gear, and peaces out. Dad’s always tried to make small talk, but Elia never greets me like that.”
Claire chuckled. “Maybe it’s because you never gave him a chance.”
Annette huffed. “Give him a chance? Claire, you don’t understand. The man is like a brick wall. It’s like trying to get a smile out of a horse in a dentist’s chair.”
It took everything in me not to laugh out loud. Annette was something else. But truly, I hadn’t realized how much I’d changed until that moment. Right then, Paul came back to the counter, wiping his hands on a rag as he’d probably just wrestled with some dusty old tools.
“Morning, El,” Paul greeted with a nod. “Need more stuff to patch up that ranch of yours, huh?”
I grinned. “You know how it goes, Paul. Something’s always broken. If it ain’t the fence, it’s the tractor. If it ain’t the tractor, it’s the shack.”
Paul nodded repeatedly. “Well, at least the people ain’t broken…yet. Can’t have everything fallin’ apart on ya, right?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Yeah, one crisis at a time.”
Paul smirked. “You’re tellin’ me. Last week, I spent half a day tryin’ to fix a leaky roof. Turns out, I needed a new roof altogether. You’d think after owning this place for thirty years, I’d know how to patch a hole properly.”
“Sounds about right,” I replied. “Anything new come in? I need some extra bolts, and Hank’s been nagging me for a decent set of wrenches.”
Paul scratched his chin. “Wrenches, huh? Got a shipment in the other day. And if Hank’s nagging, you better get on that before he drives you nuts.”
Who would’ve thought small talk at a hardware store could be so…entertaining?
“How’s your stash of winter gear holding up?” Paul asked. “Might want to grab what you need before the snow sneaks up.”
“I think we’re good. Got the snowblower primed, the heaters lined up, and a mountain of wood pellets.”
“That’s good prep. Well, you know where I am if you need more salt or another snow shovel—open all winter long.”
Grinning, I grabbed what I needed, tossed it on the counter, and Paul rang me up. As he bagged the last item, he glanced at me.
“Heard about your Diesel incident the other day,” he said casually but with a knowing look.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Did you hear if anyone else around here has had fencing problems lately?”
Paul shook his head. “No, nothing like that. But I did hear the Vosses have been hanging around this side of town more than they should’ve lately.” Paul wasn’t as old as my dad, but they’d been friends back then. He knew all too well about the bad blood between the Lucases and the Vosses.
I scoffed, though the tension in my chest tightened a notch.
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” I muttered, my mind already shifting into overdrive.
I’d been doing everything I could to put distance between me and those bastards.
But now, I had to make sure they stayed well away—from me and especially from Claire.
After what that slimefuck Armand had done to Tessa, I wasn’t about to let him—or any of them—get close to anyone I cared about. Not again. Not Claire.