Secret Confessions: Down & Dusty – Brooke by Eden Summers

Episode 4—Brooke
    ‘Howdy, neighbour.’
    Brooke Keating froze, her hand on the staircase banister, her heart in her throat. She’d recognise that masculine drawl anywhere, no matter how many years it’d been since the last time her body ignited at the tone. Raising her chin, she turned in her dusty, sock-covered feet and met the stare of the man dwarfing her family homestead living room.
    Hot damn. The visual orgasm knocked the air from her lungs, and instinctively she took a step back. Like a fine wine, Heath Curtis had improved with age. In her younger years, she wouldn’t have thought it possible. But those green eyes seemed increasingly potent. His frame larger and more dominant. His chiselled jaw extra appealing with the light brown stubble shadowing his skin.
    ‘Heath.’ She measured her tone, severing the excitement in her veins from the emotion in her voice. ‘I didn’t know you were coming home.’
    He winced, punching her through the chest with the realisation he must’ve returned to Milpinyani Springs a while ago.
    ‘Yeah, little one. Last month.’ He ran a hand through the loose inches of his blond hair. ‘Your brothers and I are finally getting around to sharing a drink together.’
    Last month. Ouch.
    ‘That’s nice,’ she said through gritted teeth. Yes, he’d been best friends with her brothers, Rowan and Connor, but he’d been her sweetheart. Her lover. Her everything. Obviously, their teenage fling didn’t count for much. ‘Well … it was nice to see you,’ she lied. Her mind was awash with fear and optimism at the mere sight of him. Nice didn’t come close. ‘I guess I’ll see you around.’
    She turned on her toes, preparing to flee.
    ‘You’re not going to share a drink with me?’
    Friday nights were reserved for alcoholic beverages and relaxed shenanigans around the bonfire in the backyard. Not tonight through. The solace of an intoxicated buzz didn’t seem a great companion if it meant fake-grinning through awkward conversation with a man she’d once adored.
    ‘I’m dirty. Dusty ,’ she clarified, hating the sexual images that stirred to life. ‘I’m going to take a shower. I might see you later.’ Or never again, if she was fortunate.
    It had taken years to get over him. To stop seeing his gorgeous grin smiling back at her from her dreams. To cease feeling his touch with the kiss of the warm night breeze. In an instant, those emotions came flooding back, assailing her with long-forgotten sensations she hadn’t been able to replicate in his absence.
    It wasn’t fair. Especially when he’d gone to university without a care in the world that she was left behind, pining for him. ‘A long-distance relationship will never work,’ he’d told her the day he announced his departure to study Agricultural Sciences in the city.
    ‘It could. I can come see you once a month. And you’ll travel home during the holidays,’ she protested.
    Heath had fixed her with a half-hearted grin, pulling her lanky body into his arms for a placating hug and a demeaning kiss on her forehead.
    ‘The kilometres aren’t the problem, little one. We’ve hidden this thing between us from our families for a long time. They’d put two and two together as soon as you started forking out money to come visit me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see you, but the threat of your dad is fucking daunting.’ He’d stepped away, placing a chasm of distance between them. ‘There’s a lot of places to hide a dismembered body out here.’
    Coward.
    He hadn’t spoken to her again. There’d been no letters. No phone calls. Not even a smoke signal. He moved on, first at university, then during the years he spent on his family property while she was studying Agribusiness in the city. On her return, she’d learned he’d gone overseas to participate in a farmer exchange program with a yet-to-be-determined return date.
    She trudged up the staircase, not looking back as she cursed the years it had