“If we’re going to give this thing between us a try, then it has to be open and honest all the way because that’s how I am. You asked me not to hurt you, and that’s the farthest damn thing from my mind. I think about making love to you. I think about life with you. So I have to be honest about all of it. Agreed?”

Ava’s heart was pounding. That honesty had just curled her toes inside her shoes.

“Agreed,” she said.

“Someone in my family stole all the money I’d saved to go to college—eight thousand dollars—and the others knew who did it and lied to protect them. Mom had left to take Birdie to school. She didn’t know it happened until she came home and I was gone. After I called her to tell her I’d just enlisted in the army, she was hysterical, telling me she’d known nothing about it and they weren’t telling her anything. Birdie just knew I left. She didn’t know anything about any of this and they never told her. She didn’t find out until after I came back, and she’s pretty pissed at all of them.”

Ava was staring at him in disbelief. “Even your father knew?”

Hunt nodded. “He told me what’s done is done, and to figure something else out. So I did.”

“Oh, Hunt. Oh my God, I am so sorry. No wonder you feel the way you do.”

He shrugged. “Old news for me. But I don’t keep secrets from people who matter.”

An ache began in the back of her throat to the point that she was afraid she would cry if she spoke, but she had to ask. “And I matter?”

He reached across the table and took her hand. “So much it scares me. But there’s one other thing you have to know, and then the decision is totally yours. I will never live in Blessings. I like the people here okay. But I don’t belong here anymore. My life and my work is in Houston, and there’s nothing keeping me here right now but a promise I made to Mom…and you. If you don’t want to leave, then you have to know I’ll never stay.”

There were tears in Ava’s eyes, but she was squeezing his hand.

“Do you know my middle name?”

Hunt frowned. “Uh…I don’t guess I do.”

She turned loose of his hand and stood.

“It’s Ruth… And in the Bible, Ruth faced a similar decision, and her answer was…‘Whither thou goest, I will go.’ That’s my answer, Hunt Knox. When you leave, take me with you.”

Within seconds, she was in his arms, and then madness ensued.

The kitchen was for kisses.

The shoes came off in the hall.