I don’t answer.
Roz appears with coffee and sets a mug in front of me without asking. “You look like hell, Hart.”
“Thanks, Roz.”
“Holly okay?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Good. She’s a sweet girl. Town loves her.” Roz refills Jesse’s mug. “You being careful with her?”
“What?”
“She’s not like us, Cole. She’s not a ridge person. She’s town. Community. And if you hurt her, this whole valley’s going to have an opinion about it.”
“I’m not?—”
“Good. Because she’s been through enough. Moved here with nothing, built herself a place, and made herself useful. Last thing she needs is some hermit breaking her heart because he’s too scared to be seen.” Roz walks away before I can respond.
Jesse watches me. “You going back up or fixing this?”
I drain my coffee. “Fixing this.”
“Good. I’ll wait.”
At Holly’s, her car’s in the driveway. I knock.
She opens the door, phone in hand, surprised. “Cole?”
“Can we talk?”
She hesitates, then steps aside. I follow her into the living room. She sits on the couch. I take the chair across from her.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “About this morning. The way I reacted to the photo. I panicked and I hurt you.”
“Why did you panic?”
I lean forward, elbows on knees. “Because for three years I’ve been invisible. Nobody watching. Nobody expecting anything. And then that photo with people asking questions, seeing us together… It made it real. Public.”
“And that scared you.”
“Yeah.”
“Because of Emma.”
I nod. “Everyone saw me fail her. I wasn’t there when she needed me. And I hid up here where nobody could watch me fail again.”
“Cole, you didn’t fail her. An accident?—”
“Everyone knows I was in Seattle when I should’ve been here. That I couldn’t save her.” My hands fist on my knees. “And when people start watching us, they’ll remember. They’ll wait for me to fail you, too.”
“I’m not asking you to save me. I’m asking you to choose me. There’s a difference.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because this morning, when you saw that photo, you made me feel like something to hide. Like I was convenient in private but too much work in public.”
The words cut deep because they’re true.
