“You wait.” Tryst suggestion surprised me.
“Wait? But tomorrow is?—”
He held up a hand. “A day like any other if one is angry and hurt.”
“You’re right. I can’t believe I’ve managed to destroy two of the most important relationships in my life in the span of a few days.”
“You haven’t destroyed anything,” Bit said. “You’ve just hit a rough patch.”
A rough patch. Like that covered the enormity of what I’d lost tonight. Like a few encouraging words could fix the fact that the woman I loved had kicked me out of her house. The woman I’d planned to propose to.
The ring sat in my truck’s glove compartment, where I’d stashed it three weeks ago. I’d imagined a dozen ways to ask her. Down on one knee in the vineyard. Over dinner at the Stonehouse. Somewhere private where it would just be the two of us and I could tell her everything I felt. All I knew for sure was that I had to wait until after the auction. Until the wine sold and the winery was saved and she could breathe again. Until all the weight she’d been carrying lifted and she could actually think about the future instead of just surviving the present.
“I was going to propose,” I heard myself say. “Once everything settled down.”
Bit’s eyes widened, and Tryst’s expression softened.
“I wanted everything to be perfect for her.” My throat tightened. “To give her the future she deserved. The one where she didn’t have to carry everything alone anymore.”
“You still can,” Bit said.
I shook my head. “She doesn’t trust me.”
“Then earn it back.” He moved closer and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t give up on the woman you love, Snap. Give her space tonight. Let her process. But then you fight for her. You explain about the bank. You tell her the truth about everything. And you don’t stop fighting until she believes you thought what you did was the right thing, but now, you see it might not have been.”
“What if she doesn’t want to hear it?”
“Then you wait. And you try again. And you keep trying until she does.” Bit squeezed my shoulder. “Love isn’t about the easymoments. It’s about the hard ones. When everything’s falling apart and you have to decide if the other person is worth fighting for. Saffron’s worth it. You know she is.”
He was right. Of course he was right. Saffron was worth every fight, every difficult conversation, every moment of discomfort. She was worth everything.
But knowing that and believing I could fix this weren’t the same.
“Come inside,” Tryst said. “It’s cold, and your mother needs to see you’re all right.”
“But I’m not.”
“She doesn’t need to know that tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas. The family is together. Whatever happened with Saffron, whatever’s going on with Rascon—those problems will still be there in the morning. Tonight, be present for the people who are here.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to get in my truck and drive to Saffron’s house and camp outside her door until she agreed to hear me out. I wanted to track down my brother and make him come home, where he belonged.
But Tryst was right. I couldn’t fix any of it tonight.
We walked back to the house together. Inside, warmth and noise enveloped me. Coco ran past, chasing Neva. Both of them were shrieking with laughter. Alex was helping Ma in the kitchen while Maddox and Brix argued about something near the fireplace. Addy sat on the couch with Reagan, reading a book together.
Normal. Everything looked so normal. Like the world hadn’t just cracked open and swallowed me whole.
20
SAFFRON
My hands shook as I slammed my bedroom door hard enough that the frame rattled. I pressed my back against the wood and slid down until I sat on the floor with my knees tight to my chest.
Snapper had lied to me. Kept secrets. And with my sister.
The thought made bile rise in my throat. I’d let him in past every wall I built. I’d fallen in love with him, and he’d been hiding things from me the entire time. My chest felt like someone had reached in and tugged at my heart.
How could he do this? How could Felicity keep their relationship from me? Maybe before he and I were involved, there was no reason for me to know, but my sister knew I was in love with him. How could she say it doesn’t matter now? That there was no reason for me to find out?
