“Count on it.”
I smiled up at him. Because I was definitely counting on it.
twenty-eight
. . .
Axel
Wren was leavingin less than a week, and the closer the date came, the more I dreaded it.
I liked having her in my bed every night.
Waking up together.
Falling asleep together.
Showering together.
Riding together.
Working together.
I’d grown very comfortable with Wren beside me. The idea of her being so far away, of us being on different sides of the country—it was unsettling.
Today she’d gone to lunch with my mother. They were close. Wren was the daughter my mom had always wanted. They’d had a bond early on, and even during my time apart from Wren, they’d remained close.
I had some work to do in the barn, so I was piling hay in the back corner when I heard the sound of gravel crunching beneath tires. I glanced out the doors of the barn to see a black Mercedes pull up.
I groaned when I realized it was Collin Waterstone walking toward me. I’d encouraged Wren to speak to her brother, because I knew how important family was and I didn’t want her to have any regrets. And I loved her enough to know that it would hurt her if they didn’t at least try to work things out, though I felt strongly that she’d need to have boundaries with him.
But me making amends with this jackass—it wasn’t high on my priority list.
“Hey, Axel,” he said as he twirled his keys around his finger.
I gave him a nod. “Wren isn’t here right now. She should be back in a few hours.”
“I know. I texted her, and she said she was spending the afternoon with your mom.” He stepped closer. “I was hoping you and I could have a chat.”
“What about exactly?” I asked. I pulled my hat from my head and wiped my forehead off with the hem of my tee before dropping it back down on my head.
“Can we sit?” he asked, and he appeared nervous, which wasn’t the norm for Collin. He was always cocky. Even when he’d fucked up, he’d never shown a vulnerable side in all the years I’d known him, at least not in front of me.
“Yep.” I pulled my gloves off and sat on the hay bale across from where he was sitting.
“I, um, fuck, this isn’t easy.” He shook his head and looked away for a few beats, and I just waited. I didn’t have a fucking clue what he’d want to talk to me about, and I was fine with us not speaking and just tolerating one another whenever I’d have to see him.
So I waited, trying not to show my irritation because I had a shit ton of work to do, and he probably should have figured out why he was coming before he drove here.
“I’m an asshole,” he said, tossing his hands in the air.
First smart thing the dude has ever said.
He laughed when I didn’t respond. “Obviously you aren’t going to disagree with that.”
“Is that why you’re here? To tell me that you’re an asshole?”
“I’m going to therapy, per Farah’s insistence, and I’m here because I owe you an apology. But the first thing we established with my therapist is that I am an asshole, and the only way to fix it is to own it. So this is me owning it.”
