From behind the tree he held Sadie against, Conner watched as Cody nodded at Marc. The two stepped back in sync as Cody let out a whistle. Whether it was a pure coincidence, a miracle, or magic, Conner would never know. If he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, he never would’ve believed that Ed barreled forward as if on command, moving so fast the wind lifted Sadie’s hair around her shoulders. Aaron let out a horrid screech as he took off.
Ed skidded to a stop at the curb and snorted as a dirt cloud lifted into the air around him. Making the beast appear even more majestic than he already did. Aaron ran down the street and Ed stood tall, as if daring him to come back.
“I really thought that moose had it out for me,” Sadie said with a shaky laugh.
“I’d say he had your back.” Conner kissed her forehead and pulled her in for a hug, never wanting to let her go. Hoping he never had to.
16
SADIE
Nothing felt betterthan being in Conner’s embrace.
Although Boomer hugs were a close second.
Focus, Sadie.
As much as Sadie wanted to stay right here in this moment forever, reality was unavoidable. She wriggled free from his arms and put space between them so she wouldn’t be tempted to do something foolish. Like kiss him. Oh, how she really wanted to kiss him. Just one last time.
But Marc was right.
Sooner or later, her train wreck of a life would wreak havoc on his. If only she’d never gotten involved with Aaron, no one would’ve been in danger tonight. Ed could’ve targeted any one of them. Hurt her brothers. Hurt Conner. All because they’d come after her when she didn’t deserve saving.
“Are you okay?” Cody asked, touching her shoulder.
She pounced at him, hugging him so tightly she was probably suffocating him. “I didn’t know you were going to be home for the festival.”
“Jenna was homesick. I was too.” Cody peeled her arms from around his neck. “We’ll catch up later. I need to find Ryder. A police escort out of town might get the message across.” With that, Cody took off running. Ed had sauntered off in the opposite direction after he seemed certain Aaron wouldn’t be returning to bother anyone.
But that still left Marc.
“Sadie, I’m sorry.”
She folded her arms over her chest, refusing to so readily accept the words she’d waited a long time to hear.Ifshe accepted his apology, she wasn’t going to make this easy on him. “Sorry for what exactly?”
“I didn’t know. About Aaron. About your anxiety—”
“What?” She snapped her head to Conner, narrowing her eyes. She felt the betrayal like a stab to the back with the knife twisting inside. “Youtoldhim?”
“I had to.”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, you didn’t.”
“Sadie, it’s not a big deal,” Marc said.
She laughed, but not because she found any of this funny. Oh, no. She laughed at the sheer naivety in those words. “You know why I didn’t want you to know, Marc? It’s because now you’ll always see me as someone who’s fragile. Breakable.Weak. I could live with you thinking I was a colossal, unreliable screwup. But this?” She shook her head, wishing she could go back to this morning and stay in bed. She wouldn’t start this day over. She’d hide from it. “This is so much worse.”
“Sadie—”
“Don’t,” she said to Conner when he reached for her elbow. “I trusted you.”
“You still can.”
“Go back to your fiancée. You owe her a five-thousand-dollar date.” Sadie snapped her attention to Marc next. “By the way, I didn’t touch anything on your website that had to do with booking appointments. Whatever happened actually wasn’t my fault. Not that it matters to you. You just blame me for everything that goes wrong in your life. Including Rebecca. News flash, Marc. I didn’t mess that up. You did that all on your own.”
Sadie left them both and marched toward the road. She was too spent to sort all this out. Especially since she knew the best thing for everyone was her leaving town. Her heart cracked with each step she took away from Conner. Deep down, she knew he meant well. But that didn’t make it okay.
Two blocks away from the festival, Sadie pulled her phone out of her back pocket to find a slew of texts from her sister.
