It was a solid week after I’d left Romeo’s house, fully expecting to see him the next day after I went to church, only to find him gone.
Gone, gone.
As in, as if he’d never been there to begin with, gone.
His horses were gone.
His house was empty—I would know. I’d broken in to see if I could find him, and had found the entire place cleaned out. There was no food in the cupboard. There were no clothes in the closets. There was nothing there but the empty feeling of a cabin that was rented out to guests.
It was as if no one had lived there in years.
That led me to now, working my ass off to keep from focusing too fully on the fact that the man I’d decided that I loved had up and left without a word.
Unfortunately for me, it was shutting down time for the day, and I had to leave or I’d be forced to leave.
Big John had already informed me that I wasn’t allowed to stay past five anymore, or he’d make me regret it.
Funny enough, I knew that he would, so I was gathering my things despite not wanting to leave.
Another crazy storm was headed our way, and I just knew without a doubt that it would be torture for me. As if I wasn’t plagued with thoughts of Romeo enough, I now had to be stuck inside my house thinking about the last time a storm had rolled in.
“Taking off?”
I smiled at Jesper, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “I am.”
“Have a good one. Stay warm,” he said as he tipped his imaginary hat.
Stay warm.
If I had a man at home waiting for me, I might.
Though I couldn’t say that it was all bad. At least when Romeo had disappeared, he hadn’t taken Brawny with him.
And Brawny would keep me warm.
I didn’t need no man…
At least, I had that opinion until I got home and tried to open a new jar of pickles.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the damn thing open.
“Stupid small hands,” I grumbled, kicking my big toe at the corner of the rug that’d flipped up. “I hate you.”
I set the bottle of pickles on the counter and glared at it.
I glared at it so hard that the ringing of my doorbell had me startling.
My head whipped around as I stared in hope at my door.
I moved toward it quickly, though not too quickly. I didn’t want to look desperate.
My hopes were dashed, however, when I got to the door and yanked it open only to see…
“What are you doing here?”
Birdee and Shade.
My face dropped as I saw her standing there with her arm in a sling and a crutch under the other arm. The cast on her leg was bright red.
