CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Wesley
Saving a Life
Wes knew histime with Shelby was limited, and he was trying not to come off as clingy or needy, but they’d spent every night together for the last week.He’d helped her winterize Pops’s house, find a groundskeeper, and visited Pops’s marina with her.But it was early morning he liked the best.He’d always find her in the library typing away at her novel.He’d make her coffee, and they would agree to see each other that night.Then he’d head off to work.
It was simple but it had him craving the luxury of endless mornings with her.She didn’t say when she was going to leave town, but with each day a sort of dread washed over him.Now after a long day of work, where there was yet another fire on the Banks’ property, he stood in front of her house, and he wasn’t even surprised to see the envelope with his name on it.
Dear Wes,
I know this is the coward’s way out, but I don’t want to say goodbye to you.This was a really tough trip home, but I loved every moment I got to spend with you.You’re going to make a great sheriff, and if from time to time you see a light on at Pops’s house just know that you’re always welcome to join me.I hope you get everything you want in life because if anyone deserves it, it’s you.
~Shelby
And just like that she was gone.She’d come barreling into his life like an avalanche and left just as suddenly, leaving him feeling like he’d missed something.
He could text her or try calling but he didn’t know what to say.Come back, or please stay seemed too selfish, even if it was exactly what he needed.So he went home and tried to forget she’d ever been there.She didn’t ask him to go with her, and she didn’t want to stay for him—that pretty much said it all.
*
“Who peed inyour Cheerios?”May said, as she handed him a mug filled to the top with coffee the next morning.
He couldn’t help but yawn and give her a dirty look.“I don’t eat Cheerios—just been a rough couple of days.”
“Cuz your girl left?I’m sure she’ll be back.I mean you did tell her how you feel and ask her to stay, right?”
He squinted over his mug and took a big gulp of the piping-hot brew.He wasn’t about to admit he’d messed things up.
“Oh God, you didn’t just let her leave without telling her, did you?”
“Tell who what?”a deep voice from over his shoulder said, and he found Miles hovering.
“Nothing,” Wes said, too gruff.
“Wes here is pouting because Shelby left town, but he didn’t tell her how he feels or ask her to stay,” May said.
“You and Shelby do make a nice couple, but I gotta be honest I didn’t see that coming.”
May scoffed.“Men.You all just think love is going to drop right into your hands.Like you don’t have to do any work for it.”
Wes rolled his eyes.“Who said anything about love?”
Then May’s eyes grew big, and she started to laugh hysterically.
Miles and Wes just looked at each other and watched as she laughed so hard her eyes filled with tears.
“You must be kidding me, Wesley Hart, the next Sheriff of Sandy Point, the man who can sniff out anyone’s lies, and you didn’t even realize you’ve been falling in love with Shelby Shepherd since the day she arrived in town?”
Wes reared back as if he’d been slapped, and his coffee sloshed out of his mug.He had thought about it, a lot.But hearing it out loud, from someone who’d barely seen them together, was alarming.Was it that obvious?
“What makes you think that?I barely know the woman.”
“Oh right, because you two probably didn’t spend every night together, you rescued her from the snowstorm, a bad night at the country club, helped her deal with her mean family, took her on a romantic date horseback riding, and held her after she buried her grandfather, then spent a week holed up in that house on the coast with her.But no, you couldn’t possibly be in love,” she said and shook her head.
“How do you know about all that?”He knew he shouldn’t carry on this ridiculous conversation, because apparently, they hadn’t been as careful as he’d thought.
But before May could answer several more coffee lovers arrived in the line and rattled off their orders.
