“Aw,” Izzy says softly, and I realize my words came out much sweeter than I intended.
I shake my head. “This feels bigger than simply trusting him. Iknowthat I can trust him. I don’t think I came herebecause I was worried he would double cross me or otherwise fuck up my life. This feels like...” I motion in front of me, trying and failing to pluck the words from thin air. “I don’t know.”
Izzy purses her lips, poorly hiding her smile. “It feels like the rest of your life.”
My face heats, the reality of her words setting in as I swallow over a lump in my throat.
Izzy takes my silence as agreement and promptly scooches closer to throw her arms around me. “Aw Evie, I’m so happy for you. You deserve a love that makes you all sputtery and uncomfortable and shows you you don’t have to work like a maniac alone.” She squeezes me tight, spurring a choked laugh out of me.
When she finally lets me go, I shake my head. “I don’t know if I’m about to start talking about the rest of my life, but this does feel different, you know? Bigger than any relationship I’ve been in before.”
“You’re arguing in semantics at this point.” She rolls her eyes as she waves me off. “What is Ryder doing right now?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure. I ran away when I saw the purchase agreement.”
Izzy stills. “Eve, you ran away? Like you didn’t even tell him where you were going?”
I shake my head.
She sighs in return, standing and holding a hand out to me. “Come on, we need to get you back to the farm before he panics and pulls together a town-wide search party.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
Izzy laughs. “You know him so well, do you?”
I huff, letting her pull me to my feet. “It’s not that I know him so well, it’s that he knows me so well and he knows I’d be absolutely mortified if he got the entire town to look forme when he knows he did something dicey that likely triggered theflightof my fight-or-flight response.”
Izzy only shakes her head, slipping into a pair of shoes at the door and shaking her head as she beckons me out the door and down to the street where I left my car haphazardly parked in my rush to spew my anxiety at her. “You are literally proving my point,” she says, reaching for the driver’s side door handle and opening it. “Now go back to the farm and stomp that fear down before you inadvertently squash something that has very obviously made you very happy.”
And even just the suggestion that I could ruin things has my chest tightening again, my fingers curling and releasing around my steering wheel as I settle in the seat.
Izzy eyes the movement. “I didn’t mean everything is going to fall apart,” she says, reaching out and squeezing my hand. “So relax, okay? I just meant that this is one of those moments where you have to ignore that part of your brain that’s sounding the alarm so he has a chance to explain what he’s doing. Give him the opportunity to prove that alarm wrong. This is your turning point. The one moment you have to give someone the benefit of the doubt that you otherwise wouldn’t because he’s the one person you can trust to make good on it.”
“I always trust you,” I sputter quickly.
She rolls her eyes. “That’s different and you know it.” She thinks for a moment and then shrugs. “But also yes, you can trust me. And I’m extending my trustworthy umbrella to Ryder. So go do what I told you to do and get your happily ever after so that I can live vicariously through you.”
“Izzy,” I say, my heart squeezing for her. My biggest advocate and supporter, who’s had just about the shittiest luck with men yet never fails to believe in love for everyone else.
She shakes her head. “Don’t go there. You know I’m a ‘one night’ sort of girl.”
“You’ll find someone,” I tell her.
She huffs. “You know, I could really use some inspiration. Maybe a love story close to home that makes me believe it might just happen for me.” She raises one eyebrow. “Wonder where I could find something like that.”
I hold a hand up. “Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll go back to the farm and talk to Ryder.”
Izzy smiles triumphantly. “And report back. I want the spicy details.”
I roll my eyes. “One thing at a time.”
She bites her lip to hide her smile. “Does he try to give you multiple things at a time?”
“Izzy!”
She snorts. “What? A little toy play never hurt anybody.”
I shake my head. “Your ability to jump from serious to anything but is truly extraordinary.”
