“That’s a very glass-half-full way of approaching your life,” I tell her.
“I wasn’t that way in the moment, of course.” She laughs. “I was devastated. But hindsight has a way of making things make sense. You know?”
I hope she’s right. I’ve been so caught up in the shitty things that have happened recently I haven’t taken the time to try and understand where I should go from here.
“The only thing I’ve come up with is I need a fresh start,” I say. “So I booked a stay at Wild Ranch. I’m giving myself a vacation, which sounds so impractical but…”
“But sometimes impulsive choices are the best choices,” Bella finishes for me. “Because you’re doing something for yourself. It may not make sense, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
Savannah nods, her green eyes flashing with emotion. “I definitely second that.”
Without thinking about it, I look past them to Michael. He’s hanging with Declan and Luke, playing cornhole.
Like he can feel me looking, he glances up.
When we lock eyes from across the yard, he winks.
And I melt.
I can’t help but smile and give him a little wave back.
His normally stern expression relaxes with a ghost of a smile.
“Oh my God! Did Michael Wild just smile?” Bella widens her eyes at me like I’ve spun gold.
I shake my head. “That’s not his big smile. I love when he just lets go and actually smiles, you know?”
Bella touches my arm gently. “Emery, Michael never smiles. Not since he lost his dad. I can count on one hand the number of times he isn’t flat-out frowning or glaring. If you’ve actually seen different smiles from him, he must have really let you in.”
I don’t know that he has, but it feels good to know that he trusts me even a little.
“It took a lot out of him to lose his dad, didn’t it?” I ask Bella.
I don’t mean to gossip, but Bella clearly loves Michael like a brother, and I don’t know how to help someone who’s in trauma. Maybe she can be of assistance.
She nods, her eyes filling with sadness. “Ayden wishes Michael would stop going out on the water. But Michael loves it too much to stop. It’s a big issue in their family, to be honest.”
When he talked about his profession, I got the feeling Michael loves the feeling of being close to his dad as much as he loves the actual fishing part of the job. Maybe that’s where his cross lies.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Michael
“What’s going on over there?” Luke tips his head in the direction of where I’m staring.
At the woman who has me all sorts of turned around.
“Nothing,” I say automatically as I half-heartedly take my turn at cornhole.
Declan chuckles. “Sure. It looks like nothing from where I’m standing.”
I turn away from Emery and give him a hard stare. “From what I recall, you told Luke and me to fuck off when we used to ask you about Mia.”
“And now she’s my wife.” His gray eyes brighten. “So you’re saying this woman could be your Mia?”
He tosses his bag at the target, and of course, it goes in. Everything Declan touches turns to gold. It’s been that way since we were kids. But I never had any jealousy toward him. He was the older, wiser cousin, and we all admired him too much to be jealous.
Now though, his question pisses me off, and I take my turn without caring where the bag lands.
