“Wouldn’t put it past her,” I mumbled.Starting with me.
I once again tried extricating myself from Tessa, but she somehow remained obliviously attached to me.
“You know,” Tessa began in a suggestive tone that had me gritting my teeth, “I was hoping you might stick around tonight, so we?—”
“Stop,” I said over her and turned my attention to her for the first time. Grabbing her upper arms, I kept her in place so I could finally remove myself from her, and held her dark stare that seemed so much duller than usual, but I didn’t have time to focus on that. “We can’t, and we won’t. I’m sorry, but we never should’ve in the first place, because that girl? The quiet, brooding one? She was everything to me long before you and I started or ended, and now she needs to know it.”
Something like panic slid across her features, and if I hadn’t been so determined to leave, to rush after the girl my heart was desperately trying to get to, I might’ve noticed it. I might’ve noticed the way Tessa’s shadowed eyes quickly darted around us as she reached for me again, clinging tight. “There’s something I?—”
“Tessa,stop.” I once again held her in place as I removed myself from her grasp, barely sparing her a glance as I said, “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
I didn’t give Tessa another chance to respond, I just took off again in the direction Mallory had gone. Only this time, it felt like everything was on the line.
By the time I finally caught up with her, she’d made it away from the festival and was heading toward my cousin’s bed and breakfast like a beautiful storm of wrath and pain.
“Years,” she scoffed when I was within earshot, all without ever turning around. “Youjusttold me you’ve been spending almost every weekend here for months, and I know what she is to you.”
“Was,” I corrected. “Years ago. And, yes, it’s been years since anyone at all.”
“Every interaction within those years says differently.”
“I’m sorry.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop, braving her icy stare. “Monroe, I’m sorry for every time?—”
“Goodnightyou walk fast,” a feminine voice cut in from just beside us, sounding playfully out of breath. “Little legs here.”
I glanced to the side out of habit, my lips already parted to continue my apology to Mallory, when I realized the irritatingly familiar woman was actually speaking to me.
“Not now, Em,” I muttered to another one of my cousin’s wives, my attention already shifting back to Mallory when Emberly smacked my arm and let out a little laugh.
“You’re funny.” Glancing at Mallory, she muttered, “He’s funny.Anyway, from what I heard, you’re headed out to the ranch, and I left my Jeep there this morning. I also need a ride there in about...oh, ten minutes ago. So, yay for you! You get to drive me. Let’s go.”
My jaw worked as I studied the indifference Mallory was so easily portraying, then loosed a frustrated sigh as I focused on Cayson’s wife. “Seriously, Em. Not the time.”
Emberly arched a dark brow, letting me know she was keenly aware of what she’d walked up on and didn’t care. “Ten minutes ago,” she repeated firmly. “Try keeping me from my kids even longer, Hudson. See if I don’t mess up that pretty face.”
“Well, he wouldn’t want that,” Mallory murmured as she turned to continue toward the bed and breakfast.
I grabbed Emberly’s forearm to keep her in place and watched Mallory until she was out of hearing distance before turning on her. But before I could get a word out, she beat me to it.
“You’re welcome,” she said, complete with a bright, cheesy smile.
A stunned huff burst from me. “Not what I was going for. The last thing I needed right then was you running up and interrupting.”
“Oh, I could tell.” She slipped her phone out of her back pocket with her free hand and began tapping on the screen, talking as she went. “We all could. But anyone with eyes could see that the last thingsheneeded was you trying to talk to her right then. Your girl needed time.”
“Not my girl,” I unconsciously corrected before realizing what she’d first said. “Whatwe?”
She glanced up from her phone long enough to use the device to make a circle in the air, as if the people she was talking about were all standing just behind her. “All of us. I’d just slipped away from my booth to check on the orchard’s when the whole thing between you, your girlfriend, and Tessa went down.”
“Not my girlfriend,” I reminded her.
Emberly just gave me a deadpan look before forcibly pulling me toward the bed and breakfast as she continued. “Now, I love Tessa as much as the next person—clearly, I hired her—but that was a whole bunch ofyikes,andyour girlneeds a minute without you trying to fix it. Which is where I come in. Again, you’re welcome.” She gave me another bright smile before skipping out of my hold and practically dancing away. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
I was absolutely worried.
I loved Emberly. I wasn’t sure I had one memory in Amber that didn’t include her. When she’d married my cousin, Cayson, it’d just solidified that she was family. However, her version of helping sometimes had a way of making things so much worse.
Dragging my hands through my hair, I followed her. Easily erasing the distance and stalking the rest of the way to the house.
