“You told him the truth,” she says finally. “You don’t owe him anything more than that.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as my nails bite into my palms. “He still looked at me like I shattered him.”
“Well, you probably did.” There’s a pause.
A breath punches out of me, shaky and uneven. I tip my head back against the wall, staring up at the cracked ceiling. “I don’t know why I thought coming back here was a good idea. This house is a mess.I’ma mess. My heart is a ticking fucking time bomb. And now I have to be in this town and sit across from Alex at family dinners every week like my entire world didn’t end ten years ago in this same exact town.”
Dallas lets out a long, slow exhale. “Well, deep…deepdown, you know you need to be there,” she says. “You need your brothers. You need roots again. And maybe youneedto face him again, too. Even if it hurts like hell.”
I scrub my eyes with the heel of my palm. “God, I hate how wise and logical you are sometimes.”
She laughs. “It’s annoying, I know.”
The corners of my mouth tug up slightly. “I wish I was there.”
“I wish you were too, babe. But listen to me, and listen good because I don’t say mushy shit often, okay? You’re not alone in this. You’re stronger than you think. And you didn’t go back to Windhaven to crumble. You went back to heal. Whether that’s from Alex or your heart or your past—I don’t know. Maybe allof it. But you’re there now. So give yourself a damn break and try to breathe for once.”
A shaky breath rattles out of me. “I love you, D,” I whisper.
“I love you more,” she fires back immediately. There’s some rustling on her end, followed by a muffled voice.“Crap, I gotta go, Em. But I miss you already.”
“Miss you, too,” I say. “Have fun with your loser boyfriend.”
She gasps in exaggerated offense. “How dare you? Aiden is?—”
“The worst.” I finish the sentence for her.
She laughs, but knows that I actually mean it. “I’ll tell him you say hi.”
“Please don’t.”
“Too late. Bye, Em!”
The line goes dead before I can protest further. Tossing the phone onto the couch, I push to my feet and look around at the unfamiliar space. It still doesn’t feel like home, at least not yet. I know there is a lot of work that needs to be done for that to happen. First step… finding the coffee maker. If I’m going to deal with this house, my brothers and Alex, I need caffeine. Lots of it.
6
ALEX
“Just leave the damn firewood and walk away,” I tell myself.
Any normal or smart person would. But clearly, I’m neither of those things because instead of dropping the damn logs off on the porch and leaving, I find myself knocking on Emma’s front door like an idiot. Clearly I’ve forgotten about the argument we had last night because not even that is stopping me right now.
It takes a minute before I hear movement inside—shuffling footsteps, a muffled curse and then the unmistakable sound of something crashing to the floor and shattering.
The door swings open before I can bust through it myself to make sure she’s okay. Emma is standing in front of me, wrapped in a huge fleece blanket. Her hair is pulled into a messy bun on top of her head with a few pieces falling down around her face. Tiny silk pajamas peek out from under the blanket—light pink with tiny black hearts all over. My eyes fixate on how the hem of the shorts ends above her upper thigh. My jeans tighten uncomfortably at the sight of her bare skin glistening in the morning light.
She looks like she is still half asleep, eyes barely open andsomewhat puffy underneath. She blinks up at me, her expression a mixture of exhaustion, confusion and general disdain. A look that I’m more than familiar with.
“What the hell are you doing here? It’s 6 AM,” she demands.
“Do you always wear these tiny little things to sleep? You do know it’s basically winter, right?” I blurt out, ignoring her question, reaching out and hooking the hem of her shorts with my pointer finger and pulling slightly. Her thigh instantly gets goose bumps at the graze of my finger. The urge to rip those tiny ass shorts off is consuming my every thought. I try my best to push them away and am now left annoyed at the fact that she could freeze because of her choice in clothing and current lack of heat.
“Pretty sure I didn’t ask for your opinion on what I choose to wear,” she bites back, wrapping the blanket tighter around her chest, tiny shorts disappearing from view now.
“Hypothermia is a very real thing, Princess.” Remembering the reason why I’m here in the first place, I roll my eyes and hold up the bundle of firewood. “I brought you aliteralhousewarming gift.” I add.
She stares at the logs like I’ve handed her a dead rat. “What am I supposed to do with that?”
