I tried to smile. It didn’t work.
Dani leaned her head against mine. “You’re not alone,” she murmured.
The words hit a place in me that was still bruised.
I swallowed hard. “I left him there, without a goodbye.”
Dani didn’t ask who. She didn’t need to.
Wyatt.
The name sat between my ribs like a live thing.
I could still feel the weight of his hand on my knee in the truck, the way it steadied me without asking permission. I could still hear his voice when he said easy, like he was talking to a horse spooked by thunder. I could still remember the scrape on his knuckle, the dirt on his jaw, the way he’d sat on my floor like sleep was optional if it meant I kept breathing.
And then, days later, in the brewery, like he’d been starving and trying not to show it. The way my body had lit up, furious and relieved and alive all at once. The way I clung to him because I wanted to feel normal, and the only normal I couldfind was heat and hands and the illusion that nothing could touch me while he was there.
I told him I needed space.
Not because I’d stopped wanting him.
Because I’d wanted him too much.
Because wanting him felt like losing control, and control was the only thing I had left.
Dani shifted beside me. “You’re thinking about him.”
I flinched. “Don’t.”
She sighed softly. “I’m not going to tease you. I’m not going to make a joke. I’m not even going to call him Cowboy Daddy, even though it brings me joy.”
A broken laugh escaped me despite everything. It sounded ugly.
Dani smiled faintly, then it fell away just as quickly. “Tess.”
I swallowed. “I shouldn’t have… done that.”
“Had sex,” Dani said, blunt but gentle.
My face heated. “Don’t say it like that.”
“How should I say it?” she asked quietly. “You clung to someone who made you feel safe.”
I stared at the window because looking at her felt too intimate. “I didn’t want it to mean anything.”
“And it did,” she said, not cruel, just honest.
My chest tightened. I pressed my palm to my sternum, as if I could hold my heart still.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t fall apart and also have him. I can’t be the woman with a ranch drowning in debt and the woman who wants him.”
My throat burned. Tears rose fast, hot and humiliating. “I’m a coward,” I whispered.
Dani’s hand tightened around mine. “You’re a human being.”
I sucked in a breath, and my lungs trembled. “I keep seeing his face when he realizes.”
Dani’s mouth tightened. “He’ll be mad.”
