“I’m so mad at him.” My voice cracked. “He didn’t tell me anything. He left me with all of this.”
“You’re allowed to be furious at him,” Dani said softly. “And sad. And confused. And overwhelmed. That doesn’t make you ungrateful.”
I put my head in my hands. Tears slid through my fingers. Too hot. Too fast. “I don’t know where to start.”
“You start by not trusting a tall, handsome, rugged man who hides financial betrayals.”
“Dani,” I sniffed.
“Fine. You start by breathing,” her words soft and mildly reassuring. I inhaled. Slowly. Painfully. It didn’t fix anything, but it stopped me from shaking.
“And then,” she continued, voice sharpening with familiarprotective fire, “you’re going to tell that man to stay off your property unless the house is literally on fire.”
“I already did.”
“Good. Tell him again.”
“I don’t want to fight with him forever,” I admitted before I could stop myself.
“What did he do to your brain?” Dani demanded. “Did he hypnotize you with his forearms and cowboy hat?”
I frowned. “No.”
“You paused.”
I sighed. “Dani.”
“No. This is important. Did he use the forearms?”
I stared at the ceiling. “Maybe.”
She made a disgusted noise. “Ugh. Men.”
I wiped my face. “I need to figure things out, okay? Without him. Without Colin. Without anyone.”
Her voice softened. “You won’t do it alone. You have me.”
“You’re in Calgary.”
“I can be on your doorstep in two hours.”
Despite everything, I laughed quietly. “Please don’t drive here.”
“Fine. But I’m on standby. And if you see Wyatt again, I want you to picture me beside you holding a frying pan. We’ll go, Mary-Anne and Wanda, if we have to.”
“Dani—”
“Nonnegotiable.”
I let out a long breath and leaned back in the chair. The house hummed around me, the refrigerator still rattling, floorboards popping under temperature changes, dust drifting in the sun like tiny ghosts suspended in the air.
“Can you stay on the phone?” I whispered.
“As long as you need,” she said instantly. “I’ll even do my dramatic monologue voice if you want.”
“No monologues.”
“Fine. But I have them ready.” She kept talking, ranting, occasionally dropping something I could hear crash in the background. She filled the silence with sarcasm and threats and wildly inappropriate jokes. She told me she’d hex Wyatt’s truck. She told me the forearms were probably fake. She told me I was too smart to fall for cowboy sorcery.
