“Excuse me?”
“I’ve only been back in Emerald Creek for a few weeks, but even I can tell you two are crazy about each other.”
“Sounds a little dramatic consideringIdidn’t even figure it out until this past week.”
“And it’s been torture waiting for you to realize it.”
“Don’t you have better things to do? Like your boyfriend?”
“I’m happy for you, Ev. Truly.”
“But?”
“Are you staying in Emerald Creek? Because, if you leave again, Wyatt?—”
“I’m not going back to storm chasing.” I inhale deeply for the courage to get through this story a second time and tell Macy everything that happened in Oklahoma that led up to me running home with my tail tucked between my legs. I tell her about the little girl in the diner the other night and how it made everything so clear to me. “I won’t ever allow anyone to make me feel guilty for my love of storms again. I understand now that whatever that woman’s problem was with me probably had nothing to actually do with me. I was just an easy target for her projection.”
“Look at you sounding all wise and healed.”
“Storm chasing brought me closer to my parents, and I have no regrets about that part of my life. Except maybe how I deserted my crew without saying goodbye. I need to make that right.”
“Will you be happy here? Montana’s not exactly known for tornados. I don’t want you to resent my brother down the road if you choose to stay for him but deep down wanted to be on the road.”
“I’m choosing to stay for me. Wyatt’s just a really nice bonus.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. What will you do now?”
“I’ll keep helping out at the diner, of course. But otherwise, I think I might dabble with photography more. I had a lot of fun at the ranch the other day. It felt good to hold a camera again.”
“You really are home, aren’t you?”
I look over at Macy in the passenger seat and smile. “I am.”
CHAPTER 16
Wyatt
“Have you seen Everleigh?” I ask Paps as I hop out of my truck at the old barn and meet him near his golf cart. Thor hangs his head out the window, whining that I haven’t let him out of the back seat yet. But until I know if she’s here, there’s no point. We might be headed down the highway if she’s already left.
“They should be back any time now,” Paps says, lifting his ballcap and scrubbing a hand through his hair as Barney, his Great Pyrenees, ambles around the cart and sits down beside the old man. Neither one has any sense of urgency about them.
“They?”
“She took Macy with her.”
I scan the ranch, noticing both Macy’s Jeep and Everleigh car parked side by side outside the smaller house. Ryder’s truck, however, is missing.
“Ryder too?”
“Nah, he’s out chasing Gertie again.” As if on cue, the faint echo of a horrific scream carries on the breeze. “Ah, so he’s found her.”
“Paps, where did Everleigh and my sister go?”
“I’m not supposed to say.”
His answer sounds eerily similar to Jean’s, and I notice the horse trailer Paps usually keeps beside the barn is also missing.
“Please tell me they didn’t?—”
