“Answer the question, Holt.”
“You really think I didn’t fight it?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t give a fuck. She’s just a?—”
“I love her.”
The words settle between us. Luke doesn’t move. I don’t breathe.
“You don’t get to say that,” he says after a moment.
I look him straight in the eye. “I love her,” I say again. “I didn’t ask for it. Hell, I tried to fight it every step of theway. But there was no help for it. She calms me. I steady her. Together, we’re…” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
His expression shifts, anger mixing with something else. “You let her leave.”
“I forced her to,” I say. “She’s got her whole life ahead of her. I wasn’t going to stand in the way of what she wants just because having her here with me makes it easier to breathe. I wasn’t going to be the reason she gave up on her dreams. No matter what it costs me.”
Luke studies me for a long time, but I don’t look away. If he hates me forever now, I’ll deserve it. But the pain of losing my brother won’t come close to the hell I’m already in.
“You really love her?” he asks finally.
“Yes.” I nod. “With everything I have.”
He exhales slowly, looking past me toward the cabin and then back to me. “She hasn’t stopped talking about you,” he confesses. “Not once.”
My chest tightens.
“She even asked about you when she called the other day.”
I swallow hard. “She did?”
Luke doesn’t answer. Instead, he asks, “You think traveling was the right choice for her?”
“I thought so.”
“And now?”
I don’t hesitate. “Now I think I can’t breathe without her. Every day that passes without her feels like I’m suffocating. She brought me back to life. And if she feels even a fraction of what I’m feeling…”
The woods go quiet again.
“I was wrong,” I say, steady now. “I was wrong not to tell her how I feel. I was wrong not to give her the choice. I thought I was protecting her.”
Luke studies me for a long time.
“You don’t get to decide what’s best for her,” he says quietly, stepping closer. “That’s her call.”
I nod.
“You’re really going to stand here and tell me you love my daughter?”
Again, I nod. “I love her with everything I’ve got, and I won’t apologize for it.”
He blows out a breath, accepting it. “Then you better be man enough to go say it to her face.”
The words settle. For a moment, neither of us moves.
Then Luke claps me on myshoulder. It’s not hostile. But not entirely friendly either. “You break her heart,” he says with a shake of his head, “and I’ll finish what I started.”
