“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“I wasn’t about to take the chance,” I shoot back. “You fell hard and fast, Oak. You went all in, and I can’t blame you for that. It’s who you are. But I couldn’t risk losing you. I couldn’t. And now I have you back, and I’m not letting you go again, you hear?”
Oakley’s foot hooks my own beneath the table as I try to corral my breathing. “Law. Look at me.”
I bring my eyes back to his, the marbling of blue and brown almost otherworldly. It brings to mind memories of stick swords and chasing pixies under the shade of a willow tree, back when we were old enough to know our worlds were bound to change yet too young to realize just how much.
“You won’t ever lose me,” he says, each word even and precise. “It’s not possible.”
“You left me.”
It’s out before I can stop it, the hurt in those three syllables evident even to my own ears.
Oakley blows out a slow breath. “I didn’t leaveyou. I just…”
“You had your priorities,” I say woodenly, disentangling our legs. “And I wasn’t one of them.”
“Lawson.”
I disregard Oakley’s softly spoken plea, bringing my plate into the kitchen and rinsing the dish before setting it on the counter to be packed. On my way through the living room, I grab one of the blankets not yet boxed up. “I’ll be in the guest room.”
Oakley doesn’t try to stop me, and I’m grateful, not wanting to hear cajoling words or the suggestion that I’m being unreasonable. I know I am.
But I still hurt.
Not for the first time, I wonder why Oakley leaving cut so much deeper than my separation with my wife.
Chapter 4
Oakley
The sun slants through my passenger window as I follow Lawson’s pickup, trailer included, along the highway out of Kansas.
His words play on repeat in my head.
“You left me.”
Wanting a distraction from the heavy ache in my chest, I ring my dad. He picks up quickly, his voice cutting through my truck’s Bluetooth.
“Oakley?”
“Hey, Dad. Did, uh… Did Lawson mention I’m moving back?”
He hums, a thoughtful sound. “He did not, but I wondered as much when he asked me and your mom to keep your place free for a while. What’d he do, drive down there to haul you home?”
“Yep. That’s exactly what he did.”
My dad laughs, calling for my mom, his voice distant as he says, “Oakley’s on the way home, Sienna.”
My mom’s voice is equally as quiet. “That so? Tell him the house is cleaned up and ready. I’ll stock the kitchen.”
“She doesn’t have to do that,” I interject.
My dad makes apshtsound. “Nonsense. You’ll be on the road for twenty hours. You gonna stop at Plum’s on your way through with a miniature cow in tow?”
He’s got a point. “Well, tell her not to go overboard.”
My dad doesn’t relay the message. “Bring Lawson by for dinner once you’re settled. Y’all still like those dino nuggets? I think they have spicy ones now. Sienna, don’t they have spicy dino nuggets at Plum’s?”
