Calling her his.
Not happening.
I’d spent too many years not seeing what was right in front of me.I knew exactly what this was now, and I knew exactly what I was going to do about it.
Oliver came up beside me, handing me a fresh beer without a word.
I took it but didn’t drink it.
“Handled,” he said.
“Yeah.”
He leaned back against the fence, eyes moving across the yard the same way mine had.“Guy’s a problem.”
I didn’t answer.Didn’t need to.
“Ever okay?”he asked.
I glanced toward the clubhouse door like I could see through it.Like I could find her without even trying.“She will be,” I said.
Oliver looked at me then.Really looked.“Alright,” he said slowly.
I took a breath, slow and steady, letting it settle in my chest.
Letting everything lock into place.
Jesse wasn’t the problem.
Not really.
He was just the thing in the way, and now he was out of the way.
Ever was the point.The only point.
I straightened, rolling my shoulders back, the tension in my body shifting into something sharper.More focused.“I’m done watching,” I said.
Oliver’s brow lifted slightly.“Yeah?”
I nodded once.“Yeah.”I looked back toward the clubhouse again.Toward where I knew she was.
Where she was probably trying to act like everything was fine and like her night hadn’t just been flipped upside down.
Like she hadn’t just seen a side of a guy she’d been letting into her life that didn’t belong there.
My jaw set.
She deserved better than that.
I took a long pull from the beer finally, then set it down on the fence beside me.“I’m going to make her mine,” I said.
No hesitation.
No question.
Just fact.
Oliver nodded once.“Yeah,” he said.“I figured.”
