He took one hand off the steering wheel, laid it over hers.
Yeah, they’d figure it out.
It was full dark out by the time Will pulled up the driveway. He hit the brakes hard before they made it to the garage. Confused, Emmy followed his horrified gaze. Her jaw dropped.
The front yard looked like a war zone.
Shrubs had been torn apart. Clumps of dirt, broken branches, and stray leaves littered the lawn and the front walk. The siding of the house was stained with splatters of wet soil. Flowers, ripped violently out of the earth, lay like corpses all around the yard. Emmy felt her heart break when she saw the birdbath on its side next to the irreparably dented watering can. It looked like someone had stomped on it.
And the wind chime. Oh God, the wind chime was in pieces. She saw them scattered all over the place as if each individual part had been removed and deliberately thrown in a different direction.
There was no doubt who was behind the destruction. He was currently standing, half in shadow, at the side of the house, grinding the heel of his work boot into a cluster of daffodils.
“Emmy…”
She knew Will was going to tell her to stay in the car.
There was no way in hell.
She was out the door like a bullet. Will called after her, but she ignored him. Rage and grief were a maelstrom inside her, propelling her forward.
Paul saw her coming. The glow of the car’s headlights washed over his face when he turned toward her, revealing the unfocused expression of someone highly intoxicated.
“Emmy. I knew you’d come back to me.”
She didn’t think. She simply drove her right fist as hard as she could into his unguarded stomach. When he doubled over, wheezing, she brought her left fist up and struck again. Pain exploded in her hand, but it faded into the background of her consciousness almost immediately. Paul stumbledback, pressing a hand to his bleeding nose. His eyes were wide with shock and betrayal.
“Leave!” Emmy shouted. She knew Will was standing behind her at this point, but kept her focus on Paul.
“Why are you doing this?” Paul asked. “I love you.”
“I don’t care,” Emmy seethed. “I don’t care what you feel or what you think you feel. What you’ve done here is unforgiveable.”
“Emmy…”
“Kiero!” she roared. “Get out of my sight! Go back to your farm. Grow vegetables. Get therapy.”
“I’d do what she says, man,” Will added. “I don’t want to get the police involved.”
Whether it was his throbbing nose, his aching heart, or his need to stay out of jail, Emmy didn’t know, but Paul shuffled off. She and Will watched him leave. Since she didn’t see his truck anywhere, Emmy figured he’d either walked all this way or parked somewhere out of sight. She didn’t care. As long as he got gone and stayed gone.
Will laid a hand on her shoulder. “Go inside, Em. I have to pull the car into the garage.”
She looked up at him as sorrow rushed in to douse the flames of her anger. “The flowers…” She felt tears on her cheeks. “He killed all the flowers.”
“We’ll clean them up tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll buy whatever you need to replace what he killed. I’ll help you fix everything. Just do me a favor and wait ’til morning.”
Emmy thought of all the damage that had been done. It hurt. It hurt so much to know what had happened, to imagine what this mess would look like in the morning. But… maybe she could see this as an opportunity to buildsomethingwithWill instead offorhim. Maybe it could be symbolic or something. Maybe… maybe she just needed to leave it, like he said.
Will brushed the drying tears off her cheeks, held her face in his hands. “We’ll fix it,” he told her. “I’ll help you. You won’t have to do it alone. I’ll be the best landscape apprentice you could ever ask for.”
She found she could smile a little, and it was a relief. “Okay.”
She went into the house and sat on the couch, cradling her left hand in her right. It was a shock to see the bruised and swollen knuckles.
“Told you so,” Will said when he walked in after parking the car in the garage.
“Huh?”
