Page 146 of The Wild Card

“Good hike?” Emmie asks, the picture of innocence.

“Lovely.” Sadie flops into an armchair, grinning. “See any bears?”

“Not a single one.”

“Shame.” Her eyes dart between us. “You two look… relaxed.”

“We had a very quiet evening,” I say flatly.

Foster snorts. “Sure you did.”

Emmie kicks me under the blanket, and I have to fight to keep a straight face.

Later, after everyone’s gone to bed—Emmie and Sadie in the bedroom, Foster on the couch and me on the air mattress—I lie awake, staring at the ceiling.

My lips are still tingling. I can still smell the scent of her shampoo on my pillow.

Tomorrow we go back to Dallas. Back to the apartment. Back to real life.

But something’s different now. Something’s shifted.

She’s mine. Or she will be if I don’t screw this up.

I’m not going to screw this up.

For the first time in a long time, I fall asleep smiling.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Limbo

Emmie

The drive back to Dallas feels like waking up from a dream.

One minute we’re in the cabin—stolen kisses in the loft, his hands on my skin, the promise of something hanging between us. The next, we’re loading bags into cars and saying goodbye to the trees and the stars and the place where everything changed.

Crew drives with Foster. I ride with Sadie. The separation feels intentional, like we both need space to process what happened.

Or maybe I’m overthinking it.

“So?” Sadie demands before we’ve even hit the highway. “What happened after we left?”

“We talked.”

“Talked.”

“And… other things.”

“Emmie!”

“Nothing major! Just—” I feel my face flush. “Making out. In the loft. On his terrible air mattress.”

Sadie shrieks so loud I nearly swerve into the other lane. “I knew it! I knew leaving you alone would work. Foster owes me twenty bucks.”

“You bet on us?”

“Obviously. I bet you’d figure it out this weekend. He thought it would take until Christmas.” She grins triumphantly. “So? Are you guys together now? Like, officially?”