Page 16 of Saving Wyatt

It was a cruel, brutal world out there. It wasn’t a stretch to think it could kill someone. It already had taken someone so precious and important from me. I couldn’t stand the thought of it taking another one.

I was so distracted by my concern for my friend that I didn’t even remember driving all the way back to the town center and taking my usual spot.

“Well, that’s not good,” I mumbled and tried Warren’s number again, but it went straight to voicemail. “I’m gonna kill him.”

If he isn’t dead already.

“Who are you going to kill? Make sure there are no witnesses,” someone said behind me, and I snapped around, jumping out of my own skin and clutching at my heart. “Shit. Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

It was none other than the handsome silver fox I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind. When I wasn’t busy being worried about his brother and my best friend.

“It’s okay. I was…away with the fairies, I guess,” I said.

He smiled.

God, why was he so fucking handsome? Even the tiniest hint of a smile made his face light up and made him look even more breathtaking than he was.

“Everything okay?” he asked, his brows lowering over his eyes, and I almost forgot how to breathe.

“Yeah.” I nodded like a bobblehead who had lost control of its bob but remembered myself and snapped the hell out of whatever had taken over me. “Actually, no. It’s Warren. He didn’t come home last night and he’s not answering his phone, so I’m a bit worried. Have you seen him? Or heard from him?”

Wyatt’s frown deepened even more, and he took a step forward. His strong, slightly citrusy scent assaulted my nostrils, and it awakened something primal inside me. Something that had fallen to slumber a long time ago.

He smelled of man. Boy, had I missed the smell—and touch—of a man.

“He’s not answering? Shit,” he grumbled, and it didn’t help my current state.

Wyatt whipped his phone out and started calling Warren too, and I forced myself to put a reasonable distance between us. I needed it in order to breathe properly. In order to function. Not that it was possible while Wyatt was around. Even through my worried state it was impossible not to be affected by him.

Why did this man send me wild in a way no one had since Evan’s death? He didn’t even look anything like Evan. At least that would explain my hunger for the man, but he was the polar opposite of my husband. Where Evan had been blond, Wyatt had once been a brunet. Where Evan had been on the short side, Wyatt was tall. Evan had been an all-American boy, and Wyatt was more akin to an all-American boy’s dad.

“Pick up your damn phone. Your friend is worried about you!” he shouted on his device, and I snapped out of whatever spell I’d fallen under.

“Did he pick up?” I asked, and Wyatt glanced at me, nodding. “Is he okay?”

Wyatt huffed. “He’s just an ass is all,” he answered and hung up.

Relief washed over me like a hot shower that left me all weak and vulnerable in front of the attractive man.

“Did he say what happened?”

He shrugged. “He’s hungover apparently. Who knows whose bed he stumbled on.”

I chuckled. “Oh well. As long as he’s okay.”

“Are you? Okay, I mean?” he asked, his gaze boring deep into mine, which didn’t help how weak at the knees I felt.

I nodded. “Now that I know he’s safe, yeah. I am.”

“Does he do that a lot?” Wyatt asked.

I shook my head. “No. Never, actually. Which was why I was worried.”

“I don’t blame you with all the crap going on on the island.”

I let out a loud exhale at that. “Gee. That hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

Thank God for that because I would have suffered a heart attack if I’d thought for a second he’d fallen victim to the mayor’s machinations.