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“Okay.” Erin crosses her arms.
“Want me to call the cops?” Riley asks.
“What?” I swivel to look at her. “No.”
“I wasn’t asking you, Josh,” she hisses.
I step forward, holding my hands up. “Riley, it’s fine. I just wanted to talk to Erin.”
“You can’t just show up at someone’s doorstep unannounced, Josh,” she says sternly. “Especially after what you put her through.”
“I know,” I say, my voice low. “I’m sorry.”
Erin looks at me, her expression unreadable. “Fine. You can stay.”
“Are you sure?” Riley asks her.
Erin hesitates, and it’s the longest moment of my life before she finally nods.
Relief floods through me. “Thank you.”
I’m grateful for the chance to make things right with Erin, to try and fix what I broke between us.
I know it’s not going to be easy. I hurt her deeply, and I can see the pain in her eyes as she looks at me. But I’m determined to try.
“Riley,” Erin says. “Can you give us some privacy?”
Riley looks like she might argue, but she shrugs and grabs some car keys. “All right. I’m going to get coffee. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
“Thank you,” Erin says, and Riley gives me the evil eye on her way out.
Once the door closes behind her, I swallow hard. “The sale on Fletcher’s Pond was reversed. It’s been saved.”
Erin’s eyes widen in surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah.” I laugh a little. Just thinking about it brings me joy. “And I told my dad I want to start an animal sanctuary. I’m selling the cattle, and I’m going for it.”
Erin looks at me with a mixture of shock and admiration. “That’s amazing. But why did you drive all the way here to tell me this?”
I take a deep breath, knowing this is the part where I need to come clean. “Because I want you back, Erin. I know I messed up. I was scared of losing everything, but in the end, I lost the most important thing, which was you.”
She bites into her bottom lip. “I’ve been wrecked since we last spoke. Why did you…” Her voice cracks. “You barely even responded when I told you about my new job.”
“Yeah. I know.” I rake my fingers through my hair, embarrassed over being such an idiot. “I thought that you were telling me you were about to be too busy for me, and that I shouldn’t bother visiting you in San Antonio.”
Her jaw drops. “What? No! I was considering not taking the job, Josh. I was actually thinking about moving back to Fort Williams.”
“You…” I work my mouth around, but the sounds don’t come out. “You were gonna…”
Her face is pink, and she won’t look at me. “I was thinking about it, yes.”
I swallow against a lump in my throat. “Why?”
She looks away and sighs. “Because of you. I didn’t want to be that far from you.”
Heat rushes through me. I want to pull her into my arms and kiss her, but she’s still standing with her arms crossed, looking away from me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I wish I had known that.”
