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I stumble backward, though I manage to stay on my feet this time, and ready myself to make a mad dash into the tree line.
Wyatt
When I see someone walking on the side of the road heading west, I can’t make out their details aside from the dark hoodie they’re wearing, swallowing up their frame. I swear I feel my heart skitter with relief at the sight of them.
That’s got to be her.
I exit again to turn back around. I can make out more details as I get closer, and it’s definitely Dolly. I’m so relieved that I start tearing up again. I pass her and carefully pull the truck over onto the shoulder. I hop out and slowly approach her but stop in my tracks when she stumbles back. As much as I want to race toward her and scoop her up in my arms, I know that’ll just end up scaring her and isn’t the right way to convince her to come with me.
“Dolly, I…” I don’t even know what to say to her. All that time spent worrying about her, and I didn’t think of a single solitary thing to say if or when I did find her.
She watches me warily and sways a little on her feet, which scares the daylights out of me. I don’t know when she left the truck stop or how long she’s been walking, but she looks ready to keel over. Even with her eyes swollen from crying, she’s still so beautiful. It kills me that I’m the one who did this to her, who’s caused her so much pain in such a short amount of time.
When she doesn’t turn to run away like I half expected her to, I slowly start walking toward her again with my hands held up between us like I’m approaching a wounded animal.
“Babygirl, I’m so s—”
“Stop!” she screams, then sniffles and tries to hide it by adopting an angry scowl. “I told you I’m not your babygirl. I never was.”
She turns to face the trees like she’s ready to take off, but my legs eat up the distance between us, and I throw myself in front of her. I don’t know how it’s possible to feel even worse than I did before, but I do when I see just how broken she is up close. Now it’s my turn to drop to my knees, and her eyes go wide as she sucks in a breath. I’m so much taller than her that even kneeling, our noses almost touch.
“Babyg—Dolly, I’m on my knees begging you to forgive me. I fucked up and hurt you. I’m so sorry. Sorrier than you’ll ever know. Please, Dolly. Please get in the truck and let me make this up to you.” She shakes her head and bites her bottom lip, but she doesn’t try to side-step around me, and I feel a tendril of hope she’ll let me fix this. I scoot closer on my knees and vow, “I promise I’ll never hurt you again, that I’ll treat you with all the kindness and respect you deserve. I swear it on my pop’s grave.”
A sarcastic snort leaves her as she crosses her arms, and her face turns stony. “Oh yeah? I’ve heard that before, every time my dad took his anger out on me and my mom. But guess what? Nothing ever changed, except eventually, he stopped saying he was sorry.”
The more I hear about her dad, the more I want to track him down and beat the shit out of him for what he did to her.
Not that I’m any better than him.
“You know what, Wyatt? You can take your apologies and your promises and get fucked!” She finally tries to dart around me to take off into the woods, and I act without thinking. I surge to my feet, tuck my shoulder into her stomach, and lift her in a fireman’s carry. “Wyatt, goddamnit! Put me down right now!”
“Ain’t gonna happen, babygirl. I told you I was sorry, and I’m not leaving you again to fend for yourself, no matter how much you may hate me right now.”
I snatch up her duffel bag that had fallen off her shoulder and hoist it over mine while she does her best to beat up my back with her fists and nail me in the nuts with her flailing legs. I band her legs together with my arm and rush to the passenger side of my truck, hoping like hell no one passing by is paying enough attention to us to see me carrying her off, kicking and screaming. All I need is for someone to call the cops and add a kidnapping charge to my growing list of crimes in the last twenty-four hours.
I open the passenger door, throw her bag into the footwell, and then gently let her slide down to her feet. Before she can run, I cup her cheeks and lean down until I can look her straight in her gorgeous baby blues.
“I know you don’t believe me right now, and that’s fair. I know I don’t deserve your trust, but I promise I will never hurt you or raise my voice at you again. You have my word. I’m going to take care of you, got that?”
Chapter 10
Dolly
His word, ha! I haven’t met a man alive who has kept his promise or his word. Not Dad, not any of his coworkers, and certainly not Wyatt right now. After everything that’s happened, I don’t trust Wyatt as far as I can throw him.
But I’m exhausted and nauseous from the heat, and my feet are starting to swell. So I give him a nod, our noses brushing against each other with the movement since he’s standing so close, and I hold my breath so I don’t breathe in his intoxicating scent like I did earlier before everything went to hell.
“Good,” he says, blowing out a breath that brushes against my lips, and I can’t resist the stupid urge to lean in a little until I can feel his beard brush against my chin.
What the hell am I doing?
I jerk back and hope he didn’t notice.
He gently picks me up by the waist, helps me into the seat above, then reaches over to buckle my seat belt across my chest. I melt into my seat as he gets in on the driver’s side and blessedly cranks the A/C, then hands me a cold bottle of water, which I chug. Checking his side mirror, he carefully pulls back onto the highway and picks up speed.
It’s not long later when I see the pharmacy the cashier told me about up ahead. I point to it and tell Wyatt we need to make a stop. He questions why, and I can’t meet his eyes when I tell him I need to get the morning after pill. His face screws up, and for a second, I think he’s going to drive past the pharmacy, but he nods and steers the rig off the highway at the last second.
What the hell was that about?
