Amber sat down on the edge of the bathtub, shaking her head and sighing. Then she looked at me with an expression that was unusually earnest for her.
“Okay,” she said softly. “How can I help?”
I blew out a breath. “I don’t know…talk some sense into mebeforeI get pregnant?”
“Too late for that,” Amber said dryly.
I laughed despite myself.
She stood up, rubbing her hands on her legs. She was still wearing her PJs. “So are you gonna wait until the usual rendezvous time or are you going earlier?” she asked.
“Earlier,” I said. “I can’t wait or I might lose my nerve.”
She nodded. “Right. Well—maybe shower first? I’ll make you something to eat before you go.”
I nodded. Amber started to leave, then turned, her brow furrowed. “You’re not alone in this,” she said. “You know that, right?”
My throat when tight. “Yeah. I know.”
Amber left, and I did as she said and got in the shower.
I stood under the hot water for longer than I needed to and thought about Wyatt. The way he'd checked the belt twice before he ever used it. The way he'd rubbed my wrists after. The way he cooked Ethan's recipes because it seemed wrong not to.
He was a man who took care of things.
The question was whether he'd see this as something to take care of, or something that had been done to him.
I didn't have an answer. I wasn't going to have one until I was standing in front of him saying the words out loud.
I turned off the water. Got dressed. Came out to find Amber at the stove, the radio on low, eggs already in the pan. She slid a plate in front of me without a word and sat across the table with her coffee and didn't ask me anything, which was the most Amber thing she'd ever done for me.
I ate about half of it.
"Okay," I said finally, pushing back from the table.
She looked up.
"I'm going."
She nodded. Stood up. And then she crossed around the table and hugged me again—quick and tight, her chin on my shoulder.
"You're the bravest person I know," she said into my hair. "Even when you're an idiot."
I laughed, short and shaky. "Thanks, Amber."
"Go get him." She stepped back. "And text me the second you're out of there or I will drive to that ranch myself."
I grabbed my keys off the counter.
The drive out to Holt Creek took twenty minutes. I spent nineteen of them completely fine and one of them sitting in the turn lane with my blinker on, hands tight on the wheel, talking myself into it.
You've been choosing him for years,I thought.This is just one more time.
I turned in.
THIRTEEN
Wyatt
