“If she’s smart, she’ll stay put until morning.”
“She’s upset,” Tessa says softly.
“That’s not what I said.”
No one answers right away.
I can picture Tessa realizing what he means at the same time I do.
Cal doesn’t know me. He hasn’t even seen me. But somehow, he knows enough.
“If she’s the kind of woman who drove up to Luke’s place alone and lasted more than a day with him,” Cal says, “then being upset won’t keep her still. It’ll make her reckless.”
My fingers tighten against the wall.
A long moment passes before Holt says, “I’ll check on her.”
“No.” Tessa’s voice is soft but firm. “Give her some time. She’s in the bath. Let her have her space.”
I let out the breath I’ve been holding.
Cal makes a low sound. “I need to get moving before the road gets worse.”
“You’re going back out in this?” Holt asks.
“Won’t get better by waiting.”
The door opens again, letting in another hard blast of cold.
“Call Luke,” Cal says. “Tell him if he’s done being an idiot, he should do something about it fast.”
Then the door shuts behind him.
For a few seconds, no one says anything.
I don’t wait for them to start.
I move quietly down the hall, grab my bag from the bedroom, wait long enough to hear Cal’s truck drive away, and head for the side door with my heart pounding so hard I’m sure they’ll hear it over the storm.
They don’t.
And by the time the cold hits my face, I’m already outside.
Luke
I never should have answered Tessa’s call. Hell, I should have turned my phone off altogether. There’s nothing to say.
Not to anyone.
And sure as hell, not to mydaughter.
She thinks she knows what’s going on, but she has no idea. How could she possibly know how every single day I wake up tortured by the way I destroyed her mother and, by proxy, her?
How could she know that the things I’ve seen, the things I’ve been made todo, have changed me to the point where I don’t even recognize myself anymore?
I’ve spent decades trying to reclaim myself. Trying to pull myself back from the brink of insanity and soul-crushing depression that threatened to consume me.
I’ve made mistakes when it comes to those I love, big ones.
