What would she think if I told her that I was to blame? That this was all my fault?
She deserved better, and I failed my girl before I even had the chance to tell her thatI love her.Dakota snuggled her back against my chest, her soft hands shifting to rest along my forearm that was wrapped securely around her waist.So much better…
Unable to fall asleep, I gracefully slid out of bed without shifting the mattress too much at the risk of waking my girl and rummaged through the house in an effort to hunt down my phone, forgetting where I’d placed it before we’d left earlier this evening.
When I found it, I immediately started scrolling through Dakota’s social media accounts, focusing specifically on the year everything had occurred.
Finding a few photos of interest, I took screenshots and sent them to one ofthe MUR private investigators.
It shouldn’t take them long to figure out who I’m looking for and where I can find him. If I were lucky, I’d have a lead or two by morning.
Thirty minutes later, my eyelids were growing heavy and I was ready to return to bed and finally pass the fuck out. Then my phone vibrated with a new text appearing in the center of the screen.
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…
Chapter 21
Dakota
Themotherfuckingaudacity…
Nothing makes a woman question her worth more than a man who gives her all the attention in the world, only to disappear off the face of the earth. No reason, no warning.
One week.
One.
Fucking.
Week.
A week of silence, questioning, and wondering what the fuck happened.
Rhylan’s studio remained closed, and he hadn’t worked a single shift at Kerosene since the night he’d vanished into thin air, and I had Tiffany to thank for that information…
Thisfucking cowboy had me going from wanting nothing to do with him to being a clingy, psycho stalker overnight. All because of a single handwritten bullshit note he’d left for me on his pillow.
My sister didn’t bother asking me about that weekend, not once, out of respect. The devastation on my face was clear when I walked through the door after Trent dropped me off at home on Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t until the silence ate up the space between us that I finally found the courage to spill the details after stewing in it alone.
“Nuh-uh! So lemme get this straight… He took you home, fucked you, and then you fucked him after some huge romantic gesture involving… cherry trees? And then he fucked off completely? Just… fucking left you… in his bed… alone?”
“To be driven home by one of his friends…” The recollection turned my stomach sour and cracked my heart a little bit more.
“Thats so…fucked…”
“Okay, you can stop saying that word, I think you officially ran out of the limit of uses for the next twenty-four hours…”
“Fine… I will try my hardest to refrain from dropping any more f-bombs today... So, what are you going to do?”
I had no answer, only everything running through my mind as I tirelessly tried to forget the asshole and move the fuck on. Easier said than done.
“Nothing at this point. He got what he wanted and so did I... Nothing but water under the bridge now.” I withheld mentioning the note—a half-assed apology for leaving me in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye.
“Wait, you’re not even going to find outwhy?” Tiffany’s brows furrowed.
“What’s the point? Clearly, he wasn’t as into me as I assumed, and I’d just make myself look even more desperate and stupid for chasing after him. I’m sure he’s done this same routine with other women, and I was just another sucker who bought it; another notch in his bedpost.” I hoped that venting my thoughts out loud would have helped convince me that every sweet word he uttered was a lie.
“Look… I won’t pry because I know you, and you’re highly capable of looking after yourself. But I will say this…” My sister was never one to withhold her honest,bluntopinions. She let out a gentle sigh as she prepared to give me yet another pep-talk, most likely similar to the one that got me into this mess in the first place. “You wereglowingthat night at the bar… I hadn’t seen you that taken with someone in a long damn time… And the way he looked at you…” She melted into a dreamlike state, with a distant look as if trying to manifest a man like him for herself. “He was so—”
