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“You knew good and damn well this was the first place she would go when she got back, and I would bet my left nut that her little ass is sitting out there right now.”
“She is.” I watched as Ryan looked from the window and caught my line of vision.
“And you're in here?”
“We spoke briefly.” My coffee cup seemed to want my attention, but Ryan was vying for it.
“And?”
“We talked briefly, and that's it. I told her I needed a little more time.”
“You are a jackass,” Ryan enunciated each word like I didn't understand English. “Wait. Word substitution. Dumbass.”
“Why are you out here?” I asked.
“Because I need your help. You've been MIA for days, and I'm not used to that. You know I’m co-dependent.”
“That I do.” I shook my head, gulped down my coffee, and rinsed the cup. “Fine.”
“Great. I'll go get the truck, and we can move back to the house.”
***
Once the blocks were behind the wheels, we unhooked the RV, and Ryan moved my truck back to its parking place.
“God forbid you to scratch yours.” I pointed over to his truck.
“Mine is not for driving in the woods.” He pointed at it. “It's for driving.”
“Yup, you get a truck to drive it, not to haul things or move things,” I said sarcastically.
“That's what your truck is for,” he said and looked up and over my shoulder. A grin crossed his face as he walked past me toward the tree line. When I turned, Emmy was coming out of the woods. I was a little jealous of how easy their friendship was. She looked over Ryan’s shoulder and smiled at me when he hugged her. I turned and walked over to the shop door. I pushed my key into the padlock and pulled it free. Once I was in there, I turned on lights and started working.
As night fell, I decided to grab some dinner and go to bed. I walked out and made my way around to close the doors and lock up for the night.
“It's a little early, don't you think?” Emmy said from her perch on my steps, her device on her lap, illuminating her face.
“Maybe a little.” I turned back and finished what I was doing. I was tempted to walk around to the front of the house just to avoid her. She must have seen me change direction and stood, laying her tablet on the steps.
“Don't, please.” She walked toward me. “I know you said you needed time, and I agree that maybe we need to really talk about a lot of things, but I don't want you to continue thinking this isn't something I want. I have trust issues, Luke. I’ll admit that. And apparently you do as well, but I know in my heart you’re the man I should chose, and I also know this will be full of challenges if we decide to try. When I look forward, I always end up with you here and me in Portland; that’s what scares me. I don't want to fall in love with you and then be heartbroken because our lives are going to different places.”
“Do you want to date Chris? Because I don't know that us being together is a good idea if you think you may want to date Chris at some point.”
She groaned and then tilted her head back and sighed loudly. “I don't want to date Chris.”
“Well, he wants to date you and has said on multiple occasions that he has dated you.”
“I haven't dated Chris, ever. I haven't kissed him, well he kissed me once in high school, but it wasn’t reciprocated. I pushed him away because it was never like that. And I know it was high school, but I want you to know everything. I don't want to lie to you. I'm not going to stand here and say that I haven't had lunches with him and dinner. I just want you to understand that I could have dinner with him every night, and it still wouldn't change how I feel about you. I could never be with Chris and be happy knowing that you were out there.”
I stepped closer to her. “I'm a jealous man for many reasons, Emmy, and I don't like the thought of you being with him even just for dinner. It puts you in a bad situation and I won't ever be okay with it. I don’t trust him.” I took another step, and she met me in the middle.
Her hand reached out and cupped the side of my face, and I leaned into it.
“I know we’ll have challenges ahead, Luke, but if I've learned anything in the past few weeks, it's to live in the present because the future isn't guaranteed and the past is already gone.”
I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “There was a time in my life that being cheated on was the norm. Maybe that has made me a little weird about my woman being around another man.”
She traced a finger down my face and then slinked her arm around my neck pulling my mouth down to hers. “I wouldn't do that to you.”
