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“You really think I should keep this from my dad?”
She shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know. I like him so much, and I don’t want him to hurt.”
“Yeah.” My shoulders dropped. “Sometimes I think coming back here was a mistake.”
Her steps faltered. “Why did you? I don’t get the impression it was something you really wanted to do.”
“I didn’t,” I confessed.
“Just go back.” Her words were almost robotic.
Ouch. It wasn’t that simple. Coming home to be closer to family had been the only thing I could think to do. “I can’t.”
She untangled her fingers from mine, and a chill shuddered through my bones.
“Did you quit your job?”
“No.”
“Because you plan to go back.” It was an accusation rather than a question.
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“If you leave, you can forget about all the crap here.” She waved her hand in the air. “Like it never happened, right?”
She sounded as if she was speaking from experience . . . and it hadn’t worked.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you want me to go.” I tried to stay cool, but was pretty sure a trace of the hurt at her words came through.
“Don’t make this about me. You’re pissed off about your sister and mom. I’m just not sure what you want. On the one hand, you have a job back in Wyoming you could go back to, yet you made a financial commitment to stay here. Offering me a place for my business and for your own. So, why? Why’d you buy the garage if you never had any intention of staying? Why offer me that space?”
Because I wanted you to want me to stay.
But I couldn’t say that to her. We’d told each other we weren’t committed to each other. I didn’t know what her history was. We were on fragile ground, hiding things from each other. And I was still too angry at my sister for what she was doing to our family.
“You’re not interested in the truth, Easy. Seems to me like you want to avoid it.” She looked hurt, but damn. I couldn’t win.
“The truth gets in the way of the person I want to be.”
I pulled her flush against me and fisted her hair so she had to look at me. Fierce eyes met mine.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Her lips parted. This woman got me in ways she didn’t even know. Yeah, we pissed each other off. Miscommunicated like nobody’s business. But somewhere, down in the deepest, darkest depths we understood one another perfectly.
There was a time I would have been scared of that. And it did frighten me just how well we knew each other without really knowing one another at all. But mostly, she gave me the comfort I’d been looking for my whole life.
This song and dance that she didn’t care if I left was a lie. I felt how much she’d miss me, even if she didn’t really know it herself.
“Don’t ask me,” she pleaded.
“What if telling each other helped?” Had I lost my mind? No way did I want to confess the truth. That I’d always come up short. Never been good enough for anybody to stick around.
She shook her head, wisps of dark hair fanning around her face. “People know. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.”
I couldn’t argue with her. But I wanted to bear some of her burdens. Not some of them.Every. Single. One.
“Wanna go home?”
