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“Oh, this should be interesting.” Maybe she wasn’t more compassionate. Maybe hehadhit his head on the hall floor and was delirious.
“No, for real, Dakota.” Jacy twisted her hair into a messy knot. “Dena and I were wondering if you’d ever come across a woman who would be… I don’t know… enough for you.”
“You make it sound as if I’m ultra-choosy or something.”
She barked out a laugh and the EMT riding in the back with them chuckled.
Dakota shot him a look then said, “Maybe it wasn’t me. Maybe it was them.”
“All of those women had something wrong with them?” Jacy’s brows crinkled as if she couldn’t make the math of that statement work.
“The same thing.” Dakota rubbed his forehead with his good hand. “None of them got my need to take off and explore.”
“And Leah does?”
“I think she does, but I’m not sure I’ll get her to ever go with me.”
“Is that a deal breaker for you?”
He turned that one over in his mind. “No, I don’t think it is. She told me to take off if I felt the need to, but she wasn’t ready to travel.” He lifted his head to see Jacy better. “The losing people thing? It’s tied to travel.”
Jacy nodded. “I see.” Her phone buzzed in her lap before she could say more. “Dena says she and Carter are with Leah now. She’ll fill you in later, but—and this is in all caps—DO NOT WORRY.”
Do not worry.Easier said than done.
Chapter Sixteen
Leah’s heartbeat would not settle. It’d been hammering from the moment she’d turned around and seen Dakota spread out on that hall floor.
He’s dead.
That had been her first thought. He was dead and she’d lost another one. Even when he moved, talked, made jokes, and lifted his head to look at her, she hadn’t been convinced that he was alive. That he was going to be okay. That he’d only broken his arm. No, her mind had immediately computed the equation to mean the universe had screwed her again.
No one to blame but myself.
She’d warned herself about getting involved with someone. She’d instituted all her rules and made a plan to live out her days in the quiet mountains of Maplehaven. Alone. Free from entanglements that would only further tear her heart and soul into unrecognizable pieces.
“I can’t do this.”
“Do what?” Dena sat beside her on her couch while Carter used the coffee table as a seat in front of her. “What can’t you do?”
“I can’t love him.”
Dena smiled slightly. “You love my brother?”
“I… Ican’tlove him.” Why did those words make her entire body feel as if she’d been hit by a train? Why were her hands shaking so much?
“Maybe you should leave, Dena,” Carter said. “I’ve got this.”
“I don’t mind. I can help.” Dena’s voice had an edge to it as if she didn’t want to leave until she got a straight answer about Leah loving Dakota.
“I don’t love him,” Leah announced with a voice that sounded strangled and thin. She forced herself to meet Dena’s gaze. “I don’t love Dakota.” She stood. “I’m not able to love anyone.”
Leah rounded the couch and headed down the hallway toward her bedroom. She needed to be away from people right now. People who she knew cared about her, but still people who would never understand how truly frightening it was to see Dakota nearly fall to an untimely demise.
Carter’s and Dena’s voices traveled back to her as she dropped onto her bed, but their words were muted. When the front door opened and closed, Leah figured Carter had convinced Dena to leave. She half hoped he’d left with her.
The light rap on her bedroom door dashed that hope.
