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“How are you getting to her dad’s place?” I asked. “You need my keys to take her?”
“Nah.” Savage shook his head. “Acid’s coming. He’s borrowing Joni’s SUV.”
“Acid’s coming?” Sailor whispered to Waverly.
Waverly shrugged.
I looked at Duke. “We’re going to need a few more vehicles if we’re going to have two driving teenagers.”
He rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, it’s looking that way.”
“While we’re putting in for things we want, I’d like a pony,” Savage quipped.
“How about a spare room at the new house,” I drawled. “We’ll get the horse later.”
Savage’s levity vanished. “You’re offering me a room? In your new home?”
“Our home,” I corrected, stepping toward Duke and wrapping an arm around his waist and nuzzling into him. “You didn’t think we’d have a house and not have a room for you, did you?”
Savage looked at Duke. Duke nodded. “Yeah, you idiot. You’re family. Nothing’s changed.”
“Everything’s changed,” Savage protested.
“Not this,” I said. “Not us. Never us.”
Savage marched over and embraced us. “You guys, I don’t even know what to say.”
“There’s a first,” Duke quipped.
“It’s oddly quiet in here without them,” I said opening the fridge and pulling out a beer. I handed one to Duke and he took it. “I don’t think I like the quiet that much. Gives you too much time to think.”
He cracked open the beer and took a sip. “You need something to get into your head and blow out all the thoughts swirling up there. A couple of hundred miles on the back of my bike, the wind on your face, the sun at your back, you’ll be thinking clearly in no time.”
I nodded and took a drink. The light glinted off my engagement ring. The engagement ring that suddenly felt wrong on my finger.
Anxiety spilled through my chest, circled through my veins, pumped through my heart, and filled every crevice of my body.
I hastily set the bottle of beer down but missed the edge of the counter and it hit the floor, spilling immediately. But I didn’t care, I was too busy clawing at my finger trying to get the ring off.
“Willa,” Duke called. “Willa, hey.”
“Off,” I gasped. “I need this off…”
I nearly ripped the ring from my finger and then I sank to the floor. I pressed against the cabinets and set my forehead on my knees, trying to breathe air into my lungs.
Nothing was working. I couldn’t make sense of my thoughts. My insides were ready to burst out of my skin, like they wanted to run far away and seek shelter.
“Willa. Look at me.”
I forced my knees from my chest and peered at him. Duke had sat down in front of me, and he’d stretched his legs out enough that even though they were still bent, they were on either side of my body, like he was caging me in.
Protecting me.
He reached out and gently grasped my throat, stroking a thumb along the column of my neck. He took my hand and put it on his heart and covered it with his own.
“Breathe with me. Yeah, like that.”
There was only a bit of pressure around my neck from his fingers. I focused on the feel of them, the sensation of his skin on mine.
