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Pete’s phone rang and he answered it, putting it on speaker. Grant’s voice echoed through the truck over the hum of the engine.
“I’m following behind you, but I wanted to ask if Sierra wants to call the police. Does she want a restraining order in place?”
Pete glanced back at me. I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Would that matter in the long run?” Pete asked, his eyes shining in the dark interior of the truck. “Her parents would likely fight it.”
“It would stop her parents and her ex-fiancé from being able to approach her.”
Pete kept his eyes on me, waiting for my answer.
“Okay,” I said in a near whisper, choking on the word. Some small ember of regret blossomed in my chest. These were my parents. What kind of daughter was I?
“I’ll call the sheriff. He’ll probably want to see her tonight, take a statement,” Grant continued, sighing heavily.
I winced and sunk into my seat, focusing my gaze on the drenched pastures we passed.
“If we gotta do it, we gotta do it,” George said softly. “All of us.”
All of them. Because all of them were involved in my mess now. I squeezed my eyes shut and leaned my head on the window, fighting back tears.
We drove in silence for the rest of the drive. Eventually, George pulled into the long, dirt road that led to the ranch, which was lit up like a beckon in the storm.
George pulled into the driveway and got out. So did Pete.
But I couldn’t bring myself to even unbuckle my seatbelt.
Pete and George exchanged a few muffled words I couldn’t hear, and then Pete turned to look at me through the rain-covered window. He waved to George, and George walked up to the frontporch. The door opened and Keely stepped out with Moira, both of them wearing similar expressions of alarm.
Embarrassment racked my body, sinking like talons into my chest.
But then Pete walked around the truck and got into the backseat, shutting the door behind him.
“I’m not even going to ask if you’re all right because I know you’re not,” he said, heaving a sigh. “What happened this evening was fucked up, but none of it is your fault.” He reached out to touch me, his hand caressing my cheek. I almost flinched away.
“What if she followed us up here?”
He shrugged, a smirk touching his lips. “I’d rather have a showdown with your leech of a mother in private, less trouble that way anyway.”
“I don’t want to impose on Moira and Grant—”
“You’re not.”
“I just want to go home!” Tears fell from my lashes and my throat tightened around a sob. “I want to go home.”
“Home, as in our home, or home with your mother?”
His words struck me like a bolt of lightning. I opened my mouth to answer that of course I meant his apartment, but for some reason that lingering doubt shot up my spine and left me breathless.
“I didn’t think they’d go this far,” I admitted. “I didn’t think she’d try to physically drag me home. Sometimes I think it would have just been easier to give in and marry Jonah.”
The words tasted like acid.
“I’m not letting you go this easy,” Pete said, shaking his head.
“But now your friends are involved.”
“This is my family,” he said with gentle firmness. “My family, and yours. You need to know that, Sierra. You’re part of this group—this family. I’d want it that way even if you weren’t pregnant. I want you here if that’s what you want, even if it means I have to go to war for you. I would. I’ll fight for you.”
