AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hailee shook her head. “No. But don’t think I’m stupid. Just because nobody is here now doesn’t mean that somebody wasn’t here.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “Hailee, I’m being serious with you. And right now, I don’t have the time to get into a whole lot of details. Here’s what I’ll say. Yes, there’s someone. But it’s new. As in, very new. We’re still getting to know one another, so you showing up like this isn’t exactly ideal.”
“Is she here now?” Hailee questioned me.
“She was here when I got in the shower,” I answered.
Confusion littered her expression. “Maybe she got in her car and left before I showed up,” Hailee suggested.
“She wouldn’t have gotten in her car. She lives in the other cabin over there,” I said as I pointed in the opposite direction. “But she clearly left here without her jacket or sweater, so I think something might be wrong.”
Confusion turned to concern. “Do you want to go check on her? I can wait around and make sure everything is okay. Maybe I could meet her.”
Nope.
No way.
Dakota and I were still far too new for me to even consider throwing this on her. As it was, I wasn’t even sure why she’d gone at all. But at this point, I knew I needed to go and find out. She’d come here this morning, essentially frozen. I couldn’t imagine she would have just left here without her jacket or sweater unless something was terribly wrong.
I moved toward Hailee, wrapped my hands around her shoulders, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “No, I don’t want you to wait around. I’m not springing this on Dakota like this. You need to go home. Drive safe, and don’t just show up here.”
“Her name is Dakota?” she asked.
I let out a growl of frustration. “Hailee,” I called with a warning in my voice.
She threw her hands up in surrender and acquiesced, “Fine, I’ll go. But promise you won’t hide forever.”
“I promise,” I said. “And make sure that you tell Jessa, Brooklynn, and Blair the same thing. I’ll do this when Dakota and I are both ready, not before. And if any one of you forces it, I’m not going to be happy.”
Disappointment washed over her. “Okay.”
With that, Hailee turned and moved toward the door. I followed her there, reached around her to open it, and allowed her to walk through. Just before she walked down the stairs on the porch to go to her car, Hailee turned around and called, “Jack?”
“Yeah?”
Following a beat, she smiled and said, “I’m really happy for you. I hope this works out the way you want it to.”
This had been a long time coming. I knew how invested Hailee, Jessa, Brooklynn, and Blair all were, so her words were not a surprise.
“Thanks, Hailee. That means a lot.”
A moment later, she descended the stairs. I waited until she made it to her car before I closed the door and immediately went about getting myself dressed to head outside.
I didn’t know what happened with Dakota, but I wasn’t going to wait around to find out.
THIRTEEN
Dakota
It happened well before I was ready for it.
If I was being completely honest, I was surprised by it happening so soon, too.
The knock at my door.
The moment I heard it, my body tensed.
While I knew I was eventually going to have to deal with this, I didn’t think I’d have to do it while the wounds were still so fresh, literally and figuratively speaking.
