No. They wouldn’t be doing anything together. Not after this. “I don’t want to talk to him. I’m not interested.”
The front door opened and Agatha stuck her head out. “There you two are. Breakfast is on. Don’t want that marvelous egg casserole to go cold, do we?”
Kyler wouldn’t take his eyes off Emery. “We’ll be in soon.”
“I’m not hungry.” She turned and walked away.
“Wait.” He followed her, so she walked faster.
“I need space.” She needed time to pack up her things and get out of here. Now that Kyler had given her away, it was only a matter of time until the private investigator came looking again.
The footsteps behind her stopped, but she refused to turn around and look at the man. She wouldn’t be able to see him through the tears anyway.
She knew better than to let her heart get attached and yet she’d done it anyway. That would make it all the more painful to leave.
* * *
Usually there were no blues a good fishing trip couldn’t cure, but Kyler couldn’t seem to focus on the trout. Even sitting out on the pond in Nash’s canoe, with the sun shining on his face and the mountains looking perfect in the distance and Bri humming a sweet song, he couldn’t seem to inhale a deep breath.
“I don’t like touching the worms,” his niece informed him, peering into the carton they’d picked up at the bait shop in town. “They’re so slimy and gross.”
“You might change your mind when you see the fish they help you catch.” He tried to smile at her, but it likely fell flat. After Emery had asked him for space earlier, he had no choice but to give it to her. He didn’t want to be forceful, didn’t want to run her off, and yet he felt this desperation to find her so he could tell her what he’d realized the moment she walked away from him. He was falling in love with her. He hadn’t known her long, and they still had a lot to discover about each other, but he knew. He wanted to be with her. Now he might not get the chance.
“What’s wrong, Uncle Kyler?”
He realized he was still holding the worm between his fingers. Right. He had to actually put it on the hook and teach Bri how to cast the fishing pole. He’d spent all day with his niece trying to drown out his regrets about how he’d handled things with Emery. She was right. He shouldn’t have gone to talk to the investigator without her permission. He should’ve given her say in that decision. It wasn’t his to make.
“You seem sad,” his niece reached over and patted his knee. “Is it because Miss Emery didn’t eat breakfast with us? Where’d she go? I haven’t seen her all day.”
“I’m not sure where she went.” When they’d come back from picking up the bait, he’d noticed her truck was gone. “She’s probably running some errands. I’m sure we’ll see her for dinner.” He tried to sound more hopeful than he felt. If their last conversation was any indication, Emery didn’t wouldn’t want to see him, let alone talk to him.
“Okay, small pint.” He got the worm secured on the hook and handed her the pink Barbie fishing pole they’d picked up at a gas station. “To cast that baby out there, all you have to do is push this button right here.” He showed her the white lever on the pole. “And then fling it out like this.” He helped her make the casting motion, and the worm went hurtling out into the water. “Then we sit and wait while we watch the bobber.” He pointed to the bubble sitting on the surface about ten feet away. Who knew they made pink bobbers?
“We have to wait?” Based on the scowl on her face, Bri hadn’t anticipated that patience would be part of this process.
“I’m afraid so. We have to wait for the fish to bite the worm.” He knew from past experience that could take a while.
“Wait.” The girl’s eyes popped open wider. “The fish eat the worm? Oh no! The poor worm!”
Despite the heavy rock of regret sitting in his gut, Kyler had to smile. Maybe he should’ve done a better job explaining how this fishing thing worked. “I thought you didn’t like worms.”
“I don’t but that doesn’t mean the poor little wormy should have to die.” She started to turn the crank on the fishing pole, reeling the line back in. “It’s okay little guy! I’ll save you!”
“You have a big heart, Bri.” He couldn’t wait to see what she would do with it someday. Even with all she’d been through, she was still kind and compassionate.
“You have a big heart too,” the girl told him, setting aside the fishing pole. “Do you love Emery?”
Eventually he’d likely get used to questions coming out of the blue, having a kid around and all, but this one took him off guard. He considered the best answer.
“Because it sure looks like you love her. You stare at her a lot,” she said before he could come up with something.
“I guess I do.”
“She stares at you a lot too,” his niece informed him. “So even if she’s mad at you, I think she’ll still like you.”
“Thanks.” It seemed his niece was more perceptive than he’d given her credit for. And maybe more optimistic than him as well.
“Kyler!” Agatha frantically waved at them from the dock on the other side of the pond. “Have you talked to Emery?”
“No!” his niece yelled, answering for him. “She’s mad at him!”
Leave it to the kids to tell things like they really were. He started to row back to the dock.
“Did she tell you where she was going?” Agatha asked when they pulled up alongside her. He’d never seen that worried frown on her face before.
“Because her stuff is gone. All of it. She must’ve cleaned out her room while I was running errands earlier.
“She’s gone?” She couldn’t be. Not that fast. Not without at least telling him and Bri goodbye. “There’s got to be a mistake—”
“Her clothes are gone. Her suitcases…Cupid…” The older woman looked at him helplessly. “I don’t know where she would go. This was her home. I told her it could be her home as long as she wanted it to be.”
But then he’d gone and scared her away. “She couldn’t have gotten too far.” He helped Bri climb out of the boat and then made it to the dock, adrenaline coursing through him.
“I don’t understand.” Bri grabbed his hand as though she needed reassurance. “Why would she leave without telling us goodbye?”
“She’s afraid, honey.” Instead of easing her fears, he’d fueled them. “But we’ll look for her.” He couldn’t just let her go, let her keep running. “We can drive around. Maybe go in opposite directions.” He and Agatha and Bri hurried across the dock to the meadow. “Agatha, you can drive east, and I’ll drive west.” He would follow the same path they’d taken up the pass. “Maybe she’s still nearby.”
Maybe it wasn’t too late for him to tell her he loved her.
Chapter Eleven
Cupid whined at Emery from the passenger’s seat.
“Don’t look at me like that.” She couldn’t face those puppy dog eyes right now. “I don’t have a choice, buddy.” All afternoon, she’d run on adrenaline, waiting until Agatha left to go through her room and box up her few belongings. But now that she’d made it thirty miles away from town, the sadness and despair had started to settle in.
Despite her best efforts to remain independent, Agatha had become like a mother to her. Nash and Mack like her siblings. Bri had been her friend, and Kyler…she hadn’t known her heart was capable of expanding that way. “He asked too much of me though,” she told her dog. She wanted simplicity, anonymity. The truth was, she’d given up on justice a long time ago. They could try to take Nick down—all of them together—and there was still a chance that they would lose. That his impeccable military record would invalidate their claims. They could seek justice and lose.
The dog whined again and rested his chin on his front paws as though resigning himself to their fate. “It will be okay.” The promise sounded empty, even to her. “We’ll figure things out.” She would go somewhere no one could find her. Not investigators,
not Nick. She would simply start over again and someday her heart wouldn’t hurt this way. “It’s for the best,” she said again, willing herself to believe it.
In front of her, the highway stretched out, one thin line between two mountain ranges. She’d decided to head east—toward Denver—but now the vastness of what lay ahead made her feel small and alone. She’d always been fine being alone. Until she’d found herself at the Forget-Me-Not Ranch.
A shudder coursed through her…or maybe through the truck. Emery glanced at the dashboard, feeling the steering wheel quake beneath her fingertips. Something wasn’t right…
A clunking sound seemed to reverberate under her feet, and the whole truck lurched and gasped. No. Not here. Not now. Easing her foot onto the brakes, she carefully steered the truck off onto the shoulder where it completely died. This time it wasn’t just the starter. From the sound of things, the engine had finally given out.
Cupid whined and scratched against the door, trying the handle. Emery unlocked it and the dog let himself out of the truck. She climbed out too, the dread thick in her chest. She couldn’t fix something like this with a few taps of the hammer.
“Ahh!” She screamed into the wind and kicked the truck’s tire. Why had Nick taken so much from her? Why had he ruined her? She kicked the tire again and again and again, releasing her anger, her fury, her anguish. Why was he still doing this to her? Making her run? Making her hide?
Cupid howled, standing up on his hindlegs so that his front paws came to her shoulders like he was hugging her.
Emery wrapped her arms around the dog and crumbled to the dirt in a crying heap. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” She wasn’t as strong as she pretended to be. Maybe it was her fragility that scared her the most.
The sound of a car in the distance lifted her head. Rising to her knees, Emery watched a familiar SUV move closer and closer until her salvation was there. Agatha got out of the car. Agatha with her long braids and tattered overalls and her colorful rubber boots.
Before a word could even escape Emery’s lips, the woman’s arms came around her, holding her together.
“Oh, my poor sweet, Em,” she murmured, exactly like a mother would. “Everything will be all right, beautiful girl. You’ll see.”
She peeked up at the angel who’d give her a lifeline more than once before. The angel who always seemed to know when she was about to fall. “Why do you believe that?” she asked.
“Because when it comes down to it, faith is all any of us really has.” The woman helped her up off the ground, supporting her with an arm around her waist. “Everything else can be taken away from us. We can be wounded and hurt. But faith will hold us together. Even if you’ve lost yours. I have enough for us both.”
“I did lose mine.” She’d lost her faith in love as a little girl. She’d lost her faith in justice. She’d lost her faith in herself.
Agatha led her to the passenger’s seat of her SUV and then opened the backdoor for Cupid. Emery tried to settle herself, but she couldn’t seem to staunch the steady flow of tears. When Agatha got into the car, Emery turned to her and let everything come out. Her story. Her pain. Her secrets. The woman sat and listened, a calm presence.
“I’m too afraid to fight,” Emery told her. That was the truth. She’d hadn’t been angry with Kyler for talking to the investigator. She’d given in to her fears again.
Agatha held her hand. “But you’re not fighting alone anymore. You have us to fight with you. To fight for you. Me and Nash and Mack.” She paused, a smile brimming on her lips. “And Kyler. Oh, my dear, that man loves you.”
“He can’t love me.” Even as she said the words, she knew they weren’t true. That was the fear talking again.
“He can and he does,” Agatha corrected. “You are worthy of love, Emery.” Her voice grew stern. “Not only that, you deserve to be loved. If you let yourself be loved, it will change your whole life. Love will make you braver and stronger. It will carry you through.”
If she could let it carry her through. Was she that strong? Could she be brave? She’d never know unless she tried. “Can you take me into town?” Anxiety spiked in her chest, but she breathed deep and fought it back. “I need to talk to that investigator.”
“Of course.” Agatha started the engine and pulled back onto the highway. “We’ll talk to him together.”
The closer they got to River Haven, the more Emery’s stomach hurt, the more her heart palpitated. Once she took this step, she wouldn’t be able to go back.
“Focus on the freedom,” Agatha said as though she could sense her distress. “You’re not alone.”
Kyler had said the same thing to her. The memory raised her up, giving her a promise to stand on. They wouldn’t abandon her like everyone else had.
Agatha swung the SUV into a parking spot in front of the coffee shop and right when she stepped out of the car, Emery saw Kyler and Bri walking down the sidewalk. The tears started again, but they were happy this time, coming with a smile.
“Emery.” The man stopped a few feet away like he was afraid she would run again.
“There you are!” Bri said excitedly. “I told Uncle Kyler you’d come back.”
“I came back.” She wouldn’t run away again. This time, she ran to him and wrapped him in a hug. “What’re you doing here?”
Something that sounded like a relieved sigh hummed against her neck. “I’m here to tell the investigator to leave you alone.” Kyler tipped his head back to look down at her. “What’re you doing here?”
Emery peeked back at Agatha. “I want to tell him my story.” She was terrified and humiliated and unsure, but… “I need you.” She squeezed his hand in hers and then reached for Bri’s. “And I need you. And I need Agatha and Mack and Nash.”
“And Cookie!” the girl added.
Emery laughed. “And Cookie.” She brought her hand to Kyler’s stubbled jaw, bringing his face closer to hers. “The truth is, I need you all.”
“And we need you,” the man said, right before he kissed her.
* * *
Spring was coming.
Emery stepped outside onto Agatha’s porch and inhaled deeply. Snow still crusted parts of the meadow, but the swaying grasses and the baby stems of wildflowers were starting to push through. With it being only April, she knew they’d get a few more snowstorms, but these glimpses of spring helped to remind her what was coming—rebirth, new life, warms days and star-lit nights. Those were things she loved, the things she hoped for, the things that had gotten her through the last six months.
Across the way, Nash and Mack’s front door opened and Kyler slipped out into the early morning. They’d discovered this was their time—those moments as dawn took hold of the world, waking everything up. It was really the only time they had alone since Bri had settled into sleeping until at least seven thirty every morning. Emery looked forward to waking up early, to greeting the day alongside Kyler.
She walked down the porch steps to meet him on the driveway the same way she did every morning. Cupid trotted along behind her, still yawning. Her dog hadn’t adjusted to early morning wakeup calls every morning, but when he saw Kyler coming, he perked up right away.
“Good morning.” The man took her hand in his, warming not just her skin, but the whole inside of her. These last six months, he’d walked with her. He’d been by her side when she’d talked to the investigator, when she’d met with Nick’s other three accusers. He’d been by her side as she’d traveled for every deposition, every interview, every meeting, and though the case against her abuser was still working its way through the justice system, things were looking promising.
“You look beautiful.” Kyler told her that every morning, but she never got tired of hearing it. “I can’t wait until I can wake up and see your face first thing.” He stopped and pulled her to him, making Cupid whine like he didn’t want to be left out.
“I can’t wait for that either.” They’d agreed to take thin
gs slow—for all of their sakes—as they waded through grief and counseling and dealing with the things of the past so they would be ready for a new future. She couldn’t say she’d ever be fully healed, but love was doing its work, making its way through her, restoring the depth of her joy and understanding and hope.
“I thought we’d walk down by the pond this morning,” Kyler said, moving his hands up underneath her coat, stirring every nerve ending into a visceral awareness.
The force of her desire for him seemed to grow stronger and stronger every time he touched her. “That sounds perfect.”
They walked side-by-side again, fingers weaved together with Cupid trying to wedge himself in between them.
“I can feel the air changing already,” Kyler commented, directing his gaze to the eastern horizon where the sun had started to breathe life into the sky.
“Me too.” In so many ways, the coldness of winter felt far behind them, like they were walking away from it, walking toward something new.
Kyler squeezed her hand tighter and led her along the water’s edge as they stepped over rocks and sticks. Steam rose from the surface of the small lake, catching the early sun’s glow. She almost didn’t want to speak, to disturb the peace, to say anything that would intrude on the perfection all around them.
Together, they wandered onto the dock, with Cupid pawing at the water, but unwilling to go for a swim in the chilly snowmelt. At the very end of the warped pier, Kyler turned her to face him. How the man’s eyes could tell her so much, she would never know, but she could read them, she could feel an anticipation radiating off him. “What’s going on?”
He shot her the grin that had changed her life and lowered himself to one knee in front of her. “Emery Quinn…Kelly Pryor…I am madly in love with you.”
Seeming concerned about the man, Cupid hurried over and gave his face a good licking. Kyler closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut waiting out the bath while Emery laughed and cried.
This Thing Called Love (Forget-Me-Not Ranch Book 2) Page 8