“Saturday?” she asks.
A slow smile spreads on my lips, unable to control myself. I’ve won, at least for now. Pressing my mouth against hers, I taste her one last time before I take a step back from her warmth.
“Saturday. Give me your phone and I’ll program my shit,” I murmur.
She reaches into her scrub pocket and hands me her device. I quickly add my information, then place a call to my phone so that I’ll have her number, too.
“When do you work again?” I ask.
“Tonight, was my last night, then I would normally work Saturday night, too, but I switched with someone. My schedule is all off this week,” she explains, her eyes wide and she’s babbling.
“You always work with that tool doctor?” I ask, not forgetting the man that bumbled and fumbled around when she arrived at her car.
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “He works in cardiology.”
I snort, nodding my head. I have no doubt that he has her schedule memorized and makes sure he’s working when she is. He seems the fucking type.
“I’ll text you later tonight, maybe we can get together before Saturday,” I murmur.
She nods, looking to the side and then back to me. “What do you want, Wyatt? Just sex?” she asks.
Shaking my head, I level her with my eyes. “Sugar, if all I wanted was an easy lay, I wouldn’t be tracking you down at work and asking you out on a fucking date. Sex is the easy shit. I want more.”
Turning away from her, I walk over to my truck. Climbing inside, I watch her as she slips inside of her own vehicle. I don’t move until she’s started her car and pulls out of her space. Only then do I leave the parking garage and head back toward Gallup to pick up Rylan for a long day of work.
EXETER
I try and fail, not to think about Wyatt as I drive home. I practically follow behind his truck the entire way. I would recognize the big machine anywhere, and that dark headed bearded man driving, too. My heart won’t stop racing, the adrenaline spiking throughout my entire body from our exchange.
I want him. He wants more and I can’t deny that I do too. I want more of him. I know that he’ll figure out soon enough that I’m not worth the time. Selfishly, I want what little time I can have with him. It’s going to really hurt to watch the look in his eyes when he realizes that I’m not all that great. That I’m not anyone he wants as his own, but maybe I can survive it without completely falling apart?
I doubt it.
Pulling into my small driveway, I let out a sigh at what waits for me on the front porch. Killing my engine, I open the driver’s door and close it quietly. I take a few steps in the direction of my guest. She’s standing there with a small suitcase at her side.
I haven’t seen her since she was lying naked on the floor, Wyatt on top of her, wrestling a knife from her hands.
“Ex,” she rasps as I get closer.
“Emily,” I murmur.
“I have to check myself into a facility, or the police are going to do it for me,” she explains. “They had me on a forty-eight-hour hold. But the only way they aren’t going to press charges is if I voluntarily check myself into a clinic,” she explains.
I let out a breath. She needs the help, God knows that she really, really, needs it. To be honest, I probably do, too, more than just a counseling appointment a few times a month. Maybe I wouldn’t be waiting for whatever this is between me and Wyatt to fail if I had the help that I truly needed. Although, he’s going to realize what a mistake I am, in general, soon enough. There is no way that he can’t.
“Do you need a ride?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Sheriff Robby is going to be here in a few minutes to take me. I’m going all the way to Austin,” she explains.
I nod, taking a step closer. I wrap my arms around her in a hug, and she does the same before she bursts out into tears. “I’m so sorry. I’m a mess and you’ve been trying to help me, and I just haven’t been reasonable,” she rambles.
“I love you, Emily. Get help, then come home. You’ll always have a home with me,” I say as my own eyes fill with tears.
She hiccups, lifting her head from my shoulder, her eyes finding mine. “I’m not coming back to Gallup. I think I’m going to stay in Austin,” she says.
“Why?”
I hate how panicked my voice comes out. She smiles, her hands taking mine and holding it between her own. “I need to be free of this place. I need to be free of my father and his memories. You do too, Exeter. When I’m finished, when I’m out, come to Austin. We can start over.”
Her words, they spark something inside of me. I should jump on the chance. It’s a way to get out and not be alone. She would be at my side, as she’s always been. We would enable one another, just as we’ve always done. That thought makes me pause.
“I don’t think so,” I whisper. She frowns, her eyes finding mine, and she waits for me to continue. “We need to heal, but we shouldn’t enable one another. If I follow you, that’s exactly what will happen. That’s what we’ve always done.”
“We support one another,” she argues, letting my hands fall from her grasp.
Shaking my head, I clench my fists to keep from reaching out for her. “We don’t, Emily. We enable. It’s what we’ve always done. We need to heal, we need to find our own paths and yours is in Austin, mine is here.”
“This is about that bearded asshole, isn’t it?” she spits.
I close my eyes, unable to deny her accusations. It is about Wyatt, kind of. Selfishly, I want more of him. More of his touch, more of his mouth, just more. Until he’s finished with me. Until he figures out that I’m not worth even an ounce of his attention.
“It’s only partially about Wyatt, Emily. I do really think we enable one another. I know that I’ve permitted your wildness, your relationship with Jacob.” Just thinking about that asshole pervert makes my stomach clench.
I hear the car pull down the gravel drive and watch as she lifts her gaze and looks over my shoulder, then shifts her eyes back to me.
“That man is fucked up, his whole family is. You know that Rylan just got out of jail? Jacob told me everything. The bearded dick pulled a gun on me and shot James. He is not a white knight, and once he realizes what you are, he will be gone,” she sneers.
“Emily,” Sheriff Robby calls out.
I lift my hand, holding him off, my eyes focused on my cousin’s angry gaze. “You think that I don’t know that he’s better than me in every way a person could be? I know he is, Emily. The thing is, he wants me, and while he’ll have me, I’m holding the fuck on,” I hiss.
She jerks her head. “He ain’t better than you, Exeter. You are better than him, better than his whole fucking family.”
“Oh yeah?” I snort.
“Yeah.” She nods. “He’ll realize you’re better than him, he’ll see that he don’t deserve you and he’ll dump your ass. He will not save you from a damn thing, Exeter.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” I mutter.
She reaches out for my hand, taking it in hers again and I lift my gaze to meet her eyes. She looks lucid enough, but I’m not convinced.