Page 81 of Wyatt

“Yes. Or me to influence him.”

“You could have come back to Montana. Even if we weren’t together, you’re always welcome at the Triple M. My mother loves you like a daughter—”

“You weren’t the only one who was ashamed.”

His eyes widened.

“I knew your family was religious, Wyatt. It’s probably why I like them. You all had this belief in God on your side, and I desperately wanted to believe in that too. So I hung on to your family like it might be a blanket over me. Especially after my mother died. And then…then I did the unthinkable.”

A beat, and he raised his eyebrows.

“I slept with the golden son of the family.”

“I’m hardly the golden son—”

“You were on television. Your dad watched every single Bobcat game.”

Wyatt blinked at that, frowned. “He did?”

“Yes. Absolutely. And I was about to destroy everything by getting pregnant.”

He swallowed.

Oh, she hadn’t realized how much she wanted, in that moment, for him to sayYou wouldn’t have destroyed anything.

His silence told her the truth.

She’d been right, oh so right, to run away.

“I would have said yes if you’d proposed, Wyatt,” she said quietly.

He looked up at her.

“Which is why I had to leave.”

“Cookie—”

“It’s my life. I have to leave to protect people. My father. You.” Her throat thickened. “Mikka.”

“Not anymore.”

He reached out for her, but she pulled her hand away.

“Coco—”

“No, Wyatt. The only thing different now is that you know about Mikka. He’s not any safer. And now, neither are you. I bring trouble into people’s lives.”And if you’re not careful, you’re going to get your son killed.“You should have forgotten about me, like I said.”

“Are youkiddingme?” His outburst reeled her back. “That would be like forgetting…forgetting how to breathe.”

Oh brother. He was so dramatic. “Hardly. You forgot me the moment you left Montana. My showing up a year later only got in the way.”

“What—?”

“You’d think I’d figure it out but no, I had to be a glutton for punishment and show up again, two years later.”

“In Moscow? Coco, my heart nearly stopped when you showed up at my suite.”

“I remember.”

---