Page 44 of Stormy Knight

the words came out faster than she intended, like they’d been locked inside her waiting to explode.

She didn’t want to see the pity in her best friend’s eyes, or worse… disappointment. She wasn’t being stubborn, she wasn’t trying to push anyone away, she needed to push herself where she could heal.

Whiskey didn’t say anything at first, her eyes scanning Stormy like she was trying to find the right words.

After a long silence, she finally stepped inside, closing the door behind her with a soft click. She didn’t move closer immediately, she stood carefully choosing her words.

“You don’t have to do this alone, Stormy,” she said, her voice low and careful, like she was afraid the wrong words might shatter whatever fragile ground Stormy was standing on. “You don’t have topushyourself like this. You can’t heal by forcing it. You’ve gotta give yourself some grace.”

The words hit harder than Stormy expected. Her eyes burned, and for a second, the urge to retreat, to refuse to hear Whiskey’s words. But something in the honesty in her best friend’s voice made it hard to argue.

“I know,” Stormy whispered, the weight of it all making her shoulders sag. “IknowI’ve been… difficult. But I can’t keep feeling like this. Not with him... I’m just so damn tired ofwaiting… waiting for him to figure things out.”

She hated how desperate she sounded. She hated that her vulnerability was slipping out when all she wanted was control. But Whiskey was there, not judging, not walking away.

“Stormy,” Whiskey stepped forward, her voice gentle, “you’re not waiting for him. You’re waiting for yourself. This isyourtime to heal, your time to breathe again. If you don’t take care of you first, no one else can.”

The truth stung, but it was a truth Stormy knew in her bones, even if she didn’t want to face it. The absence of Reeves felt like an open wound, and she kept hoping that if she pushed through, if shedidmore, if shemovedpast it, the truth of what happened to her wouldn’t be real.

She sank down onto the edge of the bed, the fight draining out of her for the moment. “I don’t know how to stop feeling like this,” she admitted quietly, her head dropping into her hands. “I don’t know how to let it go.”

Whiskey sat beside her, her presence the strength she needed.

“You don’t have to figure it all out today. You just have to let yourself beherefor a little while.” Whiskey remembered a time when Stormy had been the one saying those words to her. She remembered being the one hurting in many ways, fear, disappointment and doubt creeping in to her mind at every turn. The best she could do was be there for her best friend the same she’d done for her.

Stormy didn’t say anything in response. She just let the quiet between them settle, her heart a little lighter for the first time in days.

EPILOGUE

The ranch house seemed to echo with the weight of the years, both in its sprawling fields and in the thoughts that weighed heavily on her heart. The floor to ceiling windows gave her an uninterrupted view of the world Reeves had grown up in… wild, untamed, and yet undeniably shaped him. The oil pumps in the distance moved in slow, mechanical rhythm, a quiet reminder of their place in a cycle that had been running long before she entered the picture and would likely continue long after she was gone.

But none of that had ever truly mattered to her, not in the way people would have expected. She wasn’t interested in the acreage, the wealth, or the power that came with it. What she’d wanted—what she still wanted—was Reeves. She didn’t want the life he could provide. She wanted him, raw and unguarded, the way he used to be before the walls went up between them.

She leaned closer to the window, her breath fogging the glass slightly as her mind drifted back to the day he’d shoved her away. Two years had passed since then, and time hadn’t dulled the ache of that moment. It wasn’t just the rejection that stung—it was the way it felt like a part of herself had been denied, a part of her future had been erased without explanation.

In the chaos that followed, she’d allowed herself to get tangled up in someone else, someone who could never be Reeves. Paul had seemed safe. He turned out to be nothing like he seemed.

And now, standing in this house, staring out at the land that might as well have belonged to someone else for all it mattered to her, all she could think of was what might have been, if only she hadn’t let him push her away, if only she hadn’t let herself walk away from him in return. She should have fought harder for them. She shouldn’t have let the distance grow between them until it felt impossible to cross.

She wasn’t sure what had brought her here today, to this discussion, this moment.

Maybe it was the idea that if you came close enough to death—if you lived through something as terrifying as a close call—it gave you the clarity to see all the things you’d been running from. Or maybe she just needed to see, to feel likeheragain, like the girl who had once been willing to let all her walls down and let herself fall.

To dream of a future neither of them had been ready for.

Whatever it was, she couldn’t walk away this time—not without finding out if there was any chance left.

The soft thud of her suitcase closing felt final, like the last page of a book she’d read one too many times. It was hard to believe that after everything, after months of wrangling with her emotions, she was leaving Texas Creek with no clearer understanding of what she was meant to do with the pieces of herself she’d left behind.

She’d spent those days, weeks, and hours believing that maybe there was still something here with Reeves. But as each day passed, the truth became harder to ignore: the silencebetween them had grown too heavy, the moments when he had seemed to open up only to retreat again—those had hurt her heart. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make herself stay in a place where she wasn’t sure of things, especially not when he hadn’t said what she needed to hear.

Her friends had tried to tell her she was making a mistake. That love didn’t always look the way you expected it to. That she was throwing away something that could be worth it in the end, if only she could hold on long enough to let it grow. But Stormy knew firsthand what it was like to give everything and get nothing in return. To be with someone who had walls so high, you weren’t even sure how to begin to climb them.

The fact was,Reeveshadn’t said the words. He’d given her pieces—late nights, quiet moments, the kind of tenderness that could’ve meant everything—or nothing, but he hadn’t said what she needed to hear. Maybe she should’ve known better than to think there was a chance for them when he wouldn’t let himself cross that line. Maybe he was afraid, maybe he didn’t trust her with his heart. Whatever it was, he hadn’t made it clear that he wanted to try. So, in the end, it wasn’t about giving up on him—it was about not losing herself in something that wasn’t going to be.

She wasn’t sure what made it final, exactly. The realization that she was standing on the edge of something she wasn’t willing to jump into blindly anymore. Maybe it was both. But either way, the decision was made when Reeves distanced himself from her after bringing her back to the ranch.

She turned toward the door, her eyes lingering on the familiarity of the place. The smell of the land, the endless sky, the hum of the oil pumps just outside the window—all of it had once felt like a part of her future. But now? Now it felt like a place she was meant to leave behind.

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