Page 28 of Let Her Buck

I want to run. I want to shut my eyes and stop the memory from swallowing me whole.

But I can’t. Because this isn’t a memory.

This is happening again. Right now.

And it’s not just anyone out there.

It’s him. It’s Weston.

The man who made me feel brave again. The man who held me like I mattered, who looked at me like I was more than enough, who made my body sing and my heart ache. The man who asked me to wait…

The man I fell in love with while I was waiting.

The realization slams into me harder than West slammed into the ground.

I love him.

And I’m about to lose him.

My feet move before I can think. I shove through the crowd, tears streaming down my face, praying to a God I haven’t spoken to in years.Please, please, not again. Don’t take him from me too.

He can’t be gone. He just can’t.

Because I never got to tell him…“I love you, West.”

Chapter Ten

West

Pain shoots through my ribs, hot and sharp, enough to suck the breath right out of my lungs. My head is ringing. Everything feels too loud. Too much.

I try to move—bad idea. My body protests with fire. But it’s not the pain that scares me. It’s not even the fall.

It’s her. Laney.

Did she see? God, please tell me she didn’t see.

I can’t have her reliving that moment…I know how much her father’s accident broke her, I can’t—

Suddenly, I see her, barreling through the chaos, her face crumpled with fear. Some people try to stop her, but she shakes them off like a storm. Someone calls her name in a loud voice, but she seems deaf and blind to the world around her, her eyes focused solely on me.

“Laney,” I rasp, forcing my breath past my dry lips.

She drops to her knees beside me, her hands trembling, hovering like she wants to touch me but doesn’t know how. Tears streak her face, and I want to wipe them away—hell, I want to hold her so bad it burns.

“Are you okay?” she chokes out, her eyes avidly searching my face. “West, please, say something.”

I want to joke. I want to tell her it’s just a scratch. But I see something deeper in her eyes, something raw that has my chest tightening with a pain greater than the one shooting through my body.

It’s no time for jokes.

“I’m okay,” I manage, even though I’m not sure I am.

She presses her forehead to mine, whispering, “West, I love you. I love you so much.”

My heart stops. My breathing ceases.

Did I hear her right? Did Laney just say that she loves me?

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