Page 52 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
Still wearing dark blue scrubs, Savannah met him on the walkway, her pretty features tight with unhappy tension that highlighted the small grooves by her mouth. “Emmett, we need to talk.”
“Hell, why not? You can pile on too.” He took her hand and dropped his keys in her palm. “You can drive, but fair warning, Savannah, I am not in the mood for your shit tonight.”
A surprised smile crept over her face, lightening the stress in her eyes, and he sucked in a breath, frowning.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just…you’re cute when you’re angry.” She held up the keys. “You trust me to drive?”
He glared. “Not funny.”
In the passenger seat of his truck, he forced himself into a boneless slump and made himself calm down. He wasn’t going to beat the shit out of Frank, because Savannah wouldn’t drive him to Tallahassee and because it would cost him his job, his self-respect, everything. He wasn’t going to be mad at his mother or Landra for long, because damn it, they loved him and had his best interests at heart, even if they couldn’t see past the fact he was no longer sixteen. He wasn’t going to track Clark down and find out what he knew, because, well, Clark was Clark and they were always good. He was going to calm down, forgive Landra for lying by omission, and maybe later he wouldn’t see those bruises when he tried to close his eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Savannah’s quiet voice interrupted the whirling thoughts.
“You know. You treated her.” He turned his head to look at her, her gaze darting from the road to the rearview mirror and back again. “Hell, you’re the only one I’m not pissed at because at least you have an ethical reason not to tell me the truth.”
Her brows drawn together into a slight frown, she glanced sideways at him. “You’re really way more intense than you look.”
“Only when I’m angry.” He straightened in the seat and rubbed his palms down his thighs. “Usually, I keep it under control. Tonight, I’m mad at the whole damn world.”
She braked for the last stoplight before the edge of town. “So what do you want to do?”
“Pull in up here.” He pointed at the brightly lit Cue Club set off the road a quarter mile ahead of them. “We’ll grab beers and burgers and go to the lime mine.”
The place wasn’t incredibly busy, and their order didn’t take long. Shanna worked the bar tonight and tried to engage him in conversation, but gave up after his repeated monosyllabic replies. She was a great person and he liked her—any other night, he would’ve felt bad about rebuffing the friendly overtures, but not tonight.
He wasn’t in the mood for small talk.
In the truck, he set the sack of burgers on the seat between them and the brown paper bag holding their beers between his feet. He flicked a hand to the right. “About five minutes that way.”
The abandoned lime mine lay miles outside of town, and he directed her down the red dirt road leading to the upper rim. The road narrowed to a grass track, cedar limbs swiping at the sides of his truck before the vegetation opened up along the rim of the man-made canyon.
Savannah laughed. “This is the middle of nowhere.”
“Yeah.” He made a grab for the steering wheel and shoved it to the left as she braked hard. “Don’t get too close to the edge.”
She killed the engine and leaned forward over the steering wheel. He knew what she was seeing—the wide pit yawning darker than the night around them. She shivered. “This cannot be safe.”
“Oh, it’s not.” He grabbed the sack holding their dinner and shoved the door open. “Come on.”
“Emmett.” Nervousness invaded her voice. She hovered near the cab as he let the tailgate down.
“Honey, walk to the back of the truck. It’s away from the pit. And we’re at least thirty feet from the dropoff. Just don’t go beyond the front of the truck.” He sat on the edge of the tailgate. “Didn’t I tell you I wouldn’t let you fall?”
“I didn’t think you meant literally.” She perched beside him, and he passed her a burger from the bag. Night sounds wrapped around them—crickets, an owl, something creeping through the underbrush, and with the city lights gone, stars shone brightly around a glowing moon. The night air was warm and damp against his bare arms, and he inhaled sharply. God, he’d needed this.
She moved the sack and edged closer, her thigh brushing his. “I need to tell you something.”
“Yeah?” He was starting to calm down, the anger and hurt receding under the peace of being out at night and having her next to him, even if nothing was settled between them.
“A couple of years ago, I was engaged and…” Her voice caught on a pained breath. “And he died.”
He closed his eyes against the pain in the simple words. This was it, then, the wall that stood between them, all wrapped up in three little words. He joined their hands, fingers entwined with hers. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.” She pulled in an audible little inhale that was close to a sob. “It was bad. There’d been an accident, and they brought him into my ER, into my exam room, and I didn’t even realize it was him…not until after I pronounced him and we realized he and his partner had been mixed up…”
He released her hand and wrapped his arm hard around her shoulders, pulling her into him. A shudder moved through her strong body, and he tightened his hold on her. “I’m so damned sorry.”
