Page 145 of Here With Me
Again, wasn’t my business.
Noah
Don’t do that.
Fisher
What am I doing?
Noah
Acting like you have no right to know about my life or what I’m doing. Just because we’re not together doesn’t mean we can’t be involved in each other’s lives as friends.
Fisher
I don’t want to keep hurting you, Noah.
I grab the pillows and blankets I set in the front seat and bring them to the back. As much as I love talking to her, I know it only makes it worse. Someday, she’ll find someone who’s right for her. When that day comes, I’ll wish her the best and drown myself in a bottle of whiskey.
Noah
I’m going back to sleep. Night.
Fisher
Good night, Noah. Sweet dreams.
I feel like I’ve let her down by not agreeing with her, but it’s for the best. I can love her from a distance and give her room to move on.
My phone goes off just as I doze off.
A camera notification.
I look around and, in the distance, see the security light on at the family’s barn.
There’d be no reason for any of Noah’s brothers to be out there at two in the morning unless this is another Wilder adventure I keep hearing about.
When I look on the app, no one’s in view, but I won’t be able to sleep without double-checking.
I walk over, looking around for any disturbances and listening for noises. There’s rustling in the bushes, and I wonder if an animal is what caused the camera to go off.
“Hello? Anyone out here?”
A clinking sound echoes from the barn. I open the door, then pull out my phone for a flashlight since it’s dim lighting. The horses squeal as if they’re on alert, and now I know something’s off. Their intuition is never wrong.
A shadow running in the distance catches my attention. I smell the scent of gasoline as I walk toward it, and the horses continue neighing as the smell gets stronger.
“Hey, motherfucker!”
I spin around to a person in a hoodie and see a glimpse of a metal rod before he rams it into the side of my head, and I go down.
ChapterThirty
Noah
“Noah, wake up!” Magnolia shakes me, and I squint when the light blinds me. “Something’s on fire.”
“W-what?” I push myself up into a sitting position, then glance around my room as I try to comprehend what she just said.
