Page 67 of Home in the Country
“Is this what you want?” Tilting my chin up, I lean back until I can see his eyes. They’re swimming with emotion.
“Yes, but it doesn’t make it less scary.”
“I’m scary now?”
“Of course you are. You’re my ‘it’ girl. The one that got away, the one I almost lost again, and dammit, I just want to keep you and Briggs and do this thing right.”
Oh, Otto.
“We’re both bound to mess up trying to navigate being together, but I want to if you do.”
“Yeah, Princess, I do.”
My lips tip up as he brushes his mouth against mine in a sweet kiss.
“Mama! Time to eat!” Briggs bellows from somewhere inside the house, and I chuckle.
“You want that too?”
Otto smiles and nods before taking my hand and guiding us toward the door. “I want all of it.”
22
OTTO
Despite my bravado, I was struggling tryin’ to figure out how to date a single mom. Sometimes, like when I’d dropped off dinner or kicked the ball with Briggs in their backyard, everything made sense.
Other times, I wanted to strangle her for almost fallin’ off a ladder that was rotted trying to get a toy from the porch roof when she could have just called me for help.
And a new ladder.
That one had resulted in a standoff and then a trip to the hardware store where I picked out a ladder butsheinsisted payin’ for it. My eye twitch hadn’t gone away the entire night. The next mornin’, Rhea had delivered coffee and muffins to the jobsite courtesy of Fallon.
It was a new dance to learn, and while I didn’t always do what I was supposed to, like have flowers delivered to her classroom, I was slowly gettin’ the hang of it.
Mama’s words still replayed in the back of my mind though as the weeks passed, but I could only do as much as she allowed me. She didn’t look at me as a partner, and while I didn’t expect her to right off the bat, I did expect her to talk to me about what she needed. We needed to communicate, and she was tryin’ to run the world all on her own.
I’m a lot of things but a mind reader isn’t one of them. I thought I hit the jackpot tonight when my phone had vibrated with a text.
FALLON: Can you come over?
OTTO: Everything okay?
FALLON: No
OTTO: I’m on my way
With my heart hammering in my chest, I say goodbye to Case and then jump in my truck. I’m thankful, not for the first time, that Clementine Creek is the size of a postage stamp, because I’m at her house in a matter of minutes.
Racing up the walkway, I knock twice and hear a muffled “come in” and I don’t even breathe as I turn the knob.
“Hey Fallon?” I ease the door open to find her sitting at the kitchen table staring into something only she can see. The house is silent aside from the soft sounds of toy trucks crashing down the hall.
I kneel next to her, and she turns to me with tears in her eyes. My instinct is to pull her into me, but I know she needs to have this breakdown no matter how much it guts me.Thisis the moment I’ve prepared for.
“I lost it, Otto,” she whispers. “I yelled and I don’t do that, but I was justsofrustrated, you know?”
I nod and take the seat next to her.
