Page 41 of Entwined Hearts
The sun hadn’t been up long, bathing the world in a golden glow. Or maybe that was just me and how damn good I felt. Every time I shut my eyes, I was back in that alley, with my girl in my arms.
I felt like frolicking or jumping and clicking my fucking heels together.
I was walking up the porch steps to the Hayes house when I heard a horse whinny in the barn and a low curse that sounded almost like the ones I heard last night.
When I walked into the barn, Savannah was trying to mount a horse and was doing a miserable job at it. She was dressed in one of those workout sets that had my hands itching to touch her. Not proper riding clothes in the slightest, butsomuch better. And the blue was, oddly enough, close to my eye color. Had she done that on purpose?
She gave another little hop, trying to pull herself up into the saddle, and sighed when it didn’t work.
I chuckled. “They make step stools, you know,” I said, leaning against a post close by.
She jumped and gave me a sheepish look. “Hi.” She looked anywhere but at me, with a subtle flush to her cheeks. The shy girl I was more familiar with wasn’t completely gone after all. “I haven’t ridden in eleven years. Kinda rusty,” she said, her voice a little breathless.
I pushed off the post and walked towards her. “Not the only thing you haven’t done in a while, but you remembered how to kiss me just fine.”
She dropped her phone and scrambled to pick it up, clearly flustered. I loved that I could still rattle her. “That was?—”
“Amazing.” “A mistake.” We said at the same time.
I froze. The newspaper slid out of my hand to the floor with a smack. “A mistake? You thought that was amistake?”
She looked down at the ground. “I was drunk and you showed up all territorial and ‘my girl’, and I just…” She shook her head, letting the words die.
“So what? You would’ve let just anyone do that last night?”
She gasped, giving me an offended look. “No!”
“Well, that’s what you’re making it sound like,” I ground out, pissed at the thought of anyone else touching her like that.
“It shouldn’t have happened, Weston,” she sighed. “I told you things were different, and you wouldn’t listen.” She brushed the horse, even though he didn’t need it, and tightened straps that were already tight enough.
She was busying herself. Avoiding something.
“Why? What’s so different? What aren’t you telling me?”
Her hands stilled, her eyes meeting mine reluctantly. There was genuine fear in them that twisted my stomach. “I don’t want to say it.”
I rounded the horse, coming to her side. “Well, now you have to.” Before I started filling in the gaps, preferably.
She swallowed roughly, wringing her hands. “I was…engaged…kind of.”
My lips parted, speechless, struggling to comprehend, to function. “What?” The question was nothing more than a breath. The last one I had because I’d stopped breathing.
“A guy from work in Dallas. He proposed before I came home, but I hadn’t given him an answer. I told him yesterday that I couldn’t marry him.”
My chest felt like it had caved in, crushing my heart in the process. I put a hand on the horse so I didn’t fall to the ground, my knees weak. “How could you do this to me?” I whispered, my voice cracking.
Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean,do this to you? We broke up over a decade ago, Weston. Did you think I was going to sit and pine after you forever?”
I flinched, her words cutting deep, and her expression softened slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me? All those times we were alone, you could’ve told me. Youshouldhave told me.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Her chin quivered. “I didn’t know how!” she yelled.
I clenched my teeth so hard I was surprised they didn’t shatter. “You say, ‘Hey, Weston, don’t tell me you’re still in love with me because I’mfucking engaged!’” I roared. Her mouth parted, blinking quickly with shock. The horse spooked before trotting off to its stall.
Her face went from shocked to angry, her eyes flashing. “How was I supposed to know you were going to say that? I hadn’t seen you or spoken to you in ages. I didn’t know that’s how you felt!”
My eyes narrowed at her. “And whose fault was that? Who disappeared? Because it sure as hell wasn’t me.”
