Wyatt and Brady got back and when they walked through the door, Wyatt’s gaze immediately zeroed in on her. Her chest got tight, like there wasn’t enough room for her heart behind her ribcage. A montage of memories played in her head like a movie: running into Wyatt again at the hind quarters of a sheep in labor, climbing into his lap in his truck and fogging up the windows, saving that horse and getting a bruised butt in the process . . .
She would miss it here in Sunshine, she really would. She’d miss everyone so much, but Wyatt most of all, more than she’d ever missed anything or anyone.
You don’t have to go, a voice whispered in her head. Except if she stayed for a man who’d never given her a single inkling that he wanted more than to be boinked, she’d never forgive herself.
Why hadn’t he given her an inkling, dammit? It was time, past time, to ask. She actually started toward him to do just that, and a woman walked in the door.
She was a petite, auburn-haired beauty, with a sweet smile and deep green eyes that unerringly landed on Wyatt. She approached him with enough familiarity that Emily knew instantly who she was, even before she leapt into Wyatt’s arms and kissed him full on the mouth.
Everything came to a skidding halt inside Emily, including her heart. No, wait. There it was, kicking hard against her ribs as she moved.
Fast.
She couldn’t say what she was feeling exactly, but when she blinked again, she was out the back door, heading toward the horse pens. Reno and Kiki nickered a welcome. Blue was quiet but she did stick her head over the fence, looking for goodies.
Emily patted her. The view was nothing but inky blackness right now, the only light coming from a blanket of an infinity of stars.
It was a gorgeous night.
She climbed up on the fence and sat, and took her first breath since she’d seen Caitlin’s mouth on Wyatt’s. “Damn,” she said, and scrubbed at her wet cheeks. Suddenly she could put a name to her emotions.
Red hot jealousy.
Envy.
Sadness.
Regret.
And perhaps the worst of all, loneliness.
Her phone buzzed an incoming text. Before she could reach for it, another text came in. And then another. And another.
First up was Lilah. Honey, come back.
Next was Jade. Girl, you left too early.
She didn’t know what that meant, but read the next text, from Holly. You okay?
Kate texted, too. Get your cute ass back in here, you missed the good stuff.
Emily stared down at her phone as one last text came in from . . . Oh, God. Wyatt.
She squinted as she accessed it, because everyone knew that squinting while reading something potentially devastating made it easier.
Where are you?
She swiped her nose on her sleeve and typed: Gone.
It was silly and childish, but she figured she was past due.
Liar, came his next text. Your car’s still here.
She hit Reply. I’m busy with a patient.
His own reply was so immediate she had no idea how he managed to thumb the words in so fast. Another lie. You’re not going to be able to walk back inside with that nose, Pinocchio.
She choked out a soggy laugh and stared at the phone, having no idea what to reply. I just need to be alone for a few.
“No, you don’t.”
She jerked around, dropping her phone, staring at the tall, dark shadow coming around the barn. “Oh my God. You scared me.”
He picked up her phone and held it out, and when she hopped down from the fence and tried to take it from him, his other hand shot out and grabbed hers, pulling her in. “Ditto,” he said.
“Give me my phone back.”
“Why did you run off?”
“I didn’t. I told you, I had a patient.”
“Yeah?” he asked, making a show of looking around. “Who?”
From behind her, Blue stuck her head over the fence and gave her a shove in the back that pushed her into Wyatt’s chest.
Wyatt held on, but she stepped back and pointed to the damn nosy horse. “Blue. She’s . . . not feeling good.”
As she said this, Blue took advantage of how accessible she was and began to search her pockets for goodies, snorting her displeasure to find her goodie-less. She couldn’t concentrate on that because there was an odd tension coming from Wyatt, which she didn’t understand.
She was the injured party here.
Wasn’t she?
He was hands on hips, staring at her. “So you expect me to believe that you came out here because Blue needed you, and not because Caitlin showed up.”
Hearing the name of the woman he’d once loved, maybe still loved, fall so easily from his lips was like a sharp knife in the gut. “Caitlin showed up?” she asked with false casualness.
He narrowed his gaze on her and didn’t answer.
Feeling defensive, and for good reason, as she was truly a crappy liar, she went hands on hips, too. “Why are you out here looking for me anyway? You were very busy a few minutes ago.”
“So you did see her.”
Fine. The jig was up. “Hard not to, since she was attached to your lips.”
“Shit.” Wyatt stared down at his boots for a long moment. Hard to tell if he was fighting the urge to strangle her or walk away. Then he met her gaze again. “I wasn’t expecting her.”
“As you don’t expect much, this doesn’t surprise me.”
Wyatt shoved a hand through his hair, a very unusual “tell” from a man who was usually so comfortable in his own skin in every single situation that came along that she’d never really seen him so much as slightly rattled before. “I’m guessing she wants to start up again,” she said.
He nodded, and it happened again, that stab right through her heart. “She missed you,” she guessed.
“Yes.”
“Not surprising,” she managed, sounding oddly normal for a woman who could no longer feel her bones. “Seeing as when she broke up with you, it wasn’t because she didn’t love you anymore, but because she was going off to live a dream of hers and help people.”
He said nothing to this.
“Why is she here?” Emily asked. “I thought she was in Africa or somewhere.”
This got her a small lip twitch. “Haiti. And she accepted a fellowship at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, working with a group of surgeons she admires.”
Coeur d’Alene. Less than an hour away. “So . . . I guess congratulations.”
He stalked past her to the fence. Leaning on it, he stroked Blue’s face, shoving the horse back when she tried to frisk him. “Knock it off,” he said, and she knew he was talking to her, not the horse. She stiffened and stared at his broad shoulders. “Excuse me?”
“You think she dumped me.”
“Didn’t she?”
“And in thinking that, do you really then also think I’d go back to the woman who walked away from me?”
She opened her mouth, and then shut it again as she stared at his back. She didn’t know what she thought. He was so deceptively chill most of the time that she’d forgotten one important thing. He was strong, tough, and actually, pretty damn alpha.
He turned to face her, his eyes glittering with a dark emotion that she realized was temper, however rare. “I broke things off with her, Emily. I’m the one who sent her away, the one who said we were over. I knew she wanted to take the job, and I knew I didn’t want a long distance relationship. I also knew that she wasn’t ever going to be the right woman for me, regardless of my feelings for her at the time.” A muscle jumped in his jaw as he stared at her. “And yeah, I had feelings for her. I loved her.”
“Past tense,” Emily whispered, feeling the teeniest flicker of hope deep inside.
“Past tense,” he agreed. “I’ll always care for her, about her, but she’s not the one.” He never took his eyes from hers, which made it all the harder to hear when he said, “I thought maybe I’d met the one for me, but I was wrong.”
The tentative hope shriveled, replaced by dread. “What does that mean?”
“You got something you want to tell me?” he asked, voice even, face blank, like he was asking about the weather.