“You don’t have to hold it up anymore,” I whisper. “Not alone. Not for me.”
Her breath shudders out. “This is your life now. Your choices. It’s your time to shine. Tolive.”
My throat closes, and a tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it, followed by another.
Delaney opens her arms. Not as a parent, not as a protector, but as my sister. I step into them, burying my face in her shoulder. She smells faintly of laundry soap and ink, achingly familiar.
“I’m scared,” I whisper into the fabric of her shirt.
“I know,” she murmurs, holding me tighter. “But you’re so much stronger than you think. Stronger than any of us know. You always have been, and I’m so proud of you.”
A throat clears behind us.
Tom.
I pull back from Delaney, scrubbing my cheeks with the heels of my hands.
Delaney glances between us, then touches my arm. “I’ll leave you two to talk.”
She brushes past Tom, leaving us alone in the lengthening light.
Chapter 10
Kitty
For a moment, neither of us speaks. The ranch hums quietly around us—the bawl of a distant cow, the sigh of wind through the grass, the steady beat of my pulse in my ears.
Finally, I break the silence. “I meant what I said in there. I’d rather stay rootless forever than be handed a future I didn’t choose.”
Tom steps closer, slow and deliberate, like he’s approaching a spooked colt. “Kitty,” he says gently, “I hear you. And you’re right. I should’ve asked you whatyouwanted before anyone started making plans.” Tom rubs his jaw. “That’s on me. I was so focused on fixing things that I forgot the mostimportant thing. You.”
My breath shudders out.
He takes another step, closing the distance until the heat of him curls against me. “So let me be clear now. What I want isyou.No arrangements. No obligations. Just you.”
“Tom…” My throat tightens. My emotions are raw after my talk with Delaney. This is too overwhelming.
With a sob, I turn and escape into the barn, sinking onto a hay bale and trying to catch my breath.
Tom follows, crossing the barn floor in three long strides, not giving me time to bolt again. When he reaches me, he plants his hands on either side of my hips, caging me against the hay bale.
“Don’t run from me, darlin’. We’re gonna talk this through.”The determination in his eyes doesn’t waver. “I know it’s fast. But sometimes love doesn’t give a damn about timelines. Sometimes it hits you like a flash flood, and you either grab hold or drown.”
I shake my head, unable to believe that thishandsome, rugged,wonderfulman has fallen forme. “You can’t… You don’t...”
“I love you, Kitty Phillips. And I think you love me too. I see it in how you look at me—like you’re fighting something just as fierce as what’s tearing me up inside.”
“But”—I shake my head—“you’re breaking your arrangement with Delaney for someone completely wrong for you!”
“Wrong for me?” Rage and disbelief war in his expression. “Christ, Kitty, how can you even?—”
“Because I'm twenty-one years old with nothing to offer but problems and medical bills.” I look up at him then, my chest blazing with pain. “You need someone strong. Someone like Delaney who won’t fall apart the first time ranch life gets hard.”
“Stop.” The word cracks like a whip.
“It’s true! I heard the guilt in your voice, Tom. I heard you struggling with breaking your word and betraying everyone’s expectations?—”
“The only thing I’m guilty of,” he says, leaning closer until I have to tip my head back to look athim, “is being too much of a coward to claim what I wanted the moment you stepped off that bus.”
