To try and figure out a man like Dalton was nothing but asking for a headache.
And I didn’t have time for that shit.
“I owe you one,” I told him in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“I have a feeling you’ll be paying up soon,” he said and there wasn’t even a hint of playfulness in his tone. “I’ll send you the time and the address. You better have her there or I’m coming for your ass. You asked me to fix this and I am, don’t make me look like a damn fool.”
Then he hung up, not too nicely either.
I didn’t have a feeling in my gut about this whole thing. Nothing good. Nothing bad. I wasn’t sure what that meant but at this point, all I could do was keep my fingers crossed and hoped it all worked out. Dalton hadn’t ever let me down but then again, this was a whole different ballgame.
“Everything okay?” she asked with pinched brows as I came back into the living room.
“Yeah,” I told her with a smile that was hopefully covering up how unsure I was. “Want to join me out on the porch for a beer?”
“Sure,” she said cheerfully as she jumped to her feet.
I grabbed a couple beers from out of the fridge, thankful that Dalton had left a few behind.
We sat on the front steps since that was really the only place to sit. I hadn’t ever gotten around to getting some chairs out here or even one of those porch swings. I didn’t really ever have a need for any of those things. Though I couldn’t deny that I had thoughts of the two of us sitting out here watching the sunset together every night.
“So why did you buy this place?” she asked, both of us staring out into the surrounding forest.
“Not sure,” I told her. “It was actually the first place I bought for myself. I think at the time, I was just looking for a place I could go to quiet all the noise. The city was loud, my head was loud. I was still dealing with things and trying to figure out a way to live with the fact that I might not ever find you. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to accept but holding on to the hope was really starting to get to me. Especially when there was nothing.”
I let out a small sigh.
“Do you come out here a lot?”
I nodded slowly.
“I say that I love the city life but I don’t usually last two weeks before I find myself back here. I bounce around a lot, I guess. Never really feel happy and settled any place.”
“Oh,” she said and then took a sip of her beer. “Do you think that will ever change?”
My head turned and I studied her for a long moment.
God, she was really beautiful. And I wasn’t simply talking about her looks. There was something I couldn’t explain as I sat there taking her profile in. Despite the hard life she’d had there was something warm that radiated from her. And happy. It was like I couldn’t stop myself from smiling when I looked at her.
“Are you going to stare at me all night or answer the question?” she asked as her eyes slid to the side to look at me. Her brow raised in a way of letting me know she was waiting.
“Will I ever get to a point where I feel settled?” I asked and she nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe. Hopefully.”
“When are you going to take your life and make ityours?”
“What do you mean?” I asked as she turned her head and looked into my eyes.
“I mean you’ve been searching for me all this time. That became your life. And it’s pretty obvious what it’s done to you.” She sighed and I lost her eyes as she looked down. “I didn’t want that for you. I left to protect you guys. So that you would have a future.”
“Shhh. Don’t feel bad for the choices I’ve made. It was all on me. I just… I couldn’t seem to let it go.”
“But now you can,” she said and I let that reality sink in for a good long moment. “You saved me, mission accomplished.”
She smiled over at me teasingly.
“I didn’t really save you. It’s more like I got you into deeper shit.”
“Oh, but you did, Silas.” She brought her hand up and threaded her fingers through mine. “I thought I was going to die that night. I knew… I knew Ray was going to kill me and if you hadn’t been there, he would have. There was no way out for me.”
