She reached up to wipe her nose with the back of her hand before looking away. My heart broke in my chest for my sister. She was the toughest out of all of us, but right now, she was a little broken and I didn’t know how to put her back together.
She sniffed one more time before climbing to her feet. “I’m going for a run. I’ll catch you later.”
Without waiting for a response from me, my sister ripped her clothes back off and shifted mid-leap with a loud crack. I watched her wolf bound across the field behind the lodge before she disappeared between the trees. My eyes stayed glued to the place I last saw her for a long time as I thought about what she’d said.
Was I playing games?
This whole time I’d been waiting for Wyatt to realize he was wrong and come back to me. I thought I was standing on the moral high ground. That he needed to accept what I was offering him. Accept the crumbs I was dishing out. But maybe I was the one that was wrong. Maybe I needed to apologize.
Was I being stupid?
I knew I wanted to be with Wyatt. I’d never felt this way about anyone in my entire life. And here I was, wasting time that could be spent with him. If that wasn’t the definition of stupid, I didn’t know what was.
I loved him.
I could admit that now. It still scared the crap out of me, but I couldn’t deny it anymore. I loved him and I wanted to be with him. The past two weeks had been torture and, as I really examined it from this perspective, I realized it had all been my fault.
Wyatt hadn’t asked for anything outlandish. He wanted to love me in the daylight instead of the darkness. He was sick of slinking around and hiding what we had. I’d had a man who wanted to be with me and tell the world about it, and I’d done nothing but push him away.
So, what the heck was I doing?
I knew the answer to that, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. But the time for lying was over.
I was scared.
Terrified, really.
I’d watched him swing back and forth, in and out of my life like a pendulum, too many times. I’d been left in his treacherous wake too many times. So, could I be blamed for being scared of him and his shifting moods? Maybe not, but how long was I going to punish him for that? How much penance did he have to pay before I forgave him?
Shouldn’t his desire to go public with our relationship prove that he meant it this time?
Shouldn’t his profession of love be enough to soothe the raw edges he’d left behind?
And, the most important question of all: didn’t he deserve to know I loved him as much as he loved me?
Deep down, I knew the answers to all those questions. I’d probably always known the answers but was too scared to admit it. But just like the time for lying was over, the time for being scared was over too.
I knew what I wanted.
I knew who I wanted.
Now, I just had to go get him and hope I wasn’t too late.
Chapter 35
Wyatt
“Hey, Ma. Can I get you more tea?” I asked as I peeked out the back door.
Mom huffed and shook her head. “Wyatt, I’m not doing this with you anymore. I’ve had enough tea to flood the state of North Carolina. Just come out here and keep me company.”
Sitting still wasn’t something I liked to do these days, but for her, I’d do anything. I closed the back door behind me and took a seat at the glass table we’d bought a few weeks ago.
Honestly, it was really starting to come together out here. I’m sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that I’d worked on it basically non-stop recently. It was either keep busy or drive myself crazy thinking about her. So, I chose to be productive and not wallow in my misery. If nothing else, it made Ma happy, and that was one less woman mad at me in the world.
“What’s been goin’ on, Wy? You haven’t been yourself lately.”
I hadn’t been myself because a piece of me was missing and I was afraid it was for good this time.
“I’m fine, Ma,” I lied.
She tsked and shook her head. “Now I know that’s a lie and you know how I feel about liars.”
I sighed. “Tell enough white lies and soon you’ll go color blind. I know, Ma. I’m just not in the mood to talk about it, okay?”
“Does it have to do with Callie?”
Another crack raced through my heart at the mention of her name and I took deep steadying breaths through the pain. I wanted to lie again, but knew she was already sick of my crap. “Yeah. It does.”
“What did you do, son?”
I sat back in my seat and linked my fingers on top of my head. “Nothing this time, honest. I just wanted things she wasn’t ready to give.”
She was quiet for a moment, but I felt her watching me. “It’ll turn out, Wy. It always does.”
I released the breath I’d been holding and let my hands drop to my lap. “I’m not sure, Ma. I don’t think it will this time. It’s gone too far.”
Every single one of those words burned on their way out, but they were the truth. A truth I’d been avoiding. A truth I’d been denying. But still the truth.
“Maybe it’s better this way,” I continued. “Now
