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There wasn’t much time before I had to leave to get Max, but I needed every second to ground myself for him. He didn’t need to see his mom in shambles and disarray.

Once I was as calm as I knew I’d be, I dressed quickly and hopped in my car. Ms. Ellison was sitting on her porch, no doubt witnessing Easton and me both looking so heartbroken as we left back to back.

When I passed by the fire station, I noted that Easton’s truck wasn’t there, but Rory was. She was outside on the phone, pacing and screaming. I hoped Easton had called her and was telling her to back off, to stop with the rumors.

Not that it would change anything about how I felt. Easton did that all on his own. I may have been speechless when he was there with me, but I heard his declarations loud and clear. Nothing made more sense than when he told me he loved me.

My worries subsided, my fears drifted away. I was still anxious and uneasy about what the future held, but Easton made me realize that we weren’t just intrigue and amour. What happened between us was inescapable, and I was pretty sure thatallmy wary feelings had been the result of loving him and being scared he wouldn’t love me back.

By the time I got home with Max, I’d decided that it was my turn to ask the questions. There was a lightness in my chest that felt freeing with each plan I made. For everything Easton had given me, I wanted to give it back, and show him that he wasn’t the only one that was willing to fight.

I waited until Max was asleep for the night before I lit a candle and curled up on my mom’s old couch. I didn’t have a printer, so I was going to have to implement my plan with a ballpoint pen and wide-ruled filler paper, but he’d get the gist.

With the first page pinned inside a clipboard, I took and deep breath and wrote:

Questions I want to ask Easton.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

EASTON

“I love her.I told her I loved her. And then I left.”

“What an idiot,” Miles huffed.

“He’s an idiot in love,” Carlee sang, folding her hands and putting them to her face as she batted her eyelashes.

“He’s just an idiot,” Daniel confirmed, bumping fists with Miles.

“But he’s also in love,” Grams sighed, not refuting that I was an idiot.

“He’s an idiot for being in love,” West grunted.

“Being in love didn’t make him an idiot,” Ms. Ellison added, not denying that I was an idiot, but not placing the blame on being in love.

After calling an emergency Sunday Dinner on a Thursday, and inviting everyone I loved and trusted, it was becoming apparent that I was an idiot. It started off fine, because Grams threw together enough spaghetti to feed a football team and everyone ate before I started my confessions.

Now everyone was sitting around my grandparents’ living room, staring at me as I paced the length of the room and told them the story of what happened. I left out the part where I forgot to use a condom, but I did let them know that Jesse asked about Rory. It was clear to everyone that Rory had been up to something more than her annoying flirting, spurred by the fact that she saw Jesse as a real threat.

Then I told them that I confessed to Jesse that I loved her. I didn’t plan it, and it wasn’t the way I envisioned declaring my love for her, but it just happened, and felt right. She needed to know how serious I was. She needed to see that I wasn’t going anywhere.

Then I left.

That was where everyone was stuck, because no one understood why I’d leave the woman I love alone. They couldn’t understand that I needed her to decide for herself where we went from there. It was easy to keep her happily fucked and confused by our intense connection, but did she love me back?

“Gramps,” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “You’re quiet. Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“Of course I do,” he huffed. “But I think we all need to acknowledge that we’ve known that about you long before Jesse arrived.”

My brothers laughed while Grams swatted Gramps’ arm and told him to stop being mean. But I smirked, loving how much shit Gramps always gave me. It was his love language.

Miles was in his uniform, supposed to be on patrol, but when I called him, he came. He was leaning on the door jamb of the kitchen entry, his arms crossed and a humored smirk on his face.

“What now?” I asked him.

“Just thinking about how none of this would have happened if I’d have arrested you for considering an ‘evening at Wal-Mart’ a date.”

That got a laugh out of everyone, including me, and I shook my head. “Ha, ha.”

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