Page 125 of Wildest Dreams

I needed to apologise.

It was time to finally get my dream, and that dream was Tripp Rivera.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

RIGGS

The atmosphere in The Boot was buzzing. Austin was a little sour, but after we managed to get a beer or two into him, he loosened up ever so slightly. He was grieving, he had a lot going on and I get that. But he needed an escape, even if just for a night.

This is the first time we have been in The Boot since Harlow died, and to say it was bittersweet is an understatement. We all know she is missing, but we all feel her here and I hope that means she is with us, sitting beside each of us in her eternal peace.

Hate that Tripp isn't here.

But I get it.

He is wounded.

Dixie will come back, I have every faith.

I needed to debrief my brothers on my findings, but all work talk stops tonight. We were here to celebrate, and I didn't want to be the one to bring the evening down with work shit.

World On Fire - Nate Smithbegins to play, a few of our group up dancing, Austin sits nursing his beer, eyes just watching what's going on. Conrad sits next to him, Aspen the other side, closest to the floor.

My smirk pulls and I stroll across to her.

“Wildflower,” I rasp, leaning down and placing a kiss on her lips.

She smiles, cheeks pinching pink underneath her freckles.

“Dance with me?”

“How can I say no totheRiggs Rivera,” she playfully winks, standing as I wrap my arm around her back and pull her close to me.

“You can't,” my lips brush against her ear as I sway with her across the dusty sawdust floor.

“God, I love you,” she smiles against my mouth as I kiss her, and I've missed her. Our life has been a hundred miles an hour since Dixie crashed into town. Mixed with Austin and Harlow, our lives have somehow frozen in time, but we've been existing in these strange few weeks. We would have just started the first leg of Aspen's book tour, but she couldn't leave, neither of us could. The only thing I refused to push back was our wedding.

I've waited over ten years to marry this woman, there is no damn way in hell I am waiting any longer.

“Not as much as I love you Wildflower,” her arms loosen around my neck, mine around her waist.

“Not possible,” she whispers between our kisses.

My eyes lift from my beautiful fiancée when I see Dixie push through the door, flustered, eyes wide as she scans the room. She seeks me out, nearly tripping over her own feet as she approaches me and Aspen.

“Where is Tripp?” she asks, breathless, sadness creeping onto her face.

“He didn't come,” I roll my lips and softly push Aspen to my side, arms hung around her back, thumb looped into the pocket of her jeans.

“What?” her voice cracks, her lips pull into a smile, but her eyes tell me everything.

“Is everything okay hon?” Aspen asks, her eyes moving from me to Aspen.

“Why did no one tell me? Why did no one say anything about Lucian and Wallen?”

“I thought you knew,” my voice is gruff as the music lowers.

“How would I know? I left him. Left a note, broke my own heart and his in doing so. I was protecting you,” she chokes on a sob.

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