Page 64 of A Fine Line

“I wish I could stay. I want to stay with you, but I-”

I met her eyes fully, wanting to chance of my response getting twisted. There wasn’t a way I would make her stay, not for me. “Don’t stay for me. Don’t make me him.” Her head tilted with her frown and I sighed, giving up any resolve I had left up. “I would have gone with you. If you’d asked.”

“I couldn’t ask you to go with me Crew. I couldn’t do to you what he did to me…making you move just for me, leaving your family…it’s not worth it.”

“You’re worth it.”

Her head cocked to the side, that knowing smirk on her lips. She’s trying to play with me whilst getting her point across. And I love that she spoke the same way I did. “You say that, and the last few days there have been so fun, but once you get there and settle you’ll see. Life moves so slow there. You’ve never lived in a small town and you’ll get bored-”

“I couldn’t be bored if you were there. I could never be bored as long as you were there.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder, and my arm automatically reached over her, my fingers caressing her hair.

“I am sorry, Crew. I really am.”

“I know, Winnie.”

“Your siblings love you, a whole lot.”

“Yeah.” I nodded along. They did love me, I didn’t question that. But love doesn’t always make someone belong there, either.

“I mean it.” Winnie nudged her forehead into my neck, breathing in deep. Remembering my scent; I knew because I did the same to her hair just a moment before. “They really care for you. After that first dinner Calla threatened to bury me if I hurt you and Adam told me he knows plenty of ways to make it look like an accident.”

My shoulders lightly shook with a puffed out laugh.

“And maybe you’re different from them, sure. Maybe you are the unique outcast. But I don’t think that makes them love you any less. Or makes you any less valuable.”

Yeah. Yeah, I knew that. But it still felt…wrong. Something about all of this felt wrong in general.

“What percent are you here?” Winnie whispered up to me, her breath grazing my ear.

“Hmm?” I looked down at her

“You said your percent was a hundred before, what is it now?”

“I dunno. Maybe twenty.”

“I’m so sorry- I didn’t,” Her head tossed back into the crook of my arm as she searched for the right words. She must’ve been as worried as I was to screw this up any more. To break it further. “I was just so worried you would be the same way I was and that you would only move because you felt forced. But I know you, Crew Wells. I know you better than anyone and I know if you’re meant to go somewhere than there is nothing stopping you. And if you go down there for six months and decide to come back Iknow you could. I want my one hundred percent Crew back. And I won’t accept a percentage less.”

My lips curled at that, a laugh bubbling from my chest. “It’s okay, Winnie. I mean it.”

“Then come with me.”

“What?”

She sat up straight, curling up onto her knees, bouncing in front of me. “Come with me. We can live in the sister duplex of Lottie’s place, it’s got enough space. We can sell my truck and just work out of yours and do it together. We can travel, so neither of us ever feels trapped again.”

I sat a little straighter too. Could we…No. But…

“Do you mean that?”

“More than I have ever meant anything. Please come with me, Crew. Please. We can go to all of the state parks and I can take you to rodeos and fairs and on the days we miss the city we can travel. Anywhere you want to go. It’s only a couple hours from Atlanta, we could park there for a day and sell out the entire truck.”

She moves to sit on my lap, thighs straddling me. She set her hands on either side of my face, squishing my cheeks together like a blissful chipmunk. “We can try new recipes and watch MasterChef together and yell at Gordon Ramsey when he obviously picks the wrong winner.” My grin poked out, even in her mashing my cheeks together. “We can come back here all the time, we can fly back and forth as much as you want. Or your whole family can visit, we have room. We can take miles and Dallas on ATV rides and your mom can share recipes with my nana. We can do it all, Crew. We just have to do it together. The second you tell me you feel trapped again, we can get up and go.”

My hands reached up to hers, pulling her aggressively adorable fingers away from my face. “I could never feel trapped with you. I said it and I meant it, if you’re there than I am too.”

“I love you, Crew.”

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