Page 96 of Always Be an Us

I simply remain leaning against the wall, with my arms crossed, waiting for Emma.

He glances at me out of the corner of his eyes, and once our eyes meet, he looks away. Then he fidgets, folding his arms over his chest, and then he sighs.

I know he probably wants to apologize, even though I would much rather he didn’t. Whatever happened already happened and I truly don't hold any hard feelings toward him. I would much prefer it if he simply moved on and neither of us spoke about it again.

But heck, if he's going to be this weird about it, he might as well just spit it out already.

I'm about to tell him as much when he finally says, "Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Yeah?" I cock my head. Like I couldn't already tell. "What about?"

He rubs his hand through his hair for the umpteenth time, glancing toward his truck for a second before meeting my eyes.

"I’m sorry," he said. "For what I did...sending you out into the woods like that. I knew the rain was coming but I figured you would get stuck somewhere at the entrance of the forest and have to sludge back home in the rain. That was supposed to be your punishment. I never thought you would keep going even after the storm began."

"Hmm." I believe him. It makes sense that he didn’t actually want me stuck in the forest in the rain, that would be insane. He just didn’t figure I would be that determined enough to continue in the storm.

"Plus, I knew you didn’t believe in the Rainbow Pearls anyway, so I definitely thought you would give up far before you did."

"It was for my daughter," I say. "And I would do anything within my power for her. I wasn't leaving there until I knew without a doubt that there were no Rainbow Pearls there."

"Ah." He nods. "I respect that."

"Good. I don't care that you sent me there without warning. I’m more concerned that you didn’t try to stop Emma when she came after me."

"I didn’t think she would get in any trouble," he says smugly. "Emma knows most of those woods like the back of her hand. You were in more danger than she was, city boy."

"Yeah, until she twisted her ankle and couldn't make it back out.’"

He looks chagrined. "Yeah, I didn't expect that either. Damn. But like I said, I didn’t think either of you would make it that far. It was my bad. And at most, I thought she would call me if she got in trouble..."

"No service because of the storm." I wasn't willing to let him off easily. What he did could have cost Emma a lot more than it did.

He winces again. "Yeah. I realized my mistake when she didn’t answer the phone. I tried to go looking for her that night, but the storm was too heavy. I couldn't even get into the woods. So I stayed at Buck's place right on the edge. And in the morning we started searching, even before Emma called. That’s how we were able to reach you so quickly."

"I see."

He nods. "I still screwed up. Sometimes this old man has some childish tendencies, and my dear late mother always told me that my temper gets in the way of my good judgment sometimes. I really am sorry."

I scan him and even though I can tell he wants to look away at a point, he doesn’t and holds my gaze. I respect that. While I'm still pissed that he let Emma get into that mess in the first place, he at least looks torn up about it.

"Forget about it," I say, begrudgingly. "It's water under the bridge.’

He nods and then adds, "Glad we clear that up. Now the second thing…" He steps even closer to me and the look in his eyes turns from apologetic to threatening in the space of a few seconds. "That girl upstairs means the world to me. Emma is like a daughter I never had. I watched her grow up and changed her diapers. Watched her cry over stupid boys. I don’t know what the heck is going on between the two of you and frankly, I’m not sure I like it. You’re too old for her and you certainly don't deserve her. But she’s naive and probably thinks she’s in love."

He says the last word with plenty of disgust in his tone.

"That being said, if you hurt her, I will do a lot worse than send you out in the forest on a storm. I'll string you up on a spike myself. And I'll bet you every damn person in this town will be by my side, helping me."

I smirk. I have no doubt that what he’s saying is correct. The town loves Emma and I'm not exactly their favorite person. I can also see the clear affection behind the intensity in his eyes. It makes me respect him and his apology more to know he cares about Emma so much. "Noted."

His expression doesn’t change. "And don't think I haven't noticed that ever since you came into the picture, shit has been going wrong for her. First, her grandpa had a heart attack and now her house got broken into."

"You think I had something to do with it?"

"No. But shit like that can't be a coincidence. I may not believe in a lot of the mumbo jumbo that the rest of the people in this town believe in, but my mama always taught me about energy and energy exchange. You have a dark energy about you, and it seems to affect Emma. It seems she lightens yours and you darken hers." He steps back a little and tucks one hand in his pocket. "Maybe you're bad luck for her. Ever thought about that?"

I think about it now. I know Rick is possibly saying all this to drive me away from Emma, but there is some truth to it.

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