Page 93 of Stormswept Colorado

He flinched. What wasthatabout?

I wanted to understand what this was between us. Where things stood. And I didn’t.

“Teller—”

“Are you seeing that guy from your label?” he blurted.

It took a moment for me to catch up. “Do you meanPaul?”

Teller’s face flushed. “Yes.” He said the word carefully, but there was a distinct flare of something possessivein his eyes, in his tone. Somethingdarkas he leaned forward toward the camera. “Are you?”

“I would never date Paul. There was that tabloid story a day or two ago about us, but it’s nonsense.”

The muscle in his jaw pulsed. “What about anyone else?”

I shook my head, my throat going dry. “I’m not dating anyone. What about you?”

“There is no one else I want,” he rasped. “No one but you.”

His words hung in the sudden silence between us.

No one but you.

My heart was beating fast, all those mixed-up emotions at war again inside me. “Oh,” I whispered.

“Does that honestly surprise you?”

“I just wasn’t sure. With how we left things when we last saw each other.”

He huffed, a sound halfway between a laugh and pure despair. “I can’t stop thinking about you. As if the million texts I’ve sent didn’t make that obvious. And then I saw that article about you and Paul.” He shook his head. “I know I don’t have a claim on you. You don’t owe me anything.”

“But?”

“When I saw that story, itguttedme.” His fingers kept tracking through his hair, splaying the ends. “You didn’t write back to most of my messages the past couple weeks.”

“Only because I was trying to move on.”

“Do youwantto move on?”

I hesitated. What did I want?

“Please give me some kind of sign.” He managed a weak smile. “You’re killing me.”

That smile said he was kidding, but his gaze was pleading.

“I miss you,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about you. All the time.” I swallowed the thickness in my throat. “Every day.”

“That’s something, then.” He leaned toward the camera. “Tell me how you’ve been.”

I told him about my progress on my new album. Movie nightwith Ricky and Hayleigh. Teller shared his latest stories about Ollie. Then told me about the series of vandalisms over the last several months all over Hart County.

Thinking about him on duty and facing danger felt different now. He’d been doing those things for years, of course, yet now the idea of Teller getting hurt made it harder to breathe.

After a while, we took a break so he could head home. I changed into my pajamas and got ready for bed. “I’m going to call back though,” he said. “Half an hour.”

I smiled. “If you don’t, I will.”

When Teller called back, he’d changed from his uniform to a T-shirt. “Are you in your bedroom?” I asked. It looked like there was a headboard behind him.

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