Page 23 of The Last One You Loved
“Trap. Trap gave me the key ages ago. Told me I could come here anytime I need a place to stay.”
So many things about those sentences bothered me. The fact she was still in touch with her father, the previous leader of the West Gears, when she’d refused to stay in contact with me was only one of them. Her needing a place to land, seemingly exhausted and on the run, bothered me even more.
How could I still care what happened to her? Why did my heart slam against my chest, worrying about what trouble she was in? It was ridiculous. She’d left. She’d left and told me not to come back when I’d gone to see her. She’d gotten engaged while I’d waited for her to come home. She’d told me to stop calling and hung up on me the one and only time I’d tried to contact her after that.
I looked down at her hand that was resting on her chest. There was no ring there. No strip of white that said the ring had disappeared recently. Stupid hope flared that I squashed with a vicious fist. I couldn’t want her, not only because of what she’d done but because having her here would risk Mila, and fuck if I’d let that happen.
I finally found my voice after pushing through the storm of thoughts and feelings that had assaulted me at her side. “Trap sold the house to cover his lawyer fees when he was arrested,” I told her. “Elizabeth at Gold Lake Realty bought it, and then she sold it to me.”
McKenna burst into a bitter laugh that was filled with more tears.
“Of course he did. Why the hell did I think he’d ever keep the one damn promise he’d ever made?” She closed her eyes, and I watched as pain etched itself across her face. Her cheeks were hollow, as if stress and worry had marked them. “He’s in jail, then?”
I shook my head. “He got out on parole about six months ago. Last I heard, he was in Knoxville.”
She dragged a hand over her ponytail, fighting for control, and all I could think was she needed to go before I asked her to stay.
“I’m sorry, but you really need to leave. There’s…you just can’t be here,” I said, my voice turning gruff. “But I’m sure there’s room at the Beehive, or there’s a Heartland in town now.”
The Beehive was a lodge from the 1800s that had been one of the first buildings built in town. It had been renovated and improved over the years into a five-star boutique hotel. The Heartland was a bland chain hotel that satisfied the tourists and fans flocking Willow Creek in hopes of catching sight of a Watery Reflection band member.
“The weekend before Thanksgiving?” she asked doubtfully before shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter. I couldn’t afford either, anyway.”
She grimaced as if she hadn’t meant for the words to slip out.
She had to have been in her third year of residency, and I wasn’t quite sure, but I suspected those doctors made some big cash. If she was broke, something bad really had happened, something that had derailed her goals. And as much as I didn’t want to, I felt heartbroken for her—that she’d lost the one dream she’d given everything else up to achieve.
My jaw clenched. I had my arms spread across my chest, and my fingers dug into my biceps to keep me from reaching for her.
She leaned her head against the seat back and sighed. “I’ll figure something out. Go back inside. Your family must be wondering why you’re even talking to the lady losing it in your yard.”
I glanced up at the house and saw Mila’s little face in the window. She ducked back when I caught her looking. It made my lips quirk upward. Her curiosity was a beautiful and troublesome thing.
“The unit above the barn is vacant at the moment.” I’d said the words before I’d fully processed them and instantly regretted the hope that filled the eyes she turned to me. I crushed it by adding, “But you can’t stay longer than a night or two.”
My chest tightened, stomach acid churning. Even a night or two was a risk. But Sybil was in rehab. No one from here was going to go running to see her. I doubted she’d have any visitors other than me, and I wasn’t going back again. McKenna could stay for a day, do whatever the hell it was she had to do, and leave again without Sybil being any the wiser.
“Ryder isn’t living there anymore?” McKenna asked.
“He’s not twenty-one anymore, McK. He’s a grown-ass man with a house and a life.” My words were sharp and bitter, but I couldn’t help it. What had she expected? Everyone to be exactly the same while she was the only one who’d moved on, grown up, changed?
Her face shuttered, a hand fluttering to her forehead. “Of course. That was stupid of me.” Tears filled her eyes again, but I could tell she was biting her cheek to keep them at bay now. “I’m not normally this addle-brained. I just…there’s a lot…coming back… never mind.”
“Let me get my keys and Mila, and you can follow us to the ranch,” I said, knowing I’d regret it, feeling in my soul that somehow today everything in my world had shifted. I’d pissed off Sybil, and McKenna had shown up on my doorstep. It was like the Fates were laughing at me.
“I know my way to the ranch. You don’t have to show me,” she said quietly. “But are you sure your family won’t mind? I promise to figure things out tomorrow.”
There was no way I was letting McKenna Lloyd show up at the ranch without warning. Without reminding everyone they absolutely could not tell her the truth about Mila. That it would cost me everything. Cost my parents their first grandchild and my siblings their niece.
“It’s better this way. Give me a minute or two,” I said and turned away. I barely heard the thank-you she sent out the window. I jerked my chin in her direction as I made my way back toward the house, wondering just how much I was going to regret this.
CHAPTERNINE
MCKENNA
I NEVER SAID I’M SORRY
“And it don’t mean much now, but for what it’s worth,
