Page 87 of How to Say I Do
We were in his truck and on the road back to the ranch a few minutes later.
Silence strained the cabin. His truck was a mess, unlike Wyatt’s, jumbled with Texas Parks and Wildlife gear, toddler toys, a discardedBlueyrain jacket, aPAW Patrollunchbox, and a massive laptop-radio combination that filled the center dash. Instead of music, he kept his patrol radio turned down, soft enough to listen to the dispatcher chatter and the calls going back and forth in the field. Something about tracking a herd, something about reminding a man named Bill to stay out of the WMA.
I jittered my fingers between my knees and spun my sea-turtles ring. He was stubborn, and I was scared, which made for a potent blend of fixed silence.
He broke our battle of wills after an hour and a half.
“You know, I really believed that you were going to be my brother-in-law.”
I swallowed.
“Now, had I known theentiresituation down in Mexico, and what was really going on, I would have moderated that thought.” Like Wyatt, Liam’s voice was caramel-slow, butter melting on your tongue, warm and wrapped in oak leaves and summer afternoons. “I also would have pulled back some on Wyatt’s reins. He’s always been purely wholehearted, and he don’t always see where the shadows lie.”
Liam blew out a sigh. His cheeks ballooned, and he slung his wrist over the top of the steering wheel. It was such a Wyatt move, so identical to his brother.
“Wyatt always says that I went a little wild after our parents died. He’s right. Savannah and I chased a lot of demons, and we weren’t thinking too far ahead of our pain. Now, I love my life, and I love my wife, and I love my son. We went through what we did and it made us who we are, and I’m thankful for every experience that I have. I also know I have Wyatt to thank for every drop of that happiness. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my brother.”
He dragged in a breath, drummed his fingers on the underside of the steering wheel. “Wyatt always was like our daddy. Responsible. And when our parents died, Wyatt put all that pain he was feeling, all of his devastation, and all his deep, dark awful feelings that he never let out into his work. That ranch? That’s where he’s laid his soul.”
“I know how much that place means to him—”
“Do you?” Liam’s sharp side-slung look sliced into me. “’Cause he’s my brother, and I don’t think even I have the full measure of what it means to him. I do know he’s going to live his whole life there. One day, either me or Jason will bury him there, too, next to our mother and father. He’s tied to that place forever.”
“I get that—”
“New York isn’t an option for him.”
My eyes slid shut.
More silence. More finger drumming. Radio static rose and fell, and somewhere across the state, one lonely game warden flirted with a dispatcher up on the plains.
“My brother hasneverlet himself go. He’s never been carefree. Not once, in all these years. The most I was hoping for him when we pushed him to go to Cancun a few days early? I thought he’d get a tan, maybe go on a deep-sea fishing expedition. I thought, if he was gettin’ wild, he might take a steel drum lesson. Maybe he’d stay up until midnight, too. Really cut loose. Soimagine, Noël,imaginemy surprise when I get down there and meet you.”
He shook his head. Slapped his thumb against the steering wheel. Rocked his jaw from side to side. He was staring at the horizon, at the vanishing point of the highway and forever. “I thought you were something special. Fucking magical, even. I had never seen my brother like that. Not in my entire life.”
“I do love Wyatt. I do—”
He cut me off. “Maybe you do. And all that, that’s between you and him. If you love him, you love him, but you gotta loveallof him. You gotta understand him.”
I’m here, aren’t I?I wanted to snap. I’d dropped everything to be here for him. But of course I had. That wasn’t some gold-star, Instagram-worthy happening. If a good deed happened, and the press release didn’t go out, did it even exist? Well, yes.
“Just don’t destroy him, okay?” Liam’s voice shifted, losing some of the hard edges and his unpeeled rage. “If you can’t stick around? If you can’t be his One? Then break his heart early, all right? Don’t string him along until you leaving will vaporize him. He wants you here tonight, so you already mean goddamn everything to him. You understand that, don’t you?”
I want you here, Noël. I don’t want to do this without you.“I do.”
Liam nodded.
Texas countryside rolled past the windows. The sunlight was soft. Summer had been kind. I watched the highway divider skip and roll behind us, unfurling in the reflection of the side mirror.
“I think—” My voice wavered. “I think becoming your brother-in-law would be the best thing that could happen in my life.”
After a handful of miles passed in silence, Liam reached across the truck and laid his hand on my shoulder.
CHAPTER24
Wyatt
The alarmon my cell phone chimed, spilling piano notes onto the pillow next to my cheek. I grunted and swiped the noise away, then buried my face in cotton that still smelled like Noël.
