Page 92 of Spur of the Moment
I untacked him as he drank water, then brought him into the barn. Red stuck his head through the opening in his stall, eyeing us. I searched for Lettie, but it was clear she wasn’t here.
Guiding Nova into his stall, I closed the door and found Reed packing his supplies into his truck outside the barn.
“Did you happen to see Lettie come in here?” I asked him as I bent to unbuckle the spurs on my boots.
“She left a little bit ago,” Reed said as he hefted a bucket of used horseshoes into the bed of his truck.
I straightened, my blood going ice cold. “Left?”
“Yeah. Headed off into the trees behind the house all grumpy.”
Relief flooded through me knowing she hadn’t driven away. If she had, I’d peel after her like a bat out of hell. Lettie was not getting away from me this time.
There was only one place Lettie would be headed if she went off that way.
Reed looked at me then. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Cooper. What’s wrong?”
The leather strap attached to my spurs slipped from my fingers, landing with a thud in the dirt.
“I’ll tell you later. I gotta go,” I said before turning on the heel of my boot and beelining it for the creek hidden in the trees on the east side of the property.
That creek was the last place I saw her aside from her birthday before she drove three hundred miles to get away from me.
It was now going to be the place I made damn sure she knew how I felt, and that running was no longer an option. Not even leaving the room during a damn argument. Lettie and I were endgame, and that meant working through our battles, whether we liked it or not.
I wanted the good and the bad with Lettie, and it was about damn time she realized it.
***
A short walk later, the sound of running water filled my ears. Lettie was sitting in the dirt, facing the creek with her back to me. Her caramel hair cascaded down her back, locks of it draped over her red shoulders.
Once this was cleared up, I’d rub aloe all over her body, touch every inch of her, just to prove to her that she was mine.
I didn’t care if addictions could be deadly. I’d let Lettie rip my damn heart out if she wanted. I already had once before, and while it hurt, I was so fucking honored to be touched by Lettie in this lifetime.
We were meant to be, Lettie and I. We were put in this lifetime together, next door neighbors. The universe couldn’t have been shouting at us harder if it tried.
I came up beside her, taking a seat in the dirt, leaving a few inches of space between our bodies. We were silent for a few minutes as we watched the water run over the rocks in the creek.
“I’m not scared of you,” she finally said.
“I kno-” She held up a hand to cut me off.
“No, Bailey. I’m not scared of you, but I am fucking terrified of losing you. You’ve always been my rock, and five years ago, I may have been stupid, but I knew that life would never be the same if I lost you. I looked forward to seeing you every day, to sneaking looks when you stacked hay or rode Nova. If all of a sudden that stopped because I messed things up? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. There’s no me without you, Bailey.”
I looked at her, but she kept her gaze on the water, a sadness in her features, overtaking the exhaustion that had been there the past couple weeks.
“You could never mess things up, Huckleberry.” I brushed the hair in her face behind her ear and she brought her eyes to mine.
“You don’t know that,” she whispered.
“I’d fight for you, for us. I could never give up on you. You’re ingrained in my entire being; a constant thought on my mind. There’s never a moment that goes by where I’m not daydreaming about you. How do you expect to be happy if you run from the things that bring you joy?”
She swallowed audibly as a tear slid down her cheek. “Leaving you without a goodbye was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve regretted it every day since I left. I’m so sorry it took me so long to come back to you.”
My thumb brushed the tear away and I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her. She buried her face in my neck as I rubbed my hand up and down her back in a soothing rhythm. I was so tired of hearing her apologize. “Don’t be sorry, Lettie. Be happy. As shitty as it is, life played out the way it was supposed to, and it brought you back to me. That’s all I care about.”
She nodded, pulling back slightly to look up at me. I kept my arms wrapped tight around her, needing to feel her against me.
