Page 20 of The Mountain Man's Christmas Bride
Sage clenches her jaw, breathing heavily. A deep, angry flush darkens her cheeks, the complete opposite of the rosy tint she’d been sporting all morning—all of yesterday.
Have I just irreparably damaged everything between us?
Have I royally fucked up everything?
“I need you to take me home,” she says after a long moment, her voice tight. “Now.”
I blow out a shaky breath and pull back. “I told your sister she could meet you at the cabin?—”
“No.” She cuts me off with a firm shake of her head. “Not your cabin. My home.”
Something in my chest cracks. “What?”
“I want to go home. I…Ineedto go home,” she says, voice breaking as she turns away from me completely. “You didn’t sign up for this.”
“The hell I didn’t. I married you. This isexactlywhat I signed up for.”
She just shakes her head again. “You married me to get rid of Scott. Well, now he’s gone, isn’t he? You made sure of that. Your job is done. And now, you’re free.”
I don’t know where she’s gotten it in her head that I want to befree, but that’s the last thing I want. “I will never be free,” I mutter, pulling the truck out. “And I am not giving up on you—on us, Sage Hayes.”
From the corner of my eye, I watch her lower her head. “You don’t have to pretend anymore,” she replies, voice empty—tired. “It’s okay.”
I shake my head. “No, it isn’t, and you know it. This stopped being pretend days ago,and you know it.” We leave the busy main street and start towards the vet clinic. I’m fighting my basic instincts about whether I should be taking her to her run down flat or to my cabin, though I know the latter might hurt her more.
I’m fighting everything in me that’s telling me to take her home and keep her safe—from everything, including herself.
And yet I turn down her street, tension coiling deep in my bones. “I’m not abandoning you, Sage,” I tell her as I pull in. “I’m not leaving you.”
She unbuckles her seatbelt without looking at me. “We’ll see about that.”
TEN
SAGE
Two days.
I know Rhett has been following me. Not like I really go anywhere, but I feel his presence when I go to work and throughout the day. Always my guardian, my saviour, but nothing more. He can never be more.
Life is happening around me in a fog and I let it happen. Somehow, it feels worse than when I left Scott. When I’d finally packed everything and began the drive to Willow Ridge, I’d felt...free. It had been exhilarating. But leaving Rhett...
A permanent weight resides on my chest, one that seems too intense for what transpired a couple of days ago. I can’t possibly be in love with Rhett, can I? Is that what I’m feeling?
The guilt is worse, somehow. Everything he’d done for me, everything he’s risked, and I…I pushed him away.
But Scott’s parting gift, those awful words, keep replying in my head. And every time they do, I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me again, and I can’t catch my breath.
I close my eyes as I lock up the clinic and tuck my keys into my purse. Mr Ashby is promising to sell me the business in a few months once the locals are more comfortable with me. It feelslike a blessing in disguise. This is what I want, isn’t it? This is what Scott stole from me—and now I’m getting my life’s dream.
So, I can’t let Rhett steal that from me, either.
Except this is onlypartof my dream.
He is not the end of all your dreams,Rhett had said. And it’s those words that resonate with me more.
My feet ache the entire walk home, since my car finally crapped itself. Axel said he could fix it, but the only mechanic in town doesn’t have the parts we need on hand, so I’m stuck without.
Which is fine. It’s not the first time. I’d become pretty good at learning the bus routes in the city. Too bad Willow Ridge is too small for that.
