Page 36 of Untamed

“What are you going to do with that information, Hayes?” Poppy gives me a look that I don’t appreciate.

“Nothing. Just curious.”

“On that note, I’m off. Early start tomorrow.” Wells stands, and I decide I should probably go, too. Sitting around here drinking all night isn’t going to make getting up tomorrow morning any easier.

“I’ll walk with you,” I tell him. Our houses are in the same general direction anyway.

“If you really like her,” Poppy says, her voice low while Wells and Rhett talk about something else, “you need to talk to her about it.”

“I’m telling you she doesn’t want to hear it, Poppy.”

“Yes, she does. Make her listen. Do a grand gesture or something!”

“Stop scheming, woman,” Rhett tells her, pulling her into his side.

“I’m not scheming,” she says. “Just helping your brother.”

We say good night, and then it’s just me and Wells walking back across the pasture. It’s starting to get chilly in the evenings now. After that last big heat wave we had, it’s been nothing but mild, sunny days and cool nights. One of the benefits of living near mountains.

“You gonna tell River?” he asks me.

I shrug. “Guess I need to. Scares the shit out of me, though.”

“River?” He looks over at me with a confused expression. “That girl is one of the nicest people I know.”

“She is, if you haven’t fucked her over in the past.”

“It seems like you guys are on good enough terms now. She danced with you, and hell, she kissed you back. That’s gotta mean something, right?”

I drop my head back and look up at the sky. I hope it means something. I really do. But fuck, I’m scared.

“It might.”

“I’m not going to tell you what to do here,” he says, “but I think you should give it a shot. If you’re serious about her. Don’t fuck her around again, okay? Because we all watched her fall in love with you over and over again when we were growing up. Hell, even Addie talked about it.”

“Yeah? She never said anything to me.”

“She did to me. She could see how head over heels River was for you, and she knew there was something there. Addie would tell me all the time that you were just too chickenshit to do something about it.”

“Sounds like Addie.” I laugh. “Brutally honest.”

“Do you think you had feelings for River back then?”

“Probably. Looking back, I cared for her far more than I should have as just a friend. She’s always been beautiful and funny and fun to be around.”

“You used to cuddle,” he says like that’s all the evidence a person needs. “You’d have movie nights, and I’d come into your room just to see y’all cuddled up together in your bed.”

“It was platonic cuddling.”

“Not to her, it wasn’t. And I don’t think it was to you either. I think you were just too thick-headed to do anything about it. Too caught up in all the other women who were throwing themselves at you.”

“Probably.” I shove my hands into my pockets. “So, yeah, okay. I liked her. And I was scared that if anything happened, the friendship would be fucked. I was scared that if anything happened, she’d see me in a different light and end up hating me. So I thought staying friends was the best thing for it.”

“And yelling at her for sleeping with someone else… Was that out of fear, too?” He raises an eyebrow in my direction.

“Yeah, that was the fuckup to end all other fuckups. But it’s not like she’s without fault either.” I can’t help but say it because I’ve been thinking about it.

“What do you mean?”

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