Page 81 of Belong With Me

Chapter Twenty - Eight

Ryder

Watching her drive away felt like my heart being ripped out, and it became hard to breathe.

I hadn’t slept a wink. Not with everything Sienna had let slip last night running through my head. So, when Van had found me in the kitchen the first thing she said to me was “You look tired.” I’d known I was going to get the third degree about everything. Our conversation flowed through my mind as I stared at the empty driveway.

“Didn’t get a whole heap of sleep last night.”

“Ahh, you and Sienna couldn’t keep your hands off each other then, hey?” She grinned as she poured herself a mug of coffee, then looked at me and raised the pot in question. I nodded.

I wished that was what had happened last night. I was completely insatiable when it came to her. “We both had a few drinks and hit the sack early.”

“Then why do you look as though you haven’t slept at all?” She added sugar to the mugs and held one out to me.

I could tell her to mind her own business. But truly, I needed her advice. “I don’t know what to do.” I took the mug and sipped.

“About Sienna leaving?”

“How did you know that?” How long had my sister known and hadn’t told me?

“Kenzie and I had a chat yesterday. She and Sinny chatted about it too.”

“What did she say?” I waited with bated breath for her response, taking another sip just to stop me from blurting something I might regret later.

“She’s conflicted. She wants to stay but feels like she can’t. Both Kenzie and I believe that it’s because she doesn’t know if the two of you are a real thing or just a fling.”

“Of course she isn’t a fling,” I told her, immediately on the defensive, but it was the truth, at least for me.

She smiled at me in a way that made me feel completely bare to her. “That’s what we think too. You’re serious about her, Ry. It’s obvious to us but we know you like the back of our own hands. She doesn’t. Think about it from her point of view for a second. She would be giving up everything she knows for you. After only a couple of weeks, mind you. You can’t blame the girl for being unsure.”

Taking everything in, I could understand where she was coming from. But that wasn’t the only thing that was playing tricks on my mind. “I need to ask you something. It’s something you can’t discuss with the others.”

“My lips are sealed.” She took a drink from her own mug and looked at me expectantly. I trusted her when she said she wouldn’t tell anyone. We were twins, and she knew me almost as well as I knew myself.

“What if all of this is a game? That she’s just filling in time before she heads home? That perhaps I’m not the only one in town she’s been enjoying time with?” The words hurt coming out as much as they’d hurt to hear Sin’s confessions last night.

“I can’t see Sienna doing that. I see the way she looks at you. It’s the way we look at someone we love, not someone we are just having fun with. How could you even think she would be with anyone else?”

“Something she said last night.”

“What did she say?” Savannah sat on a stool at the breakfast bar, and I had the feeling she was bracing herself for something big. That’s exactly what I was going to tell her. Something huge.

“That it wasn’t meant to be real.” Her eyebrow raised and I saw she wanted to say something. Her mouth popped open and she closed it again. Obviously trying to stay silent. “Just say it.”

“What wasn’t supposed to be real? You and her?”

“Yeah. I think maybe it started out as a bit of fun for her but then along the way something changed. I think both of us changed.”

Leaning over the bench, she reached out, then rested her hand on top of mine and squeezed. “There’s only one way for you to know for sure. You need to ask her. Talk to her about everything before she leaves.”

And even though I’d tried, she ran from me, and I was left behind to face the consequences of my own actions and stubbornness. Colton’s voice broke my recollection.

“Here, brother. Go after your girl.”

Looking around, I saw Colton with Cisco, already saddled and not too far away. “You think I should?” Maybe her confession hadn’t been as quiet as I’d thought.

“If you don’t then you’re throwing everything away.”

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