Page 64 of An Unfinished Memory

A pickup barreled down the road. A honk made me frown.

Was that…Wilder?

My stomach flipped, and I wanted to celebrate. I got to see his handsome face in person and not on a phone screen.

I watched Wilder approach, his window rolled down. He screeched off the pavement and skidded to a stop next to me.

I gawked at him.

“Roll down the window,” he called, and I jerked, still not believing he was here.

He’d been bugging me about the vacation, obviously worried I was going alone. I expected him to call each day I was gone. I had been looking forward to it.

I rolled the window down. “What are you?—”

“I’m going with you.”

“What?” Shock stole the rest of my brain cells. I didn’t hear him correctly.

But he was here.

“I’ll park in the garage.”

“It’s the entire weekend, Wilder. Aren’t you on call?”

“Ray took it for me.”

Dismay cinched around my throat. “Ray knows about us?” Wilder’s boss was a decent guy and a good sheriff, but I’d always thought he was subtly manipulativewith Wilder. Like an overbearing dad who expected things to be done his way. I would’ve thought growing up under Barnaby Knight, Wilder would be sensitive to those tactics. Instead, his childhood had made him think Ray only had his best interests at heart.

I had disagreed. I still did.

“No. He noticed I haven’t had a long weekend in a while. I’ll be right back.” Wilder pulled away.

Stunned, I watched through the rearview mirror as he pulled into the garage. He was coming with me? The swirls started in my belly, but I was afraid to get my hopes up. So many questions about how feasible this would be ran through my head.

He appeared again with a duffel in his hand and closed the garage door. He jogged toward the pickup.

My mouth went dry at his long-legged lope in his worn jeans with his wide shoulders and the way his hand closed around the straps of his duffel. His cowboy hat was tucked low on his head, shadowing his face.

He disappeared behind the RV and appeared again at the back passenger door and put his duffel on the floor and set his hat on top.

Oreo let out an excited bark, and Wilder’s chuckle made the day even more surreal. He was laughing and petting the dog like we were a family. And we were going camping together, just like I’d dreamed of.

He jumped into the passenger seat, and his smoky-whiskey-and-vanilla scent surrounded me.

“Wilder.” I put the pickup in park. My brain was coming back online, but I was as confused as ever. “What’s going on?”

He ran a hand through his hair after wearing his hatfor the short jaunt down the driveway. “I don’t know. I just know I want to be with you.”

Heat wicked through my body. Orgasms with his voice in my ear weren’t the same when he wasn’t next to me. “So we sneak away and camp together? What if Ray wants you to return?”

“I can’t if I have no vehicle, and I’m riding with you.”

That was a change. He used to arrange his time off around what Ray might want. “And when we get back? Then what?”

His expression was as lost as I felt. “Can we have a fun few days where we don’t have to worry about seeing people we know?”

“And then what?” I enunciated. An entire long weekend with Wilder would definitely keep me from moving on.

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