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PROLOGUE

EMBER

I can’t do this.

Fifteen years ago…

“I have to do this.”

I swipe at the tears sliding down my cheeks, but it’s useless. They’re never going to stop. As long as Parker sticks to his stupid life plan, crying is all I have left.

“What about me?” I ask for the millionth time.

He closes the distance between us and pulls me against his chest. “This was always the plan, Em. You knew I’d be leaving as soon as I graduated from the academy.”

“But Oregon? Why can’t you stay in Marble Falls and be a cop?”

He sighs and rests his chin on my head. “Because Marble Falls isn’t exactly a hub of activity. I wanna be in the action, work my way to the top. You know that.”

Yeah, but I thought marrying me would be enough to keep him here.

Anger rises to the surface, but I temper it down. If the tears aren’t working, fury sure as hell won’t. Pushing out of his arms, I take several steps back.

“How are we supposed to make a marriage work when we’re in two different states?”

Parker rests his hands on his hips. “Seriously? I thought you’d be coming with me.”

“And drop out of school?” I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”

“There are schools in Oregon,” he says, exasperation in his tone. “You can finish your nursing degree there, can’t you?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what?” he presses.

I take a deep breath and force the words out. “You’ve never even asked me to come with you.”

“We’re engaged!” Parker explodes. “I didn’t think I had to ask my fiancé to move with me. I assum?—”

“There,” I shout, pointing at him. “That right there is the problem. You assumed, but you never asked.”

Disbelief registers in his eyes, and I get it… sort of. We’ve been together since high school so marriage, babies, a white picket fence, and two point five kids was always the plan, a foregone conclusion.

Hell, he proposed to me the day after graduation. I want to spend my life with him, but I want that life to be here, in Marble Falls.

“What do you want from me?” he asks, his voice cutting through the tension like a hot knife through butter.

My lungs constrict at his question, and breathing becomes almost impossible. Parker has been my life for as long as I can remember, and the thought of existing without him is almost as unbearable as it gets.

Almost.

“I-I-I…” I stutter and shake my head as if it will make what I’m about to do easier somehow. “I can’t do this.”

His shoulders stiffen. “Do what, Em?”

I lift my eyes to his, and the pain reflected in the brown orbs lashes at my heart like a whip.

“Em?” he prods.

“I can’t marry you.”