Page 15 of I Choose You (Wilder #2)

Claire

I stood in Wyatt’s room—my new room, temporarily—and took it all in. Reid came in behind me and placed my suitcase on the floor.

“Thanks,” I said cheerfully. “You didn’t have to go there to pack it up yourself. I would have done it. You’ve done more than enough already.”

“That would involve you going there, which you are not doing.” Reid walked past me and opened the bedroom window. It was cold outside, but the fresh air was needed to get the stagnant air circulating.

It was clear that Wyatt didn’t spend a lot of time here.

He must have packed up some clothes and toiletries, but some of his more summery clothes were still in the drawers.

That was fine. One, because it was his house, and he could leave whatever he wanted here.

He was doing me a huge favor by allowing me to stay here on such short notice.

And two, I only had the one suitcase of clothes with me.

I had been living out of it all this time, not daring to put my clothes in the Cove’s End dressers, so it didn’t bother me to have to work around Wyatt’s clothes.

Reid left to grab the other suitcase from his truck, the one with shoes and makeup and toiletries of my own.

It was strange to think that for my entire life, I had lived a totally different lifestyle.

One of excess and possessions. I always thought I was pretty responsible with my money, but after spending months with nothing more than my two suitcases, I realized that I had far too much back at home and that I really didn’t need it.

I made my way around the house. It was a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage.

Wyatt’s room was small but clean. The bed had been made, including fresh sheets.

It looked like the spare bedroom was a little smaller and used as a multipurpose space with a desk and some workout equipment.

The bathroom was next to the spare room, another small room but clean and well maintained.

There were neighbors pretty close on both sides, but the kitchen looked out to the open backyard.

Suddenly, the air in the room changed, like an electrical current was circling the perimeter.

I looked over my shoulder to see Reid standing on the opposite side of the island, his arms crossed over his chest, watching me.

“Thank you. Again. You really didn’t have to do this, but I appreciate it all the same.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The silence felt heavy. I didn’t know what was wrong with my head today, but it felt like it was trying to make something more out of Reid’s every gesture, every word.

Reid was just being nice. Sure, that in itself was still a little weird since, until three days ago, he was mostly Mr. Grumpy-Pants, but that didn’t mean anything other than he was a decent guy .

“Listen, I know you don’t want me to go back to the motel, but I really do need to get my car.

I have to get to the police station soon to give my statement.

That will be the last time I go there though, I pinky swear it.

” I smiled at him, holding my pinky finger out to him.

Reid had somehow got me out of giving my statement last night, but I wouldn’t be able to get away from it again today.

“Don’t worry about it.”

I resisted rolling my eyes, just barely.

“So you keep saying.” It wasn’t a second later that I heard a car pull up in the driveway.

I went to the living room window and peeked out through the curtains.

Sure enough, there was my car. Wyatt got out of my car and hopped into the SUV that was parked along the curb out front, Wes behind the wheel.

I glanced back at Reid, but he raised his brow, a small smirk trying to break free. My phone rang where I’d left it on the kitchen island. Reid glanced at it like it was an annoyance. I hurried over to it, ready to answer it.

Will.

I silenced the call, pocketing my phone. He was still calling me occasionally, even though I never answered. He had to know that it was over between us. What was he trying to hold on to?

“Alright, well… do you need anything else?”

“Anything more than a house to stay at?” I asked incredulously.

“No. I think this should just about do it.” My phone started ringing again.

Seriously? I took it out of my pocket to silence the ringer, expecting to see Will’s name again.

This time, it was my mother. “Hold on one sec, I just have to take this real fast,” I told him.

“Hi, Mom,” I answered brightly. My brain was still processing everything from yesterday, last night, and this morning, but I didn’t want my mother to know any of that.

I buried my emotions as deeply as I could and walked the line between cheerful and manic like a master.

If I sounded too upbeat, she might recognize that it was fake.

But if I didn’t sound positive enough, she would know something was wrong, and there would be no stopping her from endless lectures and pressure to go back home.

It seemed to work. Either that or she simply wasn’t paying attention because she jumped right into the conversation without asking me anything about myself, even a quick “how are you?” or “how’s the project?”

“What time will you be back on Wednesday?”

“I’m not going to be there Wednesday, remember?

I’m going to come in on Thursday, probably around 5:00 p.m. I’ll take a half day and start driving back around noon.

” We had gone over this already. Multiple times.

But she wanted me to be home on Wednesday, therefore, in her mind, this conversation never happened.

Not until it went the way she wanted it to go.

“Thursday is too late, darling. You’ll be here Wednesday so I can make sure you look your best. This is particularly important to your father, you know that. You can’t show up in wrinkled clothes from your drive. The press is going to be all over this wedding. You need to be at your best.”

“I’ll try to get in earlier on Thursday, but I really can’t be back on Wednesday. I’m working.”

“Well,” she sighed. “Send me a picture of your dresses so Will can make sure he coordinates appropriately. We don’t want it to look like you two haven’t been communicating.”

“Mom,” I said, trying to get her attention .

“And use proper lighting, please. That’s very important.”

“Mom, Will and I haven’t been communicating. I am not coordinating my outfits with him. I don’t even have my dresses with me. They’ll be waiting for me to pick up at the boutique shop. Besides, I’m bringing a date with me.”

“What?” Her audible gasp was a bit over-the-top, in my opinion.

“I was given a plus-one, and I invited someone to be my date.”

“Well,” she huffed. “Isn’t that lovely.”

“Mom, I have to go, but I’ll see you in a few days.”

The call ended.

Shit. I stared at my phone in my hands, wondering who I could call on such short notice to be my date to this wedding.

I had a few girlfriends who would happily take me up on the opportunity to attend one of the largest weddings in Connecticut’s political sphere, but having a woman with me wouldn’t deter my mother, or Will, from harassing me.

Any of the guy friends I had were mostly Will’s friends, so that wouldn’t work.

I didn’t even know why I said it, but now that I’d told that stupid lie, I had to figure out a solution.

I heard a throat clear behind me. My heart sank. Why did conversations with my mother keep making me forget my surroundings? I placed a practiced smile on my face before turning around to face Reid.

“Sorry about that,” I laughed. “My mom.” I waved my phone around like that would help explain what I was talking about. Cringing internally, I put my phone in my pocket again.

“Yeah, I got that.” Reid was back to scowling at me.

He was giving me whiplash, making my already frazzled brain work overtime to try to figure out his moods.

He went from amused to grumpy to intense to annoyed so fast it felt like I was on a roller coaster.

I’d never met anyone who didn’t even try to mask their emotions.

Some were better than others. Some perfected it a long time ago.

But everyone I knew kept their cards close to their chest. Not Reid.

Every emotion he felt was splayed out for the world to see.

“She’s still on this kick to get me back with my ex, and now I need to find a date to a wedding this weekend.”

“Just don’t go. Problem solved.” He shrugged, leaning back against the kitchen island.

“Family obligation. You don’t want to be my plus-one, do you?” I asked, my brows raised hopefully.

A look of absolute horror crossed his face. “Not a chance.”

“No. No, I was kidding. It’ll be fine. It’ll give me something to do today to take my mind off…

everything else.” I looked around the space again, not daring to look at Reid.

“Well, thanks again for getting this set up.” I made a mental note to stop by Wyatt’s garage to talk to him about the rent payments.

* * *

Sweat coated my hands even after rubbing them on my jeans.

The small room held only a metal table and four chairs.

I knew I had nothing to be nervous about, but my body didn’t seem to get that memo.

My leg was bouncing erratically, and I had to grip my knee to make it stop.

Officer Wilder, as he was right now, was sitting across from me.

“It’s natural to be nervous, Claire. This isn’t the… coziest of rooms. I’m sorry about that. But I just need to get your st atement for the case,” he said.

“Thank you. Um, how do you want me to start?”

“Let’s start with the easy questions. Can you tell me your name and address for the record?”

“Claire DeLuca. My address is… well, I can give you my parents’ address in Connecticut, or do you mean when the incident happened?

I was staying at the Cove’s End Motel while I was in town for a project.

But I relocated as of today.” Luke’s brow rose, but he stayed silent, waiting for me to continue.

“I don’t know the address, but I’m staying at your brother’s house. ”

Luke’s gaze snapped to mine from where he was taking notes, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Reid’s having you stay at his house?”

“No, sorry, other brother,” I laughed. “Wyatt agreed to let me stay at his place since he’s at Maeve’s all the time.”

“Ah. Okay. Can you take me through the events from yesterday? Take your time. And if you need a break at any time, just let me know.”

I told Luke everything that had happened from the moment I walked in to when Reid bundled me into his arms and took me home. To his house.

A soft knock sounded on the door, and a pretty redheaded woman popped her head in.

“I’m sorry to interrupt. You have a call, Luke. Mr. Therrien. He’s called twice.”

“Sorry. He’s a defense attorney on another case. If I don’t take this, he’ll try to tell the judge that we didn’t give him ample time to review the evidence properly. It’ll only be a minute,” Luke said, excusing himself to take the call.

“Do you need a water or a coffee or anything?” the woman asked.

“A water would be great, thank you.”

She came back a minute later with a bottle of water for me.

“Here you are,” she said, handing me the bottle. “I’m Scarlett, by the way. I just wanted to apologize for what happened last night. I know you haven’t been in town long, but that really isn’t the kind of thing that happens around here.”

“How do you know how long I’ve been in town?” The question popped out before I had a chance to stop it. I had no right to ask the police any questions. That wasn’t how this worked.

She didn’t seem to mind though. She had a friendly smile. With a small shrug of her shoulders, she answered. “You’re working on the library project with Luke’s brother Reid, and… I don’t know. It’s just a small town, I guess.”

Luke appeared behind Scarlett and tapped her on the shoulder. The air in the room shifted subtly as Scarlett stepped aside.

“I’ll let you two get back to it. It was nice to meet you,” she said.

“Actually, I think we’re good here. Unless there’s anything else you would like to add to your statement before it goes on record?”

I read through the written statement and signed my name, confirming it was accurate.

“Thank you for coming by today,” Luke said.

I thanked him for his time as well, and then Scarlett walked me out to the main lobby.

“I hope I see you around sometime.”

“Me too.” I smiled and then left the station.

After a quick Google search, I swung by Wyatt’s garage on the off chance that he would be there. A black pickup truck was parked next to the front door, so I pulled up next to it and knocked before pushing it open.

It was darker inside than I expected, but the space was clean, if a bit untidy. Wyatt was elbow-deep into the hood of an old boxy sedan, but he looked up at the sound of the door, an easy smile coming to his face.

“Hey. How are you holding up?” He stepped away from the car, cleaning his hands on a rag that he pulled from his waistband.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “Thank you for asking though. I’m actually here about the house.”

“Everything okay?” His brow furrowed in concern. He reminded me so much of Reid when he did that, the family resemblance obvious.

“Yeah. It’s great. I can’t thank you enough for letting me stay there. It’s just that Reid didn’t tell me what the rent was or where I should send it. Do you take Venmo?”

A smirk tugged at his lip. “He warned me you would try to pay. Listen, my house is sitting empty every day. It helps me out to have someone there looking after the place.” He crossed his arms and looked at me, a mix of amusement and curiosity on his face.

“Besides, Reid would fucking kill me if I took your money.”

“Reid has nothing to do with this. I’m not looking for charity.”

“It isn’t charity, Claire. It’s what we do around here. You need a place to stay, and I get a free house-sitter. Take the win.”

He wouldn’t budge on this, and honestly, I could really use a win right now. I exchanged numbers with him in case something came up at the house while I was “house-sitting.” Apparently, I was now staying rent-free in a fully furnished house, all thanks to the Wilder men.