Page 140 of Ly to Me

I swallowed past the growing lump in my throat.

“One night, they’d had enough. Jared was in town visiting after bootcamp, but all I wanted to do was go find you. Bring you back like I’d been trying to do for so long. Searchin’ for you became second nature. I didn’t care that he was about to be deployed for the first time and was only visiting for two days.

“Jared tried hiding my keys, and the asshole I was—I fought him. Punched him right in the jaw, took my keys, and left before it got too dark outside. The stars burned so bright that night—the town I found myself in was so small, they didn’t have street lights. Just a two-lane road. A blip on the map.”

I clicked my tongue, though Nora didn’t need to be directed to follow the fenceline. The burning behind my eyes batted away with a few blinks as I continued, “I didn’t realize my parents followed me.” Lyra’s head landed on the crook of my arm, her warmth helping to fight away the cold thinking about that night blanketed me with. “When I got back home that night, the cops were already there, talking to Jared. Some crazed part of me thought he’d called them from what I’d done—the bruise I’d left on his face or how I was deranged. I was ready to fight him again until I heard words like, ‘hit and run,’ and ‘serious accident,’ then finally, the one that sent me to my damn knees, ‘dead on arrival.’ Their missing car and the way Jared was looking at me put the pieces together rather quickly.”

I chuckled, feeling no humor. “I spent so much time blaming you for my actions. Blaming you for the way I couldn’t let you go. Blaming you for the way someone slammed into the side of their car, sending it rolling.” My palm fisted over her stomach,gripping her shirt. “I know now it wasn’t your fault, or even mine. Trying to hold onto whose fault it was only held me back. Kept me trapped, spiraling on and on, never moving forward.”

“I’m sorry,” Lyra whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

That was the second time she’d taken what I’d said about their death and just said those two words. Most tried to comfort me, understand me, try to get into my head. Ask me more questions. She just let me talk, listened, and used those two words.

I always knewlovewasn’t the best word for how I felt for Lyra. It was an inexplicable, inconceivable feeling deep in my gut, twisting my heart, bending my mind—in all the best ways.

Whatever it was, there was no word for it.

I just knew, whatever it was called, was us.

“Is that why you didn’t enlist with Jared? Because I…because I left?”

“No. I’d already decided against enlisting before then.”When I knew I loved you.But she didn’t need that guilt on her shoulders, because at the end of the day, it had been my choice. I’d chosen a different path. “They’d love to see us now, like this. That will was no quick thought on their part.”

“How so?”

“They knew the only one I’d marry in this life was you, and they charted it like a goal to let the rest fall into place. They never lost hope that you loved me just as much. They all knew you’d come back to me.” I pressed my lips to the top of her head and murmured into her hair, “You were worth the wait, sweetheart.”

My arm grew damp, her tears splashing down it steadily. “If I hadn’t left—”

“You had every right to leave. Hell, I would have questioned your head if you’d stayed, knowing what I know now.”

She tapped my arm playfully. “I’m not crazy like this town thought I was.”

“This town has changed since you left. I bet half the people here won’t think twice about you bein’ back. And anyone who does have a problem with it will have to deal with your crazy husband.”

“Youarethe crazy one in this relationship.”

“Says the woman who destroyed my truck.”

“You’re keeping it so I can destroy it more whenever I want, ergo—you’re crazy. I’m just prone to lashin’ out at crazy men.”

She shifted, like those words were trying to pull her thoughts toward a man that deserved none of them.

I made a promise, right then and there, that if Chet Walker still lived, wherever he was, I’d find him, and his last breath on God’s green Earth would be pulled from his lungs by my hands.

Chet Walker was a dead man.

Red and blue flashing lights pulled me from my thoughts. They approached slowly, rolling up the driveway, no sound but the gravel crunching beneath tires.

I pulled back on the reins, stopping Nora before hopping off. “Stay here.”

“But—”

“Stay, Ly.” I kissed her hand before placing the reins in them, then tapped Nora to get her going again.

I pulled a cap from my back pocket, fitting it on backward before sticking a toothpick between my lips as I hopped the wooden fence no higher than my waist. A familiar shiny head of no hair lifted from the driver’s side as an officer left the vehicle.

“Mornin’, Henry.”