Page 56 of Riding the Line (Willow Ridge #2)

Duke

Every smack of rain against the waiting room windows makes my muscles flinch. I pick at the blood crusted around the holes in my jeans from the road burn, my other leg bobbing, while trying to ignore the agonising throb in my shoulder.

It’s been an hour since Wyatt and Rory turned up. Since he blatantly ignored me. Maybe that was my sign to leave, but I couldn’t, not without knowing Cherry was awake and okay—

‘Bennett,’ Wyatt’s voice rings out across the waiting room, forcing my head to shoot up.

He stands in the corridor opposite me, cold, hard eyes locked on where I sit.

The ferocity of his glare is enough to make me cower in my seat, but I force myself to stand even as my weary body protests.

To meet him and whatever he’s planning to throw at me.

And if he’s here, then Cherry must be awake, and that thought gives me the strength to rise to him.

I just hope she knows I’m out here, waiting. That I wasn’t a coward this time.

He marches over, jaw dropping to no doubt volley all his anger at me, but the nurse behind the desk gets there before him, demanding with hands on her hips, ‘If you two are planning on having some alpha male stand-off in my hospital, you better think twice and take your asses outside.’

Wyatt’s steps screech to a halt as he considers the nurse, seemingly deciding that her wrath is not worth it, then he pivots his direction, breezing straight past me and nodding towards the exit in a silent suggestion.

‘Sorry, ma’am,’ I throw over my shoulder to the nurse as I follow him. It’s the least I can do considering the grief I gave her earlier. She only rolls her eyes at me, though there’s a sparkle to them that hadn’t been there before.

The covered entrance of the hospital does little to shroud us from the blistering weather outside.

The whistling wind has the rain lashing down in slants, still catching the bottom of mine and Wyatt’s legs, soaking our jeans.

Nonetheless, Wyatt stands there in the shadows, with his broad frame strained and a stubborn fold of his arms. The distant rumble of a summer storm filters through the sound of the pouring rain, while Wyatt remains silent, just piercing me with his daggered stare – the kind he usually saves for the guys checking out his sister.

It makes me swallow thickly.

I realise then that he’s waiting for me to speak. To explain myself, I suppose, but there’s something more important on my mind— ‘How’s Cherry doing?’

‘She’s awake. She’s fine,’ Wyatt pushes out, then cuts his gaze to the ground beside us, as if he can’t stand to look at me for longer than a few seconds.

His nostrils flare as he pulls down a breath, releasing it on a weighty exhale when he finally deems me worthy of his glare again.

He just shakes his head as he says, ‘She’s my baby sister, Duke. ’

‘I know, I’m sorry—’

‘And you’re supposed to be my best friend.’

My heart drops to my stomach.

‘I am your best friend.’

He doesn’t deign me an immediate response, just a silent glower as a muscle beats in his jaw.

I take it as a small victory, that he has no defence to contest me on that.

Because I’ve always been his best friend.

That’s the whole reason we’re here in the first place, in this pointless stand-off, because I was so terrified of upsetting him.

Of losing him. After all the years we’ve stood by each other’s sides.

That’s why I have to keep fighting back. Why I can’t let him push me away.

‘I saw the list,’ Wyatt says next through gritted teeth.

‘The list?’

‘Her bucket list, Duke.’ He saws out on a humourless laugh, my face dropping as the reality of such kicks in.

An eerie chill crawls across my skin and I try to control my breathing, so as not to reveal the trembling in my chest. Wyatt adds, ‘I saw everything you’ve done with her.

Even the motorcycle bit added on the end in your handwriting. ’

Admittedly, even if we hadn’t done all the sexual items on her list yet, that last one is too damning.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I end up wincing from the way it makes the something in my shoulder grind together unnaturally, pain lancing through my chest. ‘Look it didn’t start off like that, I promise.

We began with the roller-skating – and I invited you guys so it wouldn’t give off the wrong impression to her.

I was just trying to be her friend when she was in need. ’

‘Right, because that’s what friends do – offer to fuck each other.’

The accusation slaps me across the face, my head rearing back.

A string of incomprehensible sounds come out as I realise how Wyatt sees me in this moment – just like Sawyer did when he caught us – I’m a friend that’s gone behind his back to sleep with his little sister.

Except, that’s nowhere near the truth. The opportunity to run my hands over Cherry’s bare skin and curves, of getting to coax out her sweet whimpers and give her the pleasure she so rightly deserves is a privilege she’s bestowed upon me, but it was never the endgame for helping her.

In fact, I’d started this summer trying to encourage the opposite.

No, spending this summer with Cherry was about doing what I could to build her up before she left, to give her the boost she needed to flourish before I lost my chance.

Yes, I’ve put Cherry in danger and got her hurt, and I’ll accept his anger for that, but otherwise, we’re on the same team here.

All I’ve ever wanted was to make her happy – exactly as does Wyatt.

I welcome the chill of the stormy air now as I inhale down a fortifying breath.

Wyatt tears his arms from his chest so he can run a hand through his hair. ‘She’s only twenty-one, Duke. That doesn’t sit right with me.’

‘You say that like twenty-one is so young, like I’m taking advantage, when doing the bucket list was Cherry’s idea in the first place.

What’s happened between us was two consenting adults doing what made them happy.

She’s more than capable of making her own decisions.

She has been for a long time, regardless of whether you’ve wanted to admit that. ’

Something like shock flickers across Wyatt’s face, breaking his stone-cold demeanour momentarily. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

I take a step forward, grateful that Wyatt doesn’t move back.

‘Look, I’m just as guilty of trying to keep Cherry in a cocoon of bubble wrap, to make sure nothing bad happens to her given how much she’s dealt with since her fall.

But now I realise that doing that, it’s only holding her back.

She doesn’t need all this fussing from us. ’

Wyatt scoffs. ‘Because you suddenly know her so well.’

‘Yeah, I think I do.’ I shouldn’t be smiling, not in the middle of an argument, but one still creeps into my cheeks faintly, my love for Cherry eager to let itself shine.

‘She says she’s in love with you, Duke. That’s why this is a problem – here you are saying you’re helping her out as a friend, doing these sexual things with her as, what? A favour? And now she’s gone and fallen in love with you only to get her heart broken.’

She told him she loved me. She wasn’t afraid, and neither will I be.

Now my smile swings free, pride rippling in my chest. Wyatt’s brow only creases further at my evident joy. ‘She’s not going to get her heart broken, because I love her too.’

Wyatt’s jaw drops. ‘You—’

‘What are you two doing out here?’ Beau Hensley’s voice suddenly creeps through the rain, forcing both Wyatt and me to turn towards the entrance where his mom and dad wait, Malia shaking off the umbrella they’d been using.

My smile eviscerates as I’m reminded that it’s not just one Hensley I’ve let down, but Malia and Beau too – the very people who stepped up and welcomed me into their family whenever I wanted when I was just a lost, grieving ten year old.

And this is how I repay them – putting their daughter in the hospital.

Still, when they divert their path towards us, their eyes widen with concern rather than anger and then frantically scan me when I fully face them.

‘Duke, honey, you’re covered in blood,’ Malia says, pressing a hand to her chest as she struggles to rip her gaze from my bloodied clothes. ‘We need to get you inside and cleaned up.’

‘I’m fine, honestly,’ I try to brush her off.

‘You’re not fine, son. You’ve been in an accident too,’ Beau replies, thick brows pulling together. The endearment of son doesn’t go unmissed, lodging uncomfortably in my heart as the man I’ve always seen as a brother to me is currently avoiding my eyes while he hovers beside his father.

‘Is everything okay?’ Malia asks, eyes flicking between me and Wyatt. When neither of us reply, she huffs and folds her arms, pressing us with her stare.

Finally, Wyatt clears his throat and turns to me. His face is too blank to get a read on him. ‘You should get your shoulder checked. I saw the way you winced. I don’t want you in pain too.’

And then he’s trudging back towards the hospital entrance. I take that small suggestion as evidence he still cares, but my heart races at the sight of him walking away from me again.

‘Wyatt,’ I call out, unable to stop myself.

His shoulders tense as he halts at the entrance but doesn’t look around. ‘Just … give me some time, Duke. I can’t deal with all this right now. It’s too much.’