“He dated me first! And—he came back night after night. I was so fucking mad that day you had it out with the two of us. Who do you think you are speaking to me that way? You needed a fucking lesson, and I made sure I was the one to give it to you. You don’t get to call me whatever the hell you like, Marley. What exactly are the rules here? You get to be an asshole, and the rest of us have to sit back and take it?”
“Will cheated on me! You helped him! He slept with you while he was sleeping with me! I’m your cousin!” I bury my finger in my chest. “We were best friends! Honest to God, if you don’t get it, you’re an idiot! You should have known better. You are the asshole here, not me. And, not to mention—you tried to ruin Wyatt. He’s a great person, and he never deserved what you did.” I give a brief nod to my mother. “She had to go the extra mile and hack into my personal account at the paper. She stole private property from my laptop and reworded it to ruin my relationship with the only man I have ever loved!”
I slap my hand over my mouth as soon as the words slip out. I wanted the first time I verbally acknowledged my love for Wyatt to be to him. It should have been Wyatt who heard those words first.
“Oh, sweetie,” Mom softens toward me. “You love him?” Her eyes moisten with tears as she melts at the idea.
“Yes, I do.” A ball of pain fists in my throat. “And Cat Alice destroyed everything we had.”
“I don’t want to be like this.” Cat pulls off her apron and takes a step forward. “As soon as I hit publish I tried to take it down, but the article was locked. I knew I went too far, but I couldn’t help it. I’m sick of coming in second. All Will ever talks about is how he wants you back—how wonderful it is just to see you at school. He even asked if I would mediate, so the two of you could reconcile.”
“And is that what you were doing the day I saw you swapping spit? Putting together a game plan to get Will and I back together?”
Her gaze drops to her feet. “He wanted to break things off for good—stay friends. I tried to convince him otherwise.”
“Alice”—Mom pulls her in—“that boy isn’t worth your time. Do yourself a favor, and let him go once and for all.” Her chin dips. That I’m-about-to-send-you-to-your-room look takes over. “Apologize to Marley and mean it. Family doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.”
Cat Alice steps in and tries to pick up my hands, but I pull them back like retracting from a fire.
“I’m sorry, Mars. I’m really sorry,” she hiccups. “It was stupid and immature, and I think I owe your boss an apology, too. Please tell him I’m so very sorry.”
“Ex boss, thank you very much. Thanks to you, I’m standing in the unemployment line once again. Not to mention the fact I’ve been permanently removed from the paper.”
She covers her face a moment and sobs silently. “I’m sorry.” She looks up from between her fingers, sniffing with her bloodshot eyes.
“You might be sorry, but that doesn’t change the fact my life has been reduced to shrapnel.”
“Please forgive me.” Her hands fold together as if she’s tossing up a prayer.
“I forgive you. But right now I don’t want anything to do with you. I need some serious space.”
I say goodbye to my mother and head out of the dining room.
“Marley.” Jemma speeds over with her hair whipping in the wind like a flaxen tumbleweed. “You did good in there.” Her thumb pulls across my cheek as if wiping away tears. “As sorry as she seems, I think you did the right thing to cut her scraggly ass loose. And don’t you dare let me catch you back with that boy. Him I’ll kick straight to the Atlantic.”
“No chance in that happening.” A mean shiver runs through me as the hard granite of the mountain falls over the city with its shadow. “There’s another boy I have my sights set on. I’m just hoping we can still be friends.” I couldn’t push Wyatt’s name through that boulder of pain lodged in my throat. Cat may have done this, but indirectly I feel responsible for all the shame I’ve caused him.
“Friends?” Jemma clicks her tongue. “I don’t believe in friends like that.” She plucks out a cigarette and lights it as if the mere thought of Wyatt mandated some carcinogenic relief. “Hon, I’m begging you to give love a shot.”
“I was willing to give it a shot before Cat blew it out of my hands. I was going to tell him that I loved him that very day.” I sag when I say it, and a dull laugh bubbles from me in disbelief. “Do you ever feel like the universe is against you when it comes to that four letter word? Did we tell Cupid to fuck off when we were kids?”
She waves away the idea. “Hon, I believe you make your own luck when it comes to who you drag between the sheets. That man loves you. I’ve seen the way he swoons over you like there’s no other woman in the room.” She touches my hand with her pinky, dusting me with ashes in the process. “Now that’s something I’ve never had before. I think when I grow up I wanna be you.”
My phone buzzes. It’s Wyatt.
Ready for that hike?
I smile at the screen, happy to have this little part of him—now to get the rest.
Ready and willing. Meet me at Prescott Hall? My body tingles and warms as if it’s coming back to life after a long hibernation.
He texts right back. Be there in ten.
“I’d better go.” I pull Jemma into a long, strong hug.
“Don’t be afraid to share your feelings, hon. Sometimes a little honesty can take you right where you want to be. Trust me. Your big sister knows best.”
In this instance, I truly believe it with all my heart.
Time to share a few feelings.
Hopefully Wyatt and I can mend both our hearts—together.
* * *
Wyatt drives us up the winding switchbacks that lead to the crest trail lined by a heavy stream. We drive just past the Witch’s Cauldron and hop out, the cool mountain air filling our lungs with springtime. The sun kisses my shoulders with a deep warmth I haven’t felt in months, so I opt to leave my jacket in the car. There isn’t a drop of snow on the ground as wildflowers push through the earth, peppering the landscape with color. The evergreens sway in the breeze as their needles sizzle against the clear blue sky.
Wyatt and I didn’t say much on the drive up. It didn’t feel like us, the old us. But I’ll gladly take the new us if that’s what we’ve morphed into. I’ll take any part of Wyatt that he’s willing to give me. I’ll be his friend, his hiking buddy, the girl who carries his groceries. I’ll be anything Wyatt will allow me to be so long as I get to be in his life again.
“You ready to do this?” He offers that killer grin as he glances at the trail, and my heart warms. Wyatt can light me up on the inside with his smile alone.
“I’m ready to do anything with you.” I bat my lashes before blinking into my right mind. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” I don’t think we’re at that level in our relationship anymore. I don’t know if we ever will be.
“Hey, it’s okay.” His arm finds it’s way around my waist. “I want you to be yourself around me. I like that.” He squints with a pained expression. “I like the playful version of you, Marley. You bring out the best in me,” he says it sober with a touch of sadness, and I want to thank him for not phrasing that last sentence in the past tense. “Let’s head on up.”
Wyatt and I walk hand in hand up the dusty trail, outlined with wild lavender laden with bees. We hit the crest and find a bench that holds a view of all of Jepson down below. It’s stunning. Breathtaking. And it reminds me of something I can’t quite put my finger on.
Then it hits me. “I think Annie mentioned she and Blake like to come here.”
“Is this their special place?”
“I think so. It’s so beautiful. It should be someone’s special place.”
He gives my hand a gentle squeeze as if agreeing with the idea.
We find a seat on the bench, and Wyatt scoots in close, his lips pressed tight with that same pained smile. Here it is, our bi
g moment of reconciliation—or at least that’s what I’m hoping.
“I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time.
“Why are you sorry?” I’m shocked at first, then, in an unsettling moment, I think maybe he’s officially breaking things off with me. A sincere rejection usually starts off with those exact words.
“I’m sorry I didn’t hear you out,” he continues. “That I put so much credence in what Monica had to say.” He closes his eyes as remorse saturates his features.
“Can I ask what she said? I already know she’s not my biggest fan.”
“She said…” He touches his hand to the back of his neck pausing a moment. “She said coeds—sorority girls, play a game where they bed older men. I believe the term she used was ancient. So when the article came out, and I saw the buzzword, I panicked. I thought I’d been had.”
“Oh, my, God.” I drop my head in my hands. This can get worse. “When I wrote that, my version, I listed Subject One as Ancient History. It was Will. Will is Ancient History. Anyway”—I give a hard sniff into my knuckles—“Cat Alice admitted to rewriting and uploading the article. She said she was very sorry and to extend her apologies.” Like that makes everything better.
“Really?” His head inches back as pissed as I was when I found out. “Why in the hell did she do it?”
“She’s hurt. Will hurt her. I hurt her. We had a huge blowout the prior afternoon. She said she regretted it the minute she hit publish—but apparently not enough to take it down. She changed my password, making sure I couldn’t. And—I’ve since been kicked off the paper, so I’ll have to find another way to make amends to you.”
“Please don’t.” Wyatt gently pulls me over, and I settle into his lap.
My body molds to his chest as he warms my back. My eyes close just soaking in the feeling of Wyatt’s body so intimately touching mine.
“This feels like home.” I nuzzle into his neck, so close to his lips I’m trembling for them.
“It feels better than home.” He drops a hot kiss to the top of my head. “It was wrong of me to refuse to hear you out.” He pulls back until we’re facing one another again. “Marley, please forgive me. I swear I will never let anything else, no matter how shocking”—his eyes widen a moment because we’ve sort of hit the ceiling at shocking—“come between us.”
“You mean there’s still an us?”
His eyes settle over mine focused and sharp as lasers. “There is if you want there to be.”
“I do.” Tears come too quick for me to blink them away. “But about that contract—”
“It’s history.” He touches his cheek to mine a moment, and the temptation to kiss him grows like a wild fire. “I want something deeper. Something real. I want that with you, Marley—nobody else.”
“That’s what I want—exactly that.”
“So our age difference doesn’t bother you?”
Is he kidding?
“What age difference?” I’m serious. It’s like we’re one and the same.
“Good.” His chest rumbles beneath me as he sheds a silent laugh. “I want forever with you, Marley. Will you be my forever?”
“Yes! God yes.” I smooth my thumbs over his cheeks. “Can I kiss you now?”
“There’s one more thing.” His Adam’s apple shoots up and down as he examines me pressed against the sky. “Damn, you’re beautiful. I want to say something that I haven’t told another woman since my mother died.”
“Oh?” A part of me demands to be terrified, but it’s impossible to feel that way when I’m with Wyatt. “I’m flattered already. Should I be?”
“Yes.” He pulls me in tight with a laugh caught in his throat. “Maybe. What I’ve been dying to say since before any of this transpired”—his petal green eyes press into mine with a tenderness that melts me like snow—“Marley, I love you.” The whites of his eyes glisten in the light as tears come—“I’m madly, insanely, deeply, unapologetically in love with you.” He tilts his head back and shouts, “I love Marley Jackson!” The sound of his voice echoes from the mountaintop, rioting all the way to the sky. He dots my neck with a kiss. “I love you, Marley. What we had was lightning in a bottle, and I want it all back. You’re mine. I need you every day. I need you in my bed, in my heart, in my life. For the first time in so long I feel whole again. I haven’t felt this way since I was a kid.”
“Since your mother passed away.” I nod into him, tears streaming down my face, hot and wild. “Wyatt, I love you, too.” I touch my lips to his and press in without anything more. “I was going to tell you the night before everything fell apart, and we sort of got a little crazy beneath the sheets. It’s safe to say, you wore me out.”
He tweaks his brows, proud of the fact. “That’s something you can get used to.”
“I really do love you.” My finger glides over his lips. “I have never meant those words more in my life.” I dig my fingers through his hair and draw him close.
Wyatt sinks his mouth over mine, and in an instant devours me. His tongue runs wild, moving his affection through me like an unstoppable bullet train.
God, I’ve missed this.
I’ve missed Wyatt like a man dying in the desert misses water. And, here he is, delivering the life-giving spring straight into my mouth.
The urge to giggle takes over, and I don’t fight it. I pull back and take in this beautiful man with dark hair and dimples that had me edging out of my mind the first time I saw him at the Black Bear. He’s all mine.
“I guess this means we’re officially in love.” I graze over his cheek with my teeth.
“And we always will be.”
Wyatt and I fall into a kiss that seals our newfound affection in a way that words could never convey. His deep throated kisses, the soft tender lashings of his tongue, the passion-fueled frenzy as we take one another in with rabid impatience—it all shouts I love you from the top of the mountain, echoing loud and clear right down to our souls.
Wyatt
Marley and I make a quick stop at her dorm to pick up a few things. I’ve convinced her to spend the night—actually, no convincing was necessary. Marley is one hundred percent on board with staying over.
“You mind if we hit the Black Bear? Blake is playing tonight.” I round my hand over the wheel. “Plus, I sort of want to show you off.” My lips fidget with a smile, but I try not to give it.
“By all means.” She leans in and gives the hair just above my neck a quick tug. “And I’m about to do the same. Be ready to be claimed once and for all, Wyatt James. And don’t think for one minute I’m above peeing a circle around you once those sorority girls start trolling. I’ve seen the way they look at you. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if I have to throw my naked body over you just to protect you.”
“Naked?”
“Yeah, well, I figure it’ll give them less to grip when they’re trying to tear me away.”
A dark laugh rumbles from me. “I’ll be holding you too tight to ever let that happen.”
We park and head inside. It’s a body-to-body kind of night. I’m sure there’s a fire code or two being overlooked, but everyone has a drink in their hand, so the bar is happy.
“Wyatt, my man!” A hard slaps emits over my back, and I turn to find Bryson and his wife, Baya.
“What’s going on?” I offer up a light sock to the arm.
“What is going on?” Baya’s eyes widen as she inspects my arm around Marley’s waist. “Everything okay?”
Marley pecks a kiss over my cheek. “More than okay. I think we’ve finally straightened everything out.”
“I’m so glad.” Baya tears up as if she’s been rooting for us the entire time. It’s nice to know that maybe she has been. That maybe she sensed Marley and I belonged together before we did.
Annie and Blake head over with Ryder and Laney by their side.
“Dude.” Blake offers up a knuckle bump. “I’d better get on stage, but I wanted to say I’m glad to see you two together.”
br /> “Are you two together?” Annie whispers to Marley apprehensively.
“We’re most definitely together,” I say, dropping a kiss to Marley’s temple. “I’m in love with this woman right here.”
“Aww!” Baya and Laney sing in unison.
“You know what I’m in love with?” Ryder takes a quick swig of his beer. “The fact two of my buddies have started a lucrative business with me.”
It’s true. We had a sit down with a small army of attorneys and made it legal. Capwell, Edwards, and James Media Services has officially launched onto the scene.
Ryder ticks his head. “I think I have our first intern.” He gives a stern nod toward Bryson and Baya. “Owen is coming to town.”
Bryson takes a mean breath, expanding his chest wide as a table. “Owen is Aubree’s brother.” He looks to me as if this might register on some level. “She’s the one who tried to kill Baya a year and a half ago. Anyway, Owen’s a good guy. I’ve got nothing against him.”
“Neither do I,” Baya is quick to add.
“My sister, Piper, is coming down this summer. I’m sure she’ll need to keep busy. It looks like we’ll have two built-in interns.” Piper is going to be a handful, but, even so, I’m looking forward to having my little sister around fulltime.
“And”—Bryson lifts Baya’s hand between them—“I think we might have a built-in client.”
Baya shifts her gaze to Marley. “Only if my partner in crime agrees.”
“How can I not?” Marley runs her finger down my tie. “Besides, I have a way of getting one of the owners to do my bidding.”
I drop a kiss to her lips. “I think we should leave so you can begin to sway me.”
“One song.” Blake flicks my arm before bouncing to the stage.
“This is for my brother and his one true love. I’m glad to see you both so damn happy.”
I lean in and touch my lips to her ear. “That’s exactly what you are—my one true love.”
The 12 Deadly Sins start in on an achingly slow song, and the crowd starts to migrate as people find their dance partners. But I’ve already got mine for life. We make our way deep into the crowd and slip into one another’s arms. There’s no place I’d rather be.