Waiting for Wyatt (Red Dirt #1) (18 page)

T
HREE DAYS LATER, I DROVE
down the trail to the kennel. Three agonizing days of wishing I could see him and worrying that everything would blow up in my face when I finally had the opportunity to return. What if I went two steps forward only to fall five steps backward when he tried to shut me out again?

I got out of my car, seeing Wyatt in the distance. His gaze followed me as I walked the path to the fenced-in play area. Gus and Gatsby were inside, waiting for him to throw the tennis ball again.

His soft lips turned up on the corners, just briefly, just enough, which caused his dimples to slowly roll into place. Pausing with my hand on the gate, a rush of anticipation shot through my chest as his green eyes bore into mine.

“Hey.” I moved the latch, letting myself inside the fence. I fought the urge to run across the grass and throw my arms around him.

“Hey.”

This was far better than I’d expected today. In my absence, I’d assumed Wyatt tortured himself into some level of a fit. Instead, he seemed
okay
. Yet I planned to proceed with caution. His promise of talking would come at his own pace.

I wish he would just trust me. There was nothing Wyatt could say that would make me leave at this point. I knew the inside of his heart. I saw the deep compassion that encircled the broken pieces, holding it together. I saw it very clearly as he clutched a worn tennis ball, grinning at two very impatient animals.

“Gatsby is like a whole new dog.” I went for the safe topic, the one I knew would be easy for him without ruining his current mood.

“You should watch this.”

Wyatt tossed the ball across the grass. Gus ran beside Gatsby as the yellow fabric rolled in front of them. Moving into the lead, Gus stopped right beside the ball. The little Jack Russell waited for the old Labrador to grab it between his teeth, never darting for it himself. Once Gatsby captured the tennis ball, the pair returned to Wyatt.

“Did you teach Gus to do that?”

“No.” Wyatt tossed the ball again. It was sweet, seeing the little dog guide the older one to where it landed in the grass. “I think Gatsby has bad eyes. That’s why he’s gotten better with Gus. He stays glued to him now.”

Walking over to the dogs, I rubbed the older one on top of his head. His brown eyes were glazed over like he was in a far-off place, but his tongue hung out the corner with the impression of a smile. Sweet, old Gatsby. Sometimes this place was just too much.

“You kinda work a little magic out here with the dogs.”

“Maybe.”

“I mean, you are really good at this. I hope you know that. You’re making a difference with them.”

Wyatt didn’t respond. He went over to the water faucet, refilling their bowl. The dogs made their way to the large plastic container. Gus let Gatsby get a drink first.

I walked across the pen in my tennis shoes. His eyes drifted down to my swollen knee. “You talk to the doctor?”

“Yes. I’m having the surgery in September. I’ll have to be off my feet for several weeks, which is good for homework. But not for summer and working. This way, I’ll have more study time while I’m banished to my apartment.”

“You got a date for it?”

“You don’t believe me?” I flashed a mischievous grin at him.

“Not when it comes to you and whatever stubborn shit is keeping you from getting it fixed.”

“Not stubborn. Just . . . unwilling to be controlled by it. My surgery. My terms. Besides it’s more practical in September. I’m taking more classes this fall.” I stepped a little closer to Wyatt. “You feeling better?”

“Yeah.” The gruff word rolled off his lips. I slipped a look at them and then back to his eyes. I wanted to kiss Wyatt again. I wanted to taste his lips.

I touched his freshly shaven cheek with my fingertip before cupping his face with my hands. Leaning up on my tiptoes, I pressed my mouth over those soft lips. I kissed Wyatt. My pulse moved in anxious beats with my brazen action.

Releasing my hold, I backed away a few inches, waiting for his reaction. The battle raged right behind his green eyes. He swallowed hard before slipping his hands around my waist, pulling me tight against his chest.

He needed to feel me. I knew from the desperate way his hands clutched my body. And a strange realization settled just inside my heart. Wyatt may have a past, but I don’t know the last time he’d felt the touch of another person. Not even in a sexual way, but just in the casual emotional embrace.

Wyatt held onto my body, digging his fingers into my lower back. He pulled me tighter and kissed the side of my head. And then his lips drifted to my cheek before coming to rest against my mouth.

Wyatt kissed me slowly and deliberately. I had never met a guy who focused so much on using his lips. The soft movements caused a ripple of burning agony under my skin. I was alive and tortured by the desire he ignited. If Wyatt was this good at just kissing, the feel of his hands on my bare skin might just push me over the edge into oblivion.

“You’re a good kisser,” I whispered as he lifted his lips from my mouth.

“I’ve never taken the time to enjoy it before. I always rushed through that part. Or I guess I never cared enough about another person to enjoy it.”

“So you’re enjoying it with me?”

“Yes. More than I should.” His eyes glazed over for a moment before he pushed back whatever tormented thought that plagued his conscience. Wyatt rested his forehead against mine. “I feel it too, you know. This thing . . . pulling us together. But what I’m doing to you isn’t fair. I know you want me to talk, but I just don’t know what to say or think.”

“Then don’t think right now.”

I kissed him again, holding onto the taste of his lips. I ran my fingers through his soft hair. Pressing myself against him, I wanted to reassure the broken man that his feelings were safe with me. Not talking was just as good as talking. He uttered not a single word, but shared so much of himself in the way he took over the kiss.

His tongue touched mine like a match to a firework. The sparks ignited as his right hand moved over my butt, pushing me tighter against his hard body, tighter against his hips.

I couldn’t get close enough to Wyatt, and he needed to hold on to me too. As he pressed us together, I melted against him, letting his lips take control of my thoughts. I drifted away. Kissing Wyatt was erotic and intoxicating and pure agony—and then he was gone.

He pulled back, staring out in the distance. I closed my eyes for a moment. My heart beat so fast in my chest that I was getting a head rush.

“What’s wrong?” An ashen color slipped over his cheeks as his jaw clenched tighter. “Wyatt?”

Looking in the direction of his piercing eyes, I saw a trail of dirt before I saw the car. Someone was coming down the trail. Someone was coming
here.

“Go inside the trailer.” The bite to his words caught me off guard.

“No.” I wasn’t going to miss this piece of the puzzle. I should wait for him to tell me on his own terms, but I couldn’t wait for that to happen. I needed to know this information. I needed to crash down the wall that held him captive. Whoever was inside the car was a key to the secrets he kept locked inside his heart.

As the car got closer, Wyatt shifted a few feet away from me. “Get inside the trailer.
Now!
”

A small trickle of fear trailed like sweat down my back. I wasn’t budging, and he knew it. This person in the car was causing Wyatt to slip into a borderline panic attack. He looked at me with wild eyes and then back to the Tahoe. The SUV with blacked-out windows parked in front of the trailer.

Wyatt ran a hand through his brown hair, gripping the short pieces in a tight wad. His shoulders went ridged as he braced for the driver’s side door to open. I waited to see the face of the man who had scared Wyatt into practically shaking in his boots, but a lone girl stepped out in front of us.

Her tall, slender figure paused, glancing at the trailer before surveying the rest of the property. She noticed us standing in the fenced-in play area. Even from a distance, I knew their eyes locked tight on each other. I knew because the contact made his body shudder.

She stepped across the dirt with the grace of a dancer. The mysterious stranger came closer and closer as the silence from Wyatt filled the space with his visible anger. The girl paused at the gate, taking in the scene in front of her.

Looking from Wyatt to me, she eyed my presence with open curiosity. The girl brushed a few pieces of brown hair from her shoulder, making it fall in long strands down her back. She was beautiful in that natural sort of way, the kind that graced face wash commercials.

A white and brown blur went past me in the grass. Her face lit up bright, flashing a stunning smile as she came inside the fence. Bending down on his level, her delicate hands touched the little dog who was just short of passing out from excitement.

“Gussy.” Her soft voice laughed as he licked her cheeks. “I’ve missed you too.”

I stood paralyzed, taking in her presence. The sun cast a spotlight on the girl like the halo of an angel. She glanced back up at Wyatt. “I see you’ve been taking good care of him.”

My gut twisted, and I backed up until I touched the fence. My fingers gripped the metal wire. This scene had an eerie familiar hint that made me think of Charlie, made me think of me. Gus was not Wyatt’s dog. The little Jack Russell belonged to the mystery girl.

Out of reflex, I slipped a look over to Wyatt. His hands were clamped into tight fists, making his knuckles glow white. His green eyes darted from the girl and then back to me.

She let a hesitant smile flow in my direction. “I’m Willa, since he’s obviously not going to introduce you.”

“Emma,” I muttered, staring at her. I wanted to ask questions, but too much was happening at once.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Wyatt came alive, growling the words in her direction.

“I brought you some stuff.”

“Leave, Willa.” His teeth gritted tight against his jaw.

“You can’t just keep doing this. I won’t let you. It has to stop.”

“I can’t do anything else, but I can stop you from coming out here. I can do that much at least. Besides, you’re not supposed to be driving, anyway.”

“I’ve made a little progress. Sometimes I can go a week or two without an episode.”

“Really?” Wyatt’s face changed briefly as his emotions flooded his cheeks.

“Yes.” Her eyes pleaded back.

I didn’t know the identity of this girl. But she meant something to him. Something deep and slightly crazy. Something so strong, it brought tears to the corners of his eyes as he processed her words.

“That doesn’t mean you should come here. You know my conditions on this fucked-up arrangement.”

Hearing his words, a sudden chill shot up my spine even though the temperature was in the nineties.

“Why? Tell me why it’s so horrible that I come out here to see you.”

“You know why.” He glanced slightly in my direction, acknowledging my presence in the middle of their fight. Fear gripped in tight lines around his flat lips—fear mixed with the panic of a trapped animal. Wyatt was afraid she would say something in front of me.

Maybe she was his ex-girlfriend.
Or girlfriend.

“This isn’t fair to me.” Her voice quivered a little as she faced him. “I know you are angry. And you feel guilty. But to me? It’s not fair.”

“If life were fair, I wouldn’t be
here!
”

“Don’t say that.”

“Then get back in your fucking car, and you won’t have to hear it.”

Her face went white as they stared at each other. Somewhere during the exchange of heated words, they had drifted closer together. Her hands clenched into fists as she processed the vile words slung in her face.

“I still love you. And I’m going to keep telling you every time I come out here. You can say every awful thing you want, but nothing is going to change how I feel about you. Nothing you do will either.”

A hard, granite mask slipped across his face, blocking out his emotions so her words had no place to land. Tears fell down Willa’s cheeks as she gazed at him. Her pain was strong.

And in that moment, I didn’t care about her identity.

I felt the pull to her broken heart. Her shoulders sagged, and I wanted to hug the poor girl who
loved
Wyatt because part of me understood her agony. I wasn’t the first person who had tried to fix Wyatt Caulfield.

As he failed to react to her powerful words, Willa wiped away a few tears and turned to leave. She opened the gate, and Wyatt grabbed Gus before he darted out the fence. The little dog whined as his apparent
owner
left him. My gaze followed her long, graceful legs back to the Tahoe. Willa climbed inside, but she didn’t start the motor.

The shock of the confrontation had left me as a petrified statue. I didn’t notice Wyatt take Gus and Gatsby toward the kennel until the door slammed, getting my attention. I looked back toward the SUV. The dark windows blocked her from my view. I had more questions than answers for the mysterious girl, but I went toward the kennel instead of risking his anger by going after Willa.

I stopped inside the door, seeing Wyatt put the two dogs in the holding pen by the office. He never put Gus in the kennel room, and Gatsby lived in his trailer now too.

“Wyatt, are you okay?”

“You shouldn’t be here either.” The bite to his words came as strong as those he’d thrown at Willa. I cringed at the sudden change in his personality toward me. His lips remained flat and white. Just a few moments ago, those same lips had clung to my mouth in desperation.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He laughed with a strange, cryptic edge. “You almost had me. For a brief moment, you almost had me convinced that I was someone else.”

“Look, I don’t know what just happened out there.”

“This is over. That’s what happened. I don’t want you here anymore, Emma. Stay off my damn property. Take Charlie with you or leave him. I don’t give a shit. I just want you gone.”

“Wyatt, I—”

He disappeared out the door before I could finish the sentence. I walked slowly out the entrance just as he slammed the trailer door shut. The whole building shook on the cinder blocks.