Page 26 of Wilde Hearts

Hitting him lightly on the side of the arm, I said, “No worries. No one was hurt, all is good.”

“Thank you, sir, for understanding. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to let us know.”

Smiling, I replied, “I will.”

Ensley was making her way out of the hotel, so I excused myself and walked faster to catch up to her. When I did, I fell into step alongside her.

“What do you want, Colt?”

“I’d like a chance to talk to you, Ensley.”

“Oh, now you want to talk to me? Because in the last ten years, you couldn’t find five minutes to call?”

“You have no idea how many times I wanted to reach out.”

She came to a stop and faced me. “No, I don’t. Because you never did. Not once, Colt. That first year you were gone, I waited for you. I asked your mother and father about you, and hearing that you were traveling to all these places, simply enjoying your life—without me—finally helped me understand that you never cared about me at all.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true!” she cried. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have left me. I didn’t even get a goodbye, Colt. Just a stupid note about some stupid promise that you never kept! You made me feel like I meant nothing to you. I not only lost my best friend, I also lost the man I loved and thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with! Meanwhile, you cared so little for me that you left without even telling me to my face!”

“I wanted to tell you, Ensley. Hell, the night before I left, I almost asked you to come with me.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I knew you would come—and I also knew you wouldn’t have been happy. You love your family, the ranch, your job. You would have hated me for taking you away from River Falls.”

“But you could have at least asked me! Or better yet, tell me you needed time. I would have understood, Colt.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think you would have.”

She gave me a look that gutted me. “Well…I guess we’ll never know, will we? Because you made sure of that.”

Closing my eyes, I drew in a breath and let it out before looking at her. “I was a coward. Yes, I ran. I should have called, but I knew you would be angry. One month turned into three, then six, then a year, then two. I figured you’d be happier without me.”

Tears filled her eyes as a small laugh slipped free. “Then you clearly didn’t know me or know how much I loved you, Colt. The last ten years of my life have been miserable. Do you know how hard it is to try to move on with your life when your heart belongs to someone who didn’t give two shits about you?”

“But I do—”

“You don’t walk away from a person you love and never reach out to them! You don’t hurt the people you love like that!”

“I do love you, Ensley! I never stopped loving you!”

Her head reared back and she looked as if I’d slapped her.

Then, after a long moment, she pressed her lips together tightly and shook her head. “You don’t get to say those words to me now, Colt. Not a decade too late. I wish you’d just stayed away.”

Turning, she quickly made her way down the street.

I pushed a hand through my hair and cursed under my breath.

Everything was completely fucked.

I let Ensley walk ahead of me as I kept a slower pace. We were both heading toward the hospital, and I decided I would give her time with my father before I joined them. It was the least I could do for her.

As I watched Ensley walk, I went over in my mind how I was going to explain to her the real reason I’d left River Falls—because she deserved to know now much like she deserved to know ten years ago, but I was too scared to tell anyone.

I had to remind myself that the moment she found out, she might never forgive me. Then again, leaving without so much as a goodbye, days after she’d lost her best friend, might have hurt her more than the truth ever could. It was the biggest mistake of my life. But I’d made my bed, and now I had to figure out a way to crawl out of it and make it up to her…if that was even possible.