“Hunt, are you trying to give me relationship advice?”
He coughs. “At this point, I think it’s just advice, because you two don’t have a relationship.”
“Yet.I’m working on it. I’m not going to let her run. Not when everyone she needs is right here in Gable.”
“Then maybe you should show her what it’s like when someone actually gives a damn about her and what she wants. I hear the ladies like that.”
I think about how Hunter and Cricket, the perfect example of opposites attract, ended up together. “I can tell you want to say something else, so you might as well just spit it out, Hunt.”
“This is the one time in your life when being Lincoln Riscoff might actually hurt your chances of getting what you want.”
“You think I don’t know that? She made that clear ten years ago.”
“I think you need to consider how the hell to turn it to your advantage. Show her what it’s like to matter to someone. Show her you can put her first the way Rango never did. She must’ve seen something in you before. You’re not that big of a prick that it’s completely gone by now. Show her that again.”
I remember that night in the bar, and how shocked Whitney was to have someone stand up for her. To fight for her.
Hunter’s right. This has to be abouther.It’s not about me and my fucked-up family.
“Thanks, man.”
“Good luck.”
I hang up with Hunter and drive toward Whitney’s aunt’s house, relieved that I won’t have to knock on the front door. Thanks to Hunter, I now know she’s living in a shed out back.
She deserves a palace. Not a shed.
Hunter had more than one valid point, but the most important one was that Whitney Gable hasn’t been treated right by any man in her life.Including me.It’s time to change that. And this time, I’m not going to fuck it up.
I’m older. Arguably wiser. I finally understand the value of a good woman in a way I didn’t before. Even more, I realize that I was right to think Whitney was special then. She’s unlike any woman before or since.
I park my Range Rover in the alley behind the house and spot the peaked roof of the shed in the back corner.
Hoping Hunter was right, I open the gate and close it behind me. There’s only one window in the back of the shed, and it’s frosted.
Or steamed up?
The sound of water running comes through the thin walls of the shed, and I see movement inside. I’m not about to spy on Whitney if she’s in the shower, but then something presses against the glass. A palm. It squeezes into a fist, and another one joins it.
The only thing I can picture is Whitney’s head hanging, her hair dripping wet as she sobs in the shower, and the vision guts me just like her tears did ten years ago.
Except last time, she cried in my arms.
31
Lincoln
The past
“I almost killed your mom.”Whitney’s voice broke as I tucked her head under my chin. We were holed up in my truck out in the woods, far from where anyone would ever find us.
“You didn’t. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed it.”
“But I went along with it.”
I wiped away the tears that spilled over her lids. “Please, Blue. Stop crying. I can’t stand it.”
“I can’t help it. I have to get out of here. This town. It’s ... I can’t stay.”