Page 227 of The Path to Loving Him
Emotionless because the life has been sucked from my bones and peeled away from my soul.
“He was holding her,” Wyatt says, stepping in. “I saw it from the Ferris wheel. That’s where we were when Ryland took off to help her.”
“I saw it too,” a random person says, holding up their hand.
Hands on his hips, Earl turns toward Nathan and says, “Now, you can either tell me the truth and we can make this easy, or you can lie, and this will get a lot uglier for you. Did you touch her?”
Nathan looks away and nods his head.
That’s all the confirmation Earl needs. He takes Nathan by the arm, lifts him up, and urges him over to his colleague, who reads him his rights. Earl then steps up to me and Gabby and says, “I’m going to need a statement.”
“Of course,” Gabby says. “Can you just give us a second?”
“Yes,” Earl says, stepping away.
“Gabby,” Bennett says, coming up to us now. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She pats her brother’s chest. “I just need to talk to Ryland for a moment.”
Bennett glances at me, then back at Gabby. “Okay.” He nods at me. “Thanks, Coach, for taking care of her.”
His words don’t even register. Nothing does as I stand in this catatonic state.
Once we’re alone, Gabby pulls me off to the side, out of earshot of everyone, and takes my hand in hers. I don’t return the grip. I can’t even fucking look at her.
“Ryland.” She shakes me a little. “Ryland, look at me.”
When I keep staring straight ahead, she forces me to meet her eyes by taking my head in her hands.
“Ryland, I need you to look at me. I need to know that you’re okay.”
When I don’t answer, she lightly shakes me.
“Ryland, talk to me, please.”
I don’t.
I can’t.
Instead, I reach up, take her hands off my face, and set them down. Without a word, I turn away and grab Earl to give him my statement before I have to get the hell out of here.
“She wants to stay with me tonight,” Aubree says as Mac sits in her SUV with Wyatt in the back, holding her.
Talk about a fucking knife to the gut, watching her curl into someone else, being protected by someone else other than me.
“But I can encourage her that it will be okay to stay at her house.”
I shake my head. “Take her, Aubree.”
She steps in and whispers, “Ryland, I don’t think this is a good thing. I don’t want her thinking she can flock to us. She needs to know that you’re not a scary human, that you love her, and that you were protecting Gabby.”
I shake my head again. “No, it’s best she stays with you.” I tug on my hair. “I, uh . . . I need to go.”
I start to walk away, but Aubree stops me. “Ryland, don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what?” I ask her in a low tone.
“Don’t bottle this all up inside and turn away from us. I know this look in your eyes. You’re disassociating yourself, and that’s the last thing she needs.”
