Page 173 of Wild Embers
My hands cradle my head as they pull at my hair. “How did I never realize…”
Martha grabs one of my hands. “You were young, Blake. You weren't supposed to see it.”
“But—”
Martha cuts me off, not willing to hear my misplaced guilt. “The problems between those men are their own. They will figure it out. I just didn't want you to go in blind."
My body grows tense as I pull my hand away from hers, and my gaze drops to the laminate counter. “So this isn't because you think it's weird?”
“What?” Martha’s expression scrunches up.
“You know.” My hands wring in my lap. “Because they're my dad's best friends.”
Martha’s tone goes flat, suggesting she already knows the answer to her question. “Did they make a move on you before you were eighteen?"
An awkward laugh bubbles up in my throat. “God, no. Never.”
Martha plants both of her hands on the counter. “You’re a grown woman.” She dips her head a fraction. “They’re grown men.” She straightens her posture. “The only people who get a vote are the ones in the relationship.”
Martha strolls away, attending to another customer.
The knot that I didn’t realize had been living in my chest since Levi, Santiago, and Walker crossed every imaginable lineloosened. I didn’t realize how badly I needed someone else to say it.
I’m not broken for wanting them.
And…
She said “relationship.”
Singular.
The word settles somewhere deep inside me, and my heart jumps at the sound of it.
I glance over my shoulder toward Walker and find him pacing alongside his truck, still on the phone. When he catches me looking at him, he ends the call and strides to the entrance of the diner.
The bell jingles again as Walker steps inside. His expression is carefully neutral.
Too neutral.
Walker sits down on the stool next to mine. His hand grips the bottom of my cushion and slides me closer to his side.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
Liar.
CHAPTER 43
BLAKE
Ididn’t realize how much I was carrying around on my shoulders until my talk with Martha yesterday. Somewhere between her advice, Levi’s confession the day before, and Santiago’s inability to stop making me laugh all last night at dinner, the tension in my shoulders had loosened.
It’s still there for the most part, but it’s relaxed.
Easier to bear.
For the first time since coming back to Evergreen Falls, I wasn’t waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
