Page 96 of The Bitterroot Inn (Jamison Valley 5)
It was time to tell her about everything and then cling to her feet when she tried to run away.
“Who is Nell?”
Maisy’s question caused my hands to flinch on the steering wheel. The car jerked to the side before I righted us back on the road toward Nick and Emmeline Slater’s garage for their annual Independence Day party.
“Whoa. Everything okay?” Maisy asked.
“Yeah. Sorry, I thought I saw an animal on the road,” I lied.
“Oh.”
She stayed quiet for a minute and I hoped she’d let her earlier question go. Maybe she’d forgo asking about Nell again since we were just minutes away from our destination.
“Who is Nell?” she repeated.
Fuck.
Her question was another sign that it was time for me to tell her the truth.
My hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. I took a breath and opened my mouth, but before I could respond to her question, Maisy waved her hands in the air.
“Sorry. Forget it. I shouldn’t pry. I, um, saw her name on your phone a while back and was just curious. I didn’t mean to snoop but it popped up with a text right as I was walking by and the text wasn’t very nice. I kind of forgot about the whole thing but then we ran into the Mitchells at the parade earlier and their daughter is named Nellie and I remembered the text and—”
“Hey.” I took her hand to stop her nervous babbling. “It’s okay. Nell is . . . well, she’s not a fun topic.”
“I figured.”
I thought back through all of Nell’s texts. The majority were Call me or Stop ignoring me. Except for one.
What happens next is your fault.
That had to be the text that Maisy had seen.
Fucking Nell.
She had stopped harassing me and I’d been holding out hope that we were done and she’d finally processed my choice to live here. I hoped that she’d realize I was never coming back and she’d move on with her own life and leave me to mine. Foolish hope.
It would make it a fuck of a lot easier to tell Maisy about Nell if that was true.
“I’ll tell you about her but now isn’t the time.” I jerked my chin back to Coby, who was kicking his legs wildly, jittery from all the parade candy he’d consumed after his afternoon nap.
“But you’re okay?” Maisy asked. “She’s not threatening you or whatever?”
“No. She’s not. And I’m great.” I brought her hand to my mouth for a kiss.
“I shouldn’t have looked. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Don’t ever apologize. Your curiosity is one of the things I love about you.”
That and her patience. All this time and she’d kept her promise to not pry about my family or past relationships. She’d given me more leeway than any other woman would have in her position.
But she wouldn’t need to for much longer.
I’d tell her the truth, then I’d get on my knees and beg her to forgive me for the lies and omissions. She loved me and it was my small sliver of hope that we might actually make it through all of this together.
“I hope the firework sh
ow goes well for Michael tonight,” Maisy said, changing topics. “He’s so nervous. He’s done this before but I think he’s worried that something will go wrong and Alana will see.”
