Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
John B just chuckles, a low, sinister sound. “Quit your lying already. She just told me.”
“Told you what?”
“Quit lying, Wyatt, or so help me God—”
“John, please.” Duke steps forward, his hands held up. “Let’s all keep a cool head here, all right? I think there’s a misunderstanding—”
“There’s definitely a misunderstanding,” I say, anger mingling with the fear coursing through my veins. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
A flicker of doubt moves across John’s eyes. “Sally didn’t tell you she’s not taking the job at Ithaca University?”
A bomb detonates inside my skull. At the same time my heart hammers against my breastbone, leaving me short of breath.
Sally isn’t taking the job? Since when? Why? And how can I feel so relieved and so terrified, all at once?
Then I remember the cryptic way she kept saying she wanted to stay in Hartsville the other day. But she made no mention of going so far as to quit her job.
I feel Duke’s and Ryder’s eyes on me.
“She didn’t tell me, no,” I manage.
John hesitates, his finger falling from the trigger. I can see the mental gymnastics he’s doing to have it all make sense.
“I can prove it to you actually.” I put my hand on my zipper.
John immediately puts his finger back on the trigger. “Keep your hands where I can see ’em.”
“John—”
“You’d best listen.” He moves toward me, rifle still raised.
I back up, my hands held high.
“I would never let Sally quit her job on my account,” I manage. “You know this about me. I love her more than words can say, but I’d never—you know I’d never ask that of her. I’m a man of my word, John. Please, let me prove it.”
“We all can prove it,” Ryder chimes in. “Just give us a minute. A second.”
But John keeps stalking toward us. We keep backing up until we’re moving out of the barn and into the night, the four of us standing in the dirt path between the corral and the barn.
A flash of light catches my eye. I turn my head to see approaching headlights.
Cash’s Ford.
At the same time, I hear a scream.
Sally.
My Sally.
She appears at the edge of the circle of illumination that’s put off by the floodlights over our heads. She’s breathing hard, her eyes wet with tears as she takes in her dad, the rifle, and then me.
“Stop!” she screams again. “Dad, put down the rifle right now.”
Cash’s truck jerks to a stop beside the barn.
“Not until he swears he’s gonna keep his promise,” John replies. “Let her go, Wyatt.”
Sally shakes her head as she comes to stand beside me. “You’re insane, Dad. Seriously, if you don’t put the gun down, I’m calling the cops.” She digs her phone out of her pocket and holds it up.
I hear a truck door open. Close.
Sally grabs my hand. I twine our fingers.
John keeps the gun pointed at my chest.
“I swear to God, John, it’s not what you think,” I say.
“You’re lying, Wyatt,” he replies.
“Dad, please, stop,” Sally begs. “This is ridiculous. Put the gun down. He’s right—”
“What’s going on here?” Cash’s voice, sharp and loud, cuts through the night air.
John’s eyes remain locked on mine. “This son of a bitch did my daughter dirty—that’s what.”
I feel Cash’s stare. “Wyatt—”
“I can explain.” My voice sounds desperate, even to my own ears.
Sally steps forward. “I can explain. I didn’t tell Wyatt about the job, Dad. I didn’t tell anyone except Mollie, because I was hoping I’d get to surprise y’all with the news tonight at dinner.” She looks at me. “I wanted it to be this big, special moment because it is a big moment. It is special. Or it was supposed to be.”
I look back, heart thumping. “What news?”
“I refused the job offer,” she says simply, like she isn’t wildly altering her life course. All our life courses. “I’m staying in Texas. No, I don’t know what I’m going to do about a job, and, yes, I’m working on figuring something out. But I’m staying because I’ve discovered I need a sense of community—a feeling of being connected to people—that I haven’t found anywhere else. Turns out, my dream doesn’t have anything to do with one specific job like I thought it did. My dream is serving my hometown. Working alongside people I know and love.” Sally sucks in a deep inhale and meets my eyes. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way, Wyatt.”
“Wait, wait.” John B blinks, finally lowering the rifle. “Wyatt really didn’t know?”
Once again, I find myself speechless. Sally isn’t taking the job. She’s not moving to New York.
Which means—
My God, she’s actually staying.
We’re staying in the town I was born and raised in. The town where I want my children to be born, where I want to raise them.
Joy swoops through me.
“He didn’t know,” Sally confirms. “That’s proof this was my choice.”