Chapter 22
Ford
The phone rings before I even have a chance to really wake up.
It’s loud, shrill, trying to rip me from the warm comfort of sleep, and damn, does it succeed.
I blink my eyes open, my body groggy from too much heat and too little sleep.
Beck stirs beside me, his hand reaching for his phone. He picks it up, the words barely leaving his mouth, before his whole demeanor changes. His jaw clenches, eyes narrowing as he listens, and I know it’s serious. It always is with those damn calls.
“Beck?” I ask, barely more than a groggy grunt as I sit up.
His head shakes before he answers. “Town’s a mess. Storm damage everywhere. I need to get out there. To help.”
I don’t need to be told twice. Beck’s always been a man of duty, of responsibility, but I can see stress in his eyes.
“Shit. Yeah, okay.”
Beck is already moving, already in beast mode. Without even looking at me, he’s up and on his feet, ruffling his hair, pulling his clothes back on, and grabbing his keys.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
There’s no time for anything else. He’s already out the door, heading to the truck.
The silence after he’s gone feels heavy.
I glance over to the bed where Hayes and Lo are still sleeping, drowning in the remnants of last night. The craziest night of my life…
But the best, too.
I smile to myself, the memory of everything overcoming me. That was insane… and not just because of the heat, because of Lo.
Truth be told, after our disastrous date, which ended in her running off, I thought we were done. I didn’t expect to see her again, and I certainly didn’t expect this. What happened last night?
Fuck, just the memory of it makes my cock twitch for more.
Hayes shifts, muttering something under his breath, before finally blinking his eyes open. His gaze sweeps over the room before landing on me.
“Beck gone?” he asks, rough with sleep.
I nod. “Yeah. He’s out helping with the damage.”
Hayes grunts, pushing himself up and rubbing his eyes. “Well, we should get to Lo’s place. Clean up the mess, right? Now that we can.”
I glance toward Lo, still curled up under the covers, her hair a wild halo around her face. She looks peaceful now, her breathing soft and even. She’s escaped from the world’s chaos for a little while.
But I know that peace is fleeting.
Hayes gives me a knowing look, and without another word, we both stand and move toward the kitchen to get things ready. The house is still, the quiet too perfect, too delicate. Like the world is holding its breath.
Waiting for all of this perfection to erupt into damage that not even Beck can clean.
Lo stirs as I grab the coffee pot, the soft scent of her tangling in the air with the smell of wet earth and the coffee brewing. Her body shifts under the blankets, stretching lazily.
I don’t look at Hayes, but I feel him beside me, already moving to get the rest of the things we need. He’s got that steady energy, the kind that never seems to rush. But then, neither do I. We’re just here, doing what we can.
“Lo?” I call softly. I don’t want to startle her. She’s been through too much already.
She blinks, her eyes flickering open slowly. The confusion from last night is still there, a haze clouding her gaze for a split second before recognition sets in. When her eyes meet mine, it’s like she remembers everything in an instant.
The crash. The tension. The storm. Us.
She doesn’t say anything right away. Just looks at me, her body still half buried under the covers.
“Morning,” I say gently, trying to keep it light. “We were thinking of heading over to your place. The storm has mostly passed, and we can help clean up now, in the light of day.”
She sits up slowly, wincing as she stretches. Her eyes search the room, and I can see the strain of it all in her expression.
“Ugh, yeah, my parents’ house…” She shakes her head. “I should do it myself.”
I scoff. “Don’t be ridiculous. We want to help you.”
“But it’s a pain…”
“Come on,” Hayes agrees. “We’re here to help you, and you know we can. Don’t turn us down.”
She looks at him for a long moment, searching his face for something, maybe the reassurance that it’s okay to let go. I see her shoulders relax just a little, the tension that’s been choking her lifting. She takes his hand, and I feel my chest loosen.
“Alright,” Lo announces. “Let’s get it done.”
The three of us head out, leaving the house behind as we move toward hers. The sky’s clearing up, the first light breaking through the clouds, casting everything in a washed-out sheen.
When we get to Lo’s place, it’s still a mess.
Water on the floors that are already warping from the damp, debris scattered in places, and carving small holes into the damp plaster of the walls, but it’s nothing we can’t handle.
I see the look in her eyes when she steps inside, the way she stiffens.
Everything is pressing down on her, and it’s all too much.
But we’re here, we’re going to make this okay. I’m utterly determined.
I make the first move, setting down the toolbox in the hallway.
“Let’s tackle the kitchen first, yeah?” I try to keep it casual, light. I want to give her space to breathe, but I can tell it’s still a struggle for her to face this mess.
“Okay, sure,” Lo agrees. “Sounds… good.”
“I’m going to check the outside of the building,” Hayes declares with a frown. “See where all the water got in.”
As we work, I find myself glancing at Lo more often than I should. I can’t take my damn eyes off her.
“Not bad, right?” I say, trying to break the tension with a light comment. “Once we dry this place out, it’ll be like nothing ever happened.”
Lo gives me a small, tired smile, but I can tell she’s still a thousand miles away. “Yeah, I hope so. I really don’t want my parents to know I was here.”
I nod slowly. “Yeah, I’m sure. But it’s a shame, this place really suits you,” I comment casually. “It’s got… character. Like you do.”
She chuckles. “I don’t know about that. It’s got a lot of memories for me. Bad ones.”
“Which is why you left all those years ago, right?”
I know the story, mostly, but I still want to hear it from her point of view.
Lo’s fingers freeze as she wipes down the counter, and I can see the tension in her shoulders, the way she’s bracing herself for whatever comes next. For a moment, she doesn’t say anything.
Finally, she exhales a long breath, rubbing her thumb against the wood of the table as she tries to focus on something else. Anything else.
“Yeah,” she says quietly, almost to herself.
“I couldn’t handle it anymore. My family, the mess they made…
the way the whole town looked at me after everything came out.
I thought if I just disappeared, maybe… I’d get away from all of it.
From the judgment. From the whispers. From the way people only ever remembered my last name. ”
I can’t help but lean in a little, my words softer now, matching the quiet tone she’s using. “You didn’t deserve that, Lo. None of it. You weren’t the one who messed up.”
Her eyes find mine, a flicker of something there, maybe surprise, or maybe just a recognition that I get it. She swallows hard before continuing.
“Maybe you think that, but the town…” She shakes her head. “Yeah, I still have to get out. Once this house is done.”
My heart sinks. She’s leaving?
After everything we’ve shared?
But before I can push for more information, she turns the spotlight back on me. “So, what about you? You stayed here after high school, huh? You must really love it here.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, trying to keep my expression casual, even though she just took a sledgehammer to my chest. The thought of Lo leaving again… it hits me harder than I expect. I know she has reasons, hell, I saw it from the moment she walked back into town.
But hearing it so plainly, right now? It stings.
“Yeah,” I declare, “I stayed. There’s something about this place, you know? It’s quiet. Simple. I get to work with my hands, spend my days on projects that need a little love. People leave, and people come back, but the land, this place, doesn’t really change.”
I glance at her as I try to keep myself busy, keep my hands from shaking.
The truth is, I never planned on staying here forever.
When I graduated, I figured I’d find a bigger city, somewhere with more noise, more opportunity.
But when I went away for a bit, I realized I wasn’t the kind of guy who could handle too much noise. Too many people. Too many distractions.
And then there’s the part of me that was always meant to be here. Always meant to be with her, in some way. I didn’t know it back then, but I know it now.
“I guess it’s… in my blood,” I continue, looking down at the worn wood of the counter, tracing the grain with my fingers. “My grandfather raised me, and he’s a big part of Honeysuckle Grove. So, in a way, it feels like part of me is meant to be here. Even if I don’t always like it.”
“I get that,” Lo murmurs, still lost in thought. “When somewhere feels like home, you don’t give that up.”
I hear the layers of pain she’s trying to hide, but I also hear more. A plea. A wish, maybe. A desire for something to finally feel right, to feel safe. But her pride is a wall that keeps it locked down tight.
We could be safe if she’d let us.
“Lo,” I start, “I know what it’s like, feeling like you don’t belong. I think I’ve been running from that my whole life.” I pause, my hand instinctively reaching for the worn wood of the countertop again. “But sometimes, you don’t find where you belong. You build it.”
She looks at me then, those dark eyes searching mine. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, but there’s something softer in her expression now. Vulnerable. And I can tell that she rarely lets people see this.
“Is that what you did?” she asks quietly.
I nod, though the answer isn’t exactly what she thinks.
“Not exactly. But I built what I needed here. What I could handle. I guess I’ve always been a little afraid of what it would mean to settle down.
Afraid of… getting tied to something, or someone.
There’s this part of me that enjoys being in control of my own life, of my own space.
And it’s easy to let that keep me from taking the next step, from letting people in. ”
Lo raises an eyebrow, as if she’s skeptical but curious. “You’re telling me you never wanted to settle down? You just… chose this?”
I chuckle, a little surprised at how easily she reads me. “I didn’t think I did. But maybe I did. Maybe I built a life here because, even if I didn’t plan it, it’s the life I ended up wanting.”
She doesn’t say anything right away, just chews on her bottom lip as she picks up a dish and starts scrubbing at it, clearly still working through whatever’s swirling around in her head.
Maybe one day, she’ll trust us with the things in her head.
If we can convince her to stay.
“I don’t know where I fit in anymore,” she admits after a beat.
“I feel like I’ve been trying to find my place, and every time I think I’ve found it, something happens and it slips away.
Like I’m… like I’m just trying to keep from falling apart, trying not to let everything else crash into me.
” Her hand stops moving for a moment, and she looks up at me again, eyes bright, but tired. “I just don’t know what to do anymore.”
She exhales slowly, releasing some of the tension that’s been coiling inside her for so long. But her eyes don’t leave mine, not for a second.
God, I wish she would just say it. Say what’s really going on in her head.
I’m sure my packmates do as well. Maybe they would know what to say if they were here in this conversation with us. But I don’t. Never been good with words or advice. Just wood. Only wood.
So I’m left wondering what will happen next.