Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
hayden
Icouldn’t get the image of Sierra stealing my hat last night at the bar out of my head. The memory flashed through my mind on a loop. I’d never seen her get jealous before—definitely not enough to fall into a Western stereotype—but I would be a lying man if I said I didn’t like it.
We were getting back on the road early today, because the weather predicted a thunderstorm rolling in that afternoon.
It appeared that the weatherman was correct for once. Dark, imposing clouds swirled in the distance, and my best guess was that we’d end up driving through the storm regardless of the time we left.
Sierra grumbled as she dragged her duffle bags out of the room toward the elevator. “Remind me again why I brought so much shit?”
I laughed, not wanting to explicitly say, I told you so, but still thinking it in my head. “Here, hand me one of your bags.”
She tilted her head as if assessing me, then gave a resigned sigh, dropping one of the heavy-ass duffles. Somehow it felt like they were even heavier than they were when we left Silver Creek.
“Did you go on some secret midnight shopping trip? Or did you collect more rocks while you were here?” I teased.
Sierra kept walking ahead of me, but that didn’t stop her from flipping me off and firing back, “I just couldn’t help it. The rocks here are so unique.”
I barked out a laugh and followed behind, throwing the bag over my shoulder.
“Do you think we’re going to make it through the storm?” Sierra studied the sky when we got outside, her brows pinching together.
“Hopefully,” I replied. “I don’t have a lot of hope for missing it entirely, but if we’re lucky, we’ll be on the edge of this weather, and the rain won’t be too heavy.”
“Best get on the road then,” she murmured, climbing into the passenger seat. “We still have to pick up the horses.”
I nodded in agreement, throwing the rest of the stuff in the back of the pickup and rolling out the cover over the bed.
By the time we got the horses loaded and our wheels pointed eastward on the highway, rain was beating down on us, the windshield wipers doing their best to keep up. Puddles accumulated in the middle of the road, water spraying up every time we plowed through one.
Headlights of the cars that met us were blurred by the torrential downpour, and horns blared as if that was their way of letting us know they were nearby. It didn’t quell my anxiety. If anything, it made it worse.
“I think we’re going to need to pull over!” My declaration was nearly drowned out by the sound of droplets smacking against the windshield.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Sierra agreed, worry lines creasing her forehead as I white-knuckled the steering wheel, trying to maintain control of the truck and trailer.
Turning on my hazard lights, I navigated us off the road at the nearest pullout so we weren’t camping out on the shoulder in case, God forbid, the worst happened and someone ran off the path and hit us.
My phone screen lit up, and a slew of text messages came through from the group chat.
The Silver Creek Cowboys (And Ellison)
(Plus Isa and June)
Colter
Damn that rain is wild
Ellison
Everyone okay? Jake and Mikey? Hayden?
Mikey
*thumbs-up emoji*
We’re alright. We pulled over.
Isa
OMG! not the kind of texts i wanted to get at 10am
June
Hopefully the rain lets up soon. Keep us updated.
“Who was that?” Sierra’s gaze fell onto my phone screen.
“Our Silver Creek group chat,” I replied, the fact that Sierra wasn’t in it dawning on me. “I just realized you’re not in it. Let me add you.”
“Oh no, that’s okay, I don’t—” She waved her hand dismissively, but it was too late.
The Silver Creek Cowboys (And Ellison)
(Plus Isa and June)
Hayden added Sierra to the chat.
Hayden changed the chat name to The Silver Creek Cowboys (And The Girls)
Mikey
Whoa whoa whoa who just got added to the chat?
Sierra. I realized she wasn’t included
Isa
AH FINALLY
GROUP CHAT OFFICIAL
Jake
Does this mean what I think it means?
Sierra
What do you think it means?
Sierra’s brows pinched together as she threw me a suspicious look.
Jake
You know
No. No one knows what you mean
But whatever you’re thinking, no
Mikey
Ah, so that’s a yes
Ellison
Do we even want to know?
June
Probably not
“I have no idea what they’re talking about,” I muttered.
Jake
I’m just saying, none of the girls were added to the group chat until…you know
He sent a few eggplant emojis.
Ellison
JACOB
Isa
technically, i was added wayyyyy after that ever happened. like…a year after
Reid
I thought we added Ellison because she lives in Silver Creek now
Ellison
You did
Jake
Okay well that’s not important.
Mikey
I mean, he’s not wrong about the timing either
Jake
Anyway I saw you take his cowboy hat last night, Sierra
Ellison
How do you know they didn’t get into a fist fight instead?
Colter
She has a point. Sierra did tell us she dislocated some kid’s kneecap in high school
Sierra
Allegedly
No one got into a fist fight and no one was doing that.
Jake
Knocking boots?
Mikey
Doing the hanky panky?
Adding Sierra to the group chat was a mistake.
You know what, this was a mistake
Mikey
We have her number now, so even if you two leave we’re just going to add you back
Jake
There’s no getting rid of us now, Sierra
I smacked my palm against my forehead. “I am so sorry. I should have known, but I didn’t think they were going to do that.”
“They’re not going to blow up my phone with notifications, right?” When I didn’t confirm, she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “I’m sorry for ever asking who you were talking to.” She muted the chat, but my phone continued to light up with notifications.
“It looks like we’re going to be stuck here for a while.” I sighed as I attempted to look out the window. “This rain doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon.”
The silence in the cab—apart from the pounding of raindrops—was deafening, a chasm growing between us even though we were two feet apart.
I glanced over at Sierra, my eyes roving over her. “Tell me a truth.”
“What?” Her brows knitted together.
“Tell me something true. Like, when I first saw you on the bus the first day of freshman year, I thought you were really pretty, but your eyes were so sad. All I wanted to do was get you to smile,” I murmured before adding, “Truth.”
“Okay.” She looked down for a second like she was thinking. “I tried to avoid everyone when I first started school, but you were impossible to ignore. No matter how hard I tried, something kept pulling me to you.”
I nodded, my lips twitching in a very subtle smile. “Taking the fall for you hitting that tree was the best decision I made in my life.”
She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t have to do that. Your dad was pissed.”
“Yeah, but it was worth it because it meant you didn’t get in trouble. Clearly, he wasn’t that mad because I’m still here. Didn’t get grounded for life.”
Sierra tapped her nails on the center console. “I don’t actually hate that stupid nickname you and Keenan gave me. If anything, I like it more because it’s our thing. Truth.”
“Keenan makes fun of me because I named my horse Peanut Butter, but it’s special to me because you were there to name her with me.”
“I lied when I said I wasn’t jealous when I saw you and Michaela talking.”
My heart burst in my chest at the confirmation, but I still shot her a cocky smirk, flirting a little.
“Oh, I know.” I did my best to keep a blank expression as I said my next piece.
“Truth, I’ve been really scared something’s going to happen with all of the weird things going on.
I worry someone’s targeting you. I don’t want to be overbearing, but I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again.
” The last part was hardly a breath off my lips.
She pulled her lip between her teeth. “I blame myself for a lot of things that happened back then. Truth.”
“I waited and waited and hoped that you’d come back one day.
That maybe it was all a bad dream and I’d have my best friend back…
Truth,” I whispered. The first time she left was devastating, but the second time…
I was convinced the second time killed me, and for five years, I was a ghost—a shell of a person wandering around, searching for the one person that tied me to this world.
My eyes flicked down to her lips as her tongue darted out to wet them, then back up, emerald green staring into ocean blue.
“Skip.” The name fell off my lips in a whisper. My hand cupped her cheek, my thumb brushing against the delicate scar tissue under her eye.
She leaned into my palm, gaze softening. Her eyes swept up and down my face, like she wanted this as much as I did.
The world around us seemed to pause, the raindrops and cars speeding by reduced to slow-motion frames.
My heart thrummed in my chest, a plea to close the distance until the breaths between us were merely a whisper. My eyelids fluttered shut as I leaned in, our noses close enough to touch. The warmth of her breath tickled my skin, and my lips parted as I inched closer, my mouth nearly brushing hers.
My chance was gone in an instant, and reality came crashing back down.
Sierra drew in a sharp breath, and my eyes snapped back open as she sighed. “Hayes, I can’t. We can’t.”
I pulled back, blinking. Thinking maybe I misheard her over the howl of the wind outside.
She turned away—the rift that separated us now miles wide—and her attention shifted to the passenger-side window. “The rain’s stopped. W-we should get back on the road.”
A pang hit me in the chest, but I swallowed my pride and nodded. I thought she wanted to kiss me as badly as I wanted to kiss her—close the five-year gap that had formed between us—but perhaps I was wrong…again.
We’d been in this situation once before. I knew back then why she hesitated. I just couldn’t figure out why she still held back now.