Chapter 10
Angie
The trailer was quiet inside for so long that I worried Evan wasn’t home. Rhett said these pipeline guys worked up to sixteen hours in a day. I didn’t have time to figure out his work schedule and catch him on his day off.
Four more days in Fairbanks before my return flight. I was worried I hadn’t given myself enough time to settle this.
Anxiety gnawed a hole in my stomach, and I was about to turn around when the door swung open.
Evan stood in the doorway, wearing dirty jeans and a dirtier hoodie.
His face was shaved clean, hair cropped shorter than I’d ever seen it.
His eyes were sunken and tired, and they narrowed to slits when he recognized me.
“What the hell are you doing here, Angela?”
Angela. I hated when he called me that, like I was fifteen, in trouble with my dad again.
I waggled the ring box in front of me. “You said you wanted this back.”
He ran a rough hand over the top of his head. “I didn’t ask you to drop it off!”
I straightened my shoulders, steeling myself. “You owe me an explanation.”
“You flew all the way here…for an explanation?”
“Yes! You asked me to marry you and then just left without telling me. That’s insane!”
He stepped onto the wide first step, closing the door behind him as heatwaves escaped into the cool air. “Do you know what’s insane? Following me to Alaska to ask that stupid question. You know why I left.”
I swallowed. I had some ideas, but I needed to know if they were true. “I don’t.”
He waved a hand around me. “This is why. You’ll come here at the drop of a hat. Move apartments. Change jobs. You can’t just stick to something.”
“There was mold in my old apartment,” I said defensively. “Why did you ask me to marry you then?”
“Because you wouldn’t stop pushing for more. The ring bought me some time—and some quiet.”
I flinched, losing some of my false bravado as I asked, “You asked me to marry you so I would shut up?”
“Yes!” There was a rumble from behind us, and Evan noticed Rhett for the first time. He was leaning against the hood of the SUV, arms crossed over his chest. To Evan, Rhett probably looked calm. I'd spent enough time with him over the last two days to recognize the tension in his stony features.
Would Rhett actually kill someone?
I almost wanted to find out.
Evan scowled, returning his focus to me and saying, “We aren’t a good fit. I didn’t think I had to tell you that.”
“The whole engagement ring thing was giving mixed signals.”
“Then let me be clear. I left because I wanted someone who has it together. You’re all over the place, Angie. You think the whole spontaneous thing is cute, but really it’s just a sign that you have no self-control. How many times did you change jobs in a year?”
“I—"
“I saw my future with you, and it was me cleaning up your messes. Holding everything together while you chased the next shiny thing. It was too much for me. You’re just…too much.”
The velvet corners of the ring box dug into my palm. My molars ground together, and I forced myself to soften my jaw so I could speak. “I get it, I do, Evan. I really hope you find what you’re looking for out here.”
I opened the box, staring at the plain silver band and the single, tiny diamond. It wasn’t even a nice ring. The metal was cold as I lifted it between my index finger and thumb, letting it catch the reflection of the gray clouds that were blocking out the light.
I glanced down at the snow. It was deep. Forgiving—more forgiving than me.
“I hope you can find your ring, too.” I tossed it hard into the mountain of snow between trailers, feeling satisfied when it sank out of sight.
“What the fuck, Angie?” Evan rushed to the snow, scooping it away with his hands.
I dropped the ring box on the ground, turning my back on him and telling Rhett, “I’m done here.”
Anger heated me through, and I didn’t notice the cold as I climbed back into the SUV. With hands fisted in my lap, I breathed through my mouth to calm my temper. I wasn’t usually the kind of person to blow up in a rage, but right now, I wanted to climb back out of the car and scream my fury.
Instead, I took three long breaths, watching dense clouds cover the last of the pale light. Rhett settled quietly into the seat beside me, staring.
I didn’t meet his gaze. “Thanks for bringing me. We can leave now.”
Evan was still in front of his trailer, cursing and digging through the snow when we pulled away. Soon the buildings disappeared behind us, and the wilderness closed in.
It felt like evening in the forest. Tiny flakes blew around us, sticking to the windshield in perfect snowflake shapes.
I could barely make them out as my eyes watered. No matter how much I swallowed, the lump in my throat got bigger, until it felt like I couldn’t breathe around it.
My next exhale came out like a sob. I covered my face with my hands, trying and failing to block out the shame and hurt.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Rhett asked softly.
“What’s there to talk about?” I sniffled. “He’s right. Everything he said is true.”
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks.”
“But it’s not just him! He was only repeating what everyone in my life has always told me. ‘You’re too much, Angie. Get it together, Angie. Think before you do things, Angie.’”
The SUV came to a sudden stop. Rhett put it in park on the side of the road, hands gripping the wheel so hard the leather squeaked.
I frowned at the dark trees on either side of us. Why did we stop?
He climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind him. The footsteps he left in the snow were deep and heavy as he stomped to the forest and turned his back to me.
Of course. Because I was too much for him too, my emotions overwhelming his sensible nature.
Rhett whipped around, golden eyes flashing as he wrenched my door open and took my hand. My seatbelt snapped off my chest, and I slid from the seat so fast I almost lost my footing.
The flakes were larger now, spinning as they fell into Rhett’s dark hair and left sparkly dewdrops. I could almost see the steam rising off him in the cold.
“Everyone in your life?”
I fumbled over my answer, still confused about our abrupt stop. “Yes?”
“Your family? Your friends? They’re all like him?”
“Everyone but my sisters.”
Rhett yanked his hair, looking uncharacteristically unkempt as he came to stand right in my space.
“Don’t you get it? You’re not the problem.”
“I kind of think I am.”
“He didn’t leave because you’re too much. He left because he’s small—and you’re not.” His face hovered over mine, and I licked my lips. “Maybe you never fit with them because that’s not where you belong. You’re too bright for dark places.”
“Then where do I belong?” It was starting to feel like nobody in the world wanted me around. I didn’t have what it took to be normal like everyone expected.
He brushed a flake of snow from my cheek, and it melted into cool droplets. “In a wolf pack. You’ll never be too much for us.”
My eyebrows came together. “But I’m not a shifter.”
“Half of Glacier Run is human.”
“Yeah, but I can’t just—"
I could though. That was exactly the kind of thing I would do. Pack up my whole life and move to a shifter town in Alaska after visiting for twenty-four hours.
A familiar spark of excitement lit inside me, burning away some of the pain. That jolt in my chest intensified the sensation, and I slapped a hand over my breasts, feeling overwhelmed.
Rhett’s thumb was still caressing my face.
This didn’t feel fake.
It didn’t feel finished.
But what if he was wrong? What if I was clinging to someone who was too kind to see me for what I was?
Maybe I needed to stop looking for the place—and the person—that was my perfect fit and work on fitting myself into the rest of the world.
My spark died, doused by the icy wind.
“I can give you some cash for gas if you bring me back to Fairbanks today. My flight is in a few days, and I’m sure you want your life back.”
Rhett’s expression shuttered, the angles of his face firm and stoic as always.
“Let me buy you some lunch first.”
I snorted. “Didn’t we just eat breakfast? Do shifters really have that big of an appetite? Seems like you would spend half your day eating.”
His mask slipped for half a second, his smile sheepish. “It’s going to take a long time to get back to Fairbanks in this weather. Just making sure we don’t end up surviving on gummy worms again.”
Ah, right. How very practical of him. Without him, I would have been stuck on the side of the road during a blizzard, hoping to find crumbs on the floor of a rental car to keep me alive.
We got back in the car, my body tired from the earlier adrenaline. I leaned my head against the window, watching fat snowflakes cling to each other and fall in clumps.
Soon I was sitting upright again, my energy returning in nervous waves as the wind whipped snow across the road, making it almost impossible to see the black surface underneath. More than once, Rhett had to slow for a turn, skirting the edge of a steep hill I hadn’t noticed on the way here.
“Those trees would stop the car from falling if we went off the road, right?”
He grunted a response, determined not to find out.
“I’m once again glad you’re the one driving.”
After what felt like hours of nail-biting turns, the road straightened, widening as we neared a county road. Through the wind and the snow, I could just make out hints of the yellow line dividing lanes—and the flashing orange light that I was unfortunately familiar with now.
Rhett cursed. “I didn’t think it would come down so fast.”
“I’ve got Déjà vu.”
He put the car in reverse, the tires skidding and sliding with the effort. “We’re going to have to wait it out again.”
“Um, I didn’t see any conveniently placed motels in the trees back there.”
“I know a place.”