Wyatt (Lucky River Ranch, #2)

by Jessica Peterson

Sally. My Sally.

“I do miss you,” I blurt. “All the fucking time, Sally. I worry you’ll forget about me. I’m happy you’re living your dream—don’t get me wrong. But life…it’s suddenly all so different, you know? My parents died. And right now, with you, is the first time I feel like I might not die too.”

“You’re like sunshine, you know? Sounds cheesy, but it’s true. I always feel so much better when you’re around.”

My entire being rebels at the thought of letting this girl go. Every single one of my cells screams at me to keep her here, to make her mine. That’s when I know I’m in love with her.

But in my heart of hearts, I know that somehow, over the course of an hour, maybe less, I’ve fallen in love with my best friend. Or maybe I’ve been in love with her all along, and the realization is only hitting me now.

Really, Wyatt got this sunshine thing all wrong. He’s the one who’s the sun. The rest of us just float in his orbit, waiting our turn to bask in his warmth and attention.

I glance at the tattoo of a sunrise on my left forearm. Sally’s remarked on it in passing, but she doesn’t know I got it for her. She also doesn’t know about the other tattoo I got for her, the one on my leg. That one, more than the sunrise, is a dead giveaway of how obsessed I am with my best friend.

My heart lifts. I love you too, Sal. But then I’m crushed by a familiar sense of disappointment when it hits me that her words don’t mean what I want them to. Sally loves me as a friend. But I’m in love with her. Big fucking difference.

Aw, Sunshine, how could I not fall head over boots for you?

But it ain’t my place to make that choice for her, is it? Choose me. Goddamn, Sunshine, I’m dying for you to choose me.

“Don’t make me say it. You know, Sunshine. You know I wanna be your guy.”

“Lucky for you”—oh God, oh God, Wyatt is slipping a hand onto my face, using his palm to angle my mouth up toward his—“I’m tight with God, and I’ll have you saying his name often. Eventually though, I’d like you to say mine instead.”

Ask me for more. Please, God, ask me for the world so I can give it to you.

Bare. I’m about to make love to Sally bare. Nothing between us.

“So you don’t hate the books then,” she says thickly. Joyfully. I scoff, my breath rustling the dark brown hair that falls into her face. “I fuckin’ love ’em, Sally. Almost as much as I love you.”

“Don’t act so surprised, Sunshine. I’m in love with you. Been in love with you for a long, long time.” She opens her mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. “Really?” The genuine surprise in her voice makes my chest cramp. “Really. I realized it that day at the river right after my parents died, but I think I’d fallen for you way before then.”