“What I’m doing, you call, or I call back, I might not be able to talk long,” he warned.
She nodded and whispered, “But you’ll be back.”
Christ, but he’d fucked with her head.
“Yeah, honey, I’ll be back,” he reassured.
“Can I … Do you mind if we talk about something else?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
“Okay.” She bit her lip, looked to his shoulder, out the sides of her eyes toward the bed then back to him. “Can I ask … I mean, if it happens … if, you know, I don’t…”
She trailed off, holding herself funny at the same time having difficulty holding his gaze, hers now on his chin. He gave her a squeeze with his arm still around her.
“Baby, say it,” he urged. “You can give me anything.”
Immediately, she looked directly into his eyes and shook his world straight to the foundations.
“If I don’t win, if you feel you have to leave me, will you tell me?”
Before he could answer or even wrap his head around what she was asking, she kept talking and she did it fast.
“I just want you to tell me. I don’t want you to just be gone. If I … if I lose you … I’ll try to understand. If you need that, I’ll try to let you go. But I don’t want you to vanish. I want to be able to say goodbye.”
Oh yeah.
He’d fucked with her head.
He pulled her to her side, into his body and both of his arms, stroking her back.
“I told you I’ll be back,” he said gently.
“I know … just…” She shook her head, wrapping both her arms around him, digging one under his body to do that, and she held on tight. “Just promise me that, Branch.”
He was making a lot of promises.
Promises he knew were far more important to keep than the one he’d made Raines in that asshole’s bedroom years before, even if that promise was for Rob, for Piz, for Lex, Di, Benetta.
And every single one of them would agree.
“Promise, Angie,” he whispered.
She didn’t look happy about it and the hold she had on his body didn’t loosen because he’d given her what she wanted, but he’d also done the exact opposite, not sharing he’d not only be back, he wasn’t really ever going to leave.
All she did was nod, tuck her face in his throat and hold on.
He put his lips to the top of her hair and drew in a huge breath.
He should tell her now. He should go back on what he said. He shouldn’t come back to her. He should stop fucking with her head.
But fuck him, holding her in his arms in her bed, maybe especially because she was feeling what he was making her feel, weak and fucked in his own head, he couldn’t do that.
Not to her.
Not to them.
Fuck.
“To get this done, I gotta get on the road, babe,” he said into her hair.
She nodded again, her nose brushing his throat, before she moved, not looking at him.
She’d pulled out of his arms and started to crawl to the side of the bed when he caught her and tugged her right back.
She looked into his eyes.
“We can end this,” he whispered.
She pressed into him, her beautiful blue eyes filling with dread.
Fuck.
“No,” she whispered back
“I’m hurting you.”
“I know the score.”
“Baby, it isn’t right.”
“It’s absolutely right, Branch. And I’ll take what I can get of absolutely right for as long as I have it, fighting to earn more along the way, rather than not ever having it and never knowing how beautiful it feels.”
He tunneled his fingers into her hair at her scalp, shoving her face in his throat again as he grunted, “Angie.”
“If you’re not ready to go, don’t go,” she said into his skin. “Do your thing, come back to me and give me more.”
He didn’t reply, fighting her pull, fighting the shit fucking with his head.
Fighting the need to give her what she wanted.
More.
“And anyway, you have to help me pick a dog,” she reminded him.
Yeah, he had to do that.
He forced himself to relax, releasing the pressure he had on her head, and she tipped it back.
He looked down at her.
So pretty.
“You need to hit the road,” she told him softly.
“Yeah.”
“Kiss me, honey,” she whispered.
He kissed her. He did it a long time.
Even after they were out of bed and going through the motions of him leaving, he pulled her into his arms and did it again.
Repeatedly.
And after he was showered and dressed and he had a travel mug of coffee in his hand, Evangeline in flip-flops, yoga pants and a tight little tee standing in front of him at the door to his truck that was at the curb of her house, he did it again for an even longer time.
He broke it but didn’t pull away.
“See you soon,” he murmured.
“Okay, Branch. Be careful. Stay safe.”
He nodded.
She lifted up and touched her lips to his before Evangeline, always the strong one, pulled out of his arms.
She retreated to the sidewalk and stood there while he angled up into his truck.
She waited there while he pulled into her drive.
He caught sight of something to his right, glanced that way and saw her neighbor standing outside her car, watching them.
When she caught his glance, she lifted her hand and waved frantically.
Without thought, Branch took his hand from the steering wheel and flicked his wrist in return.
He reversed out and watched Angie walking backward up her drive as he started to roll away.
She blew him a kiss.
And that kiss landed way deep down in his soul.
He jerked up his chin at her.
He then watched in his rearview mirror as she turned to walk up her driveway, her eyes to his truck, until he lost sight of her as she reached the side of her house.
Branch drew in breath, engaged his phone and called Gerbil.
“Wassup?” Gerbil answered.
“Gonna hit my condo, change, pack a bag and go to the unit to grab some gear. Send me details of where I’m going. I’ll be on the road in two hours.”
“Done,” Gerbil replied.
Branch disconnected.
And in two hours, he was on the road, heading to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where Gerald Raines was renting a cabin in the mountains under a fake name.
twenty
Fools
EVANGELINE
Evangeline was in her bathroom, getting ready and wondering if she should be doing it, when her phone on the countertop rang.
She stopped applying mascara and snatched it up immediately when she saw Branch was calling.
It had been three days since he’d gone. She’d texted. He’d texted back. Short and uninformative for them both, but he’d kept contact.
But earlier, when Amélie had called and asked her out, Evangeline had told her she’d think on it and she’d called Branch to find out what he thought of it.
Now, although it had been over an hour since she left her message, he was calling back.
But he’d called back just like he’d said he would.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey,” he said back.
“Everything good?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
Okay, well, he didn’t feel in the mood to share.
Not new.
“I called to ask you about something,” she informed him.
“Shoot,” he offered.
“Well, Leigh asked me to meet her and Olly at the club.”
Branch said nothing.
“Just drinks,” she told him. “And hanging with friends.”
Branch still said nothing.
“You know I wouldn’t do anything you didn’t like, honey,” she told him softly, shifting so she could rest the side of her hip against the basin. “But, well … I miss my friends. And that was our place to hang together where we could be with each other in a place that was ours. I guess I have to admit, I miss it.”
“That asshole is there and he gets near you, you tell him to back off,” Branch commanded.