30. Wyatt

Chapter Thirty

Wyatt

I did not, in fact, have this. I felt like I was walking a tightrope across a chasm growing wider by the day. I didn't know how to get to the other side to where Rosie was.

I didn't want her to think I wasn't willing to fight for her, to fight for us. But I was afraid of pushing her too hard and too fast. We had actually talked about how that week before she went to nursing school and before I flew out into the wilderness to fight fires had been this capsule of time when all the pressure was off because of our circumstances.

I think my heart knew then what my mind wasn't ready for. Maybe I didn't understand love then, but my heart knew there was a possibility with her that I had never experienced before.

I'd kept my distance ever since we'd both landed back in town full-time. Because, damn, Rosie had her guard up, big time.

While I was busy trying to formulate how I was going to talk to her, I stopped to get coffee at Spill the Beans Café. Both Phyllis and Hazel were there. There was a lull in the crowd since it was late morning.

Phyllis was prepping my coffee while Hazel was refilling the pastry case with a fresh batch of offerings. "You really should try one of these," she said, holding one up.

"Sure, I'll have one." I didn't even know what it was.

I was being polite, and I was a little hungry, but my lack of enthusiasm caused Hazel to straighten and eye me skeptically. "What's wrong?"

I started to hedge before Phyllis tapped a button on the espresso machine and glanced over. "Wyatt and his wife are going through some things."

"Well, I know that," Hazel replied. She rested a hand on her hip and wagged the pastry at me. "You're married. A part of marriage means you'll have your ups and downs, and you have to deal with the hard stuff. That "for better or for worse" thing really means something even if you got married when you were drunk in Las Vegas."

I felt my cheeks get warm and smiled sheepishly between them. "Rosie said she needed space."

"That's your line, and you're sticking to it, huh?" Phyllis said as she rested her hips on the counter and faced me.

"What do you mean ‘that's my line'?"

"That's what Griffin mentioned," Hazel piped up.

"And Rhys," Phyllis added.

"And Adam," Hazel said.

"Oh, my God," I muttered. "My brothers are gossiping about me."

Phyllis's brows hitched up. "No, they're not. They were talking to each other. We just heard the whole conversation because they were sitting right over there." She gestured to the table closest to the register.

"They would never gossip and betray you like that," Hazel said.

"Well, I could use another perspective," I finally said.

Hazel and Phyllis both perked up. "What can we tell you?" Hazel asked.

"We were both married to our husbands until death did us part," Phyllis said.

"I'm assuming you know the whole story about me and Rosie?" I prompted.

"That you and Rosie secretly got married in Vegas and didn't tell anybody, but Rhys suspected all along, and then you started a spouses-with-benefits arrangement," Hazel said succinctly.

"And then, you found out Rosie's brother was in recovery by accident. He asked you to give him a chance to tell Rosie himself, which is an honorable thing to do. I give him lots of credit for being in recovery, but wow, dumb move on his part. He should've told her that same day. When he finally told her, Rosie felt that everybody had been hiding it from her. Are we up to speed?" Phyllis asked.

"Wow." I shook my head slowly. "I always figured you knew just about everything going on, but you really do stay on top of it."

"We don't gossip. People just tell us things. Like we're talking to you about this." Hazel angled her head to the side. "But we're not talking about this to anybody else."

"I'm sure we don't know the whole story," Phyllis added.

"You know, Rosie's had to deal with some difficult things in life," I said.

"Of course, she has." Hazel's tone softened. "Her mother died when she was a little girl. Her dad did the best he could, but no matter what, that was a huge loss. The way her brother looks up to her is just…" Hazel pressed her hand to her heart. "It's the sweetest thing, and I'm sure he was afraid he'd let her down. We're so proud of him."

"Did you know Rosie's mom?" I asked.

"Of course we knew her! She was a sweet woman," Hazel said.

"I know you understand loss," Phyllis offered. "When you lost your dad, you know what it does to a person."

So I did. Dad dying had sent our mom into a spiral of grief. To this day, I knew that she wished she could go back and change the way things played out in the years that followed. Our parents had wanted a big family. The downside to that was our mom was pretty overwhelmed after our dad died. On the upside, we all had each other, and I wouldn't trade that for a minute. Our father's death had set into motion a chain of events that led to a lot of pain in our family.

All of this passed through my thoughts before I replied, "I do understand. I'm just trying to figure out what to do now."

I ended up summarizing Griffin's suggestion. Phyllis and Hazel seemed to agree I should reach out in some way. "You could consider a big gesture, but that might be pushy since she wanted space," Hazel said.

"Think of something small that would mean a lot to her," Phyllis suggested.

After my conversation with them, I took my coffee and walked down the street to the brewery. Before I could overthink it, I slipped my phone out of my pocket. With coffee in one hand and my phone in the other, I began typing a text to Rosie.

Me: I want to give you space because you asked for it. But I also want you to know I love you. That's it.

I didn't even know if I had hit send before I heard a loud, screeching sound, and everything went black.