He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 01

He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 01

In Stone Creek, every unmarried girl built a promise cairn. One stone for every year she waited.

Finish the cairn without a ring on your finger, and you married the Keeper.

I laid stones from eighteen to twenty-nine. Eleven years, and every single one of them, my boyfriend had somewhere better to be.

Now one stone was left. Just one.

So I rode a bus three days straight to his place, ready to fix whatever kept pulling him away from me.

Instead, I reached his door and heard him talking to a buddy.

“Cover for me again tomorrow, would you? Tell people I’m tied up so I don’t have to go see Hazel. Chloe’s not had much of an appetite lately, and I want to be home to make sure she eats.”

His buddy actually pushed back. “It’s been eleven years, man. You ever worry she’ll stop waiting?”

Julian Sterling just laughed. “She’s already given me eleven. What’s one more?”

“Besides, Stone Creek hasn’t had a Keeper in decades. Who would she even marry? That old tradition is a joke anyway.”

“Once Hazel finishes her own cairn next year, I’ll marry her. What’s the rush?”

I turned around and dropped the stone in the nearest trash can.

It was the one I’d carried clear across the country, held to my chest the whole way and still damp where I’d cried on it.

He didn’t know this was my last year.

And he had no idea the Keeper had come home.

…

I made it back just in time to lay the final stone.

The whole town stood clustered outside my house, craning to see.

“Why is Hazel back by herself?”

“Bless her heart. That’s the last stone. Does this mean no one’s marrying her?”

My mom’s eyes went glassy, but she blinked the tears back.

She caught my hand, her palm rough with calluses. “Don’t be scared, baby. I’ll figure something out.”

She pulled out her phone to call Julian. I stopped her.

I opened my mouth to speak, and a commotion broke out behind me.

I looked up, and there he was. Julian, grinning.

For a second I froze. He’d come back?

He came toward me slowly. Then, when he was five steps away, he veered off into Chloe Sterling’s house instead.

Chloe gave me a bashful little smile. “Julian’s never watched me build a cairn before. He wanted to see mine.”

He’d never seen one?

Right. Eleven years, and he’d never once shown up for mine.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught him glancing back at me. He was waiting for me to lose it, the way I always did.

Last year he’d pulled the same stunt, and I’d torn Chloe’s dress to shreds.

Julian dragged me off, stripped me down, and locked me in a cage in some club for everyone to gawk at.

“That dress took seven days to make,” he’d said. “So you owe her seven days. Fair’s fair.”

I curled into myself and didn’t dare move.

And still, seven days later, I loved him.

I trailed after him like always, a dog he couldn’t kick hard enough to lose.

But now? Nothing. I crouched down and picked up my own stone.

My mom panicked and marched over to Julian, catching his arm. “Have you lost your mind?”

“This is Hazel’s last year! How could you stand there building another woman’s cairn? What happens to my girl now?”

Julian shook her off in disgust. “It’s the twenty-first century. You people still believe this superstitious crap?”

A laugh tore out of me before I could stop it.

For Chloe, building a cairn was something sweet. For me, it was backwoods garbage?

Maybe the worthless thing here was never the custom.

It was me.

I gently called my mom back over to me. “Mom. You don’t need to beg him.”

“I don’t want to marry him anymore.”

Julian’s brows pulled together. “What are you pulling now? Playing hard to get?”

Chloe let out a soft, breathy laugh. “Hazel, he’s only teasing. Don’t take everything so seriously.”

“Chloe!”

My mom’s voice cracked with fury. “You know damn well a promise cairn is no joke!”

“You two grew up side by side, and Hazel handed you everything. She let you take the top spot at school, let you take the prizes, and when your folks died, she was the one who talked Julian into taking you under his wing!”

“And how do you pay her back? You take and you take, and now you’re taking her man too?”

If Mom hadn’t said it out loud, I might’ve forgotten Chloe and I grew up together at all.

We went through high school and college side by side…

When Julian and I got together, I couldn’t stand the thought of her being lonely, so I dragged her everywhere with us.

I didn’t want her feeling like a third wheel either, so I pushed Julian to treat her like his own sister.

They grew closer and closer, until somehow I was the one left on the outside.

I’d forged Chloe into the knife myself, then handed it over and let her cut me to pieces.

Mom’s sobbing pulled me back. “Hazel, what do we do now?”

I smiled, calm as anything. “Mom, I already told you. I’m not marrying him.”

“But…”

“No buts. It’s almost time. Let’s get the cairn done.”

My fingers had barely brushed the stone when a hand pressed down over mine.

Chloe’s eyes welled up, all wounded innocence. “Hazel, are you angry with me?”

“Julian didn’t mean anything by it. He just feels bad for me. I’m not lucky like you, Hazel. You’ve got a mom who loves you. I’ve got nothing. He’s all I have.”

I peeled her fingers off mine. “Don’t touch me. You’re filthy.”

Julian yanked Chloe behind him. “Hazel! I’m only going to say this once. Knock it off!”

“After today, I’ll formally propose. Throwing a tantrum right now gets you nowhere.”

Maybe he figured he’d come on too strong, because he reached out to smooth my hair the way he used to.

“I promise, the second we’re married, you’ll move into the house. Chloe will live with us, too. Okay?”

I ducked his hand and scooped up the stone.

“Don’t bother.”

“Now move. You’re in my way.”