He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 06

He Thought I’d Stack One More Stone, I Threw the Last One Away Chapter 06

The horse was higher than I’d pictured.

Elias’s arms came loosely around me. He wasn’t touching me, but I knew he was holding me steady.

His hands were huge. Any time they so much as grazed my sleeve, he’d pull them right back.

“You nervous?” he asked.

“A little.”

He was quiet a moment, then said, low and serious, “Don’t be scared.”

“It’s just me up there on the mountain. No family drama, no exhausting expectations.”

“Once you’re my wife, you do whatever you want.”

He paused, his voice dropping. “As long as you’re happy, that’s enough for me.”

Something stung at the back of my throat. “Have you been up on that mountain all this time?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d you go up there?”

He went quiet again.

It was a long while before he answered. “The year you left for college, I waited at the town line the

whole summer.”

I didn’t say anything.

That summer, Julian took Chloe and me to the beach, and I spent seven days watching the backs of

e two of them walk on ahead.

Then your mom told me you’d found someone out there, that you might not come home. So I thought it over, and I went up the mountain.”

“You haven’t come down in eleven years?”

“No.”

“When I reached out to you,” I asked quietly, “what were you doing?”

His ears went red. “…Chopping wood in the yard.”

“The old Keeper told me someone was looking for me. I figured I’d misheard.”

“Then you said you wanted to marry me, so I came down that same night.” He scratched his head

“I pulled the wedding gifts together in a hurry. I hope they weren’t too underwhelming.”

I thought of that little house with the mountain bluebells on the roof, and something turned over in my chest.

When had he bought it?

All those years on the mountain, what had it felt like to gather wedding gifts he knew might never be given?

“How many years were you getting them ready?”

This time he didn’t answer at all. The only reply was his hand tightening at my waist.

The horse let out a sharp whinny and stopped.

Julian’s car sat dead in the middle of the road.

His tie hung crooked, his eyes fixed on me like he wanted to haul me off the horse himself. “Hazel. Get down.”

He dragged in a breath. “Are you done with this little stunt? Come home with me, and I’ll pretend none of it ever happened.”

I looked at the face I’d been looking at for eleven years.

Once, that tone would’ve sent me into a panic, terrified I’d made him angry. Now all I felt was tired.

“Why did you even come after me?”

“Because you’re my girlfriend! You’re marrying some other man.”

“What kind of man would I be if I just let that happen?”

“Do you actually mean to marry me?”

“Of course I do!”

“When?”

His mouth opened, but nothing came out.

I finished it for him. “Next year, right? Wait till Chloe finishes her cairn.”

“Wait till she gets her appetite back, wait till she’s not scared to sleep alone. Then you’ll finally have time for me.”

“Hazel.”

“Eleven years, and you never came. Not once.”

“Now here you are, and not because you want me. Only because someone else is about to.”

His voice cracked. “It’s not like that. You’re the only one I love.”

“And what am I to you, then? Some toy you pass around to keep Chloe smiling?”

He flinched like the words had found the sore spot.

“I tore that dress, yes. Because she’d just shoved a photo in my face, you and her asleep in the same bed.”

“You didn’t let me get out one word. You stripped me down and locked me in a cage for the whole

room to gawk at.”

“I ran a dangerously high fever, and you told me to go get her takeout first. The day of my thesis

defense, you said she was upset and sent me to campus

alone.”

“Every birthday I ever had, I spent alone, because you were always with her.”

“You came to Stone Creek every year, stood in the courtyard right beside mine every time, and

never once walked through my door.”

His lips were shaking. “It’s not like that, Hazel. Just give me a chance to explain.”

“None of it matters now.” I gathered the reins. “Julian, I don’t love you anymore. Go home.”

“Hazel.”

The horse moved forward, and Elias’s arms came loosely around me again. This time I let myself

lean back into him.

His heartbeat thudded against my back, fast and loud.

Somewhere behind us, a voice shouted my name, but the wind tore it apart before it could reach me,

I didn’t look back.