“Vale, I just can’t—” Cause issues between her and her brother.Love her. Lose her.
“What?” she quips. “Be with me?” Vale crosses her arms. “I call bullshit. And if you walk away from me again, Cortland Haven, then I’m just going to have to?—”
“What?” I taunt, goading her. Will she close the door and toss back my key? Will she walk away from me? Will she stop loving me?
I feel sick at all the possibilities.
“Dammit, Cort,” she whispers. “Fight for me, not against me.”
Once again, I’m disappointing her. I hear it in her tone. This isn’t some failed orgasm during a quick fuck. This is heartbreak. I’m letting her down and I know it.
It’s just that the way Stone looked at me. The hurt in his eyes. Theknowingin them.
I hang my head a second but pop it back upright at the crunch of gravel under firm boots. Glancing up, I catch a glimpse of Stone, feet behind his sister, glaring at me like he did inside Milton’s.
Are you fucking kidding me?
You piece of shit.
You were my best friend.
I’m at an all-time low here, man, and you just buried me.
The words echo through my head as if they happened yesterday, not twenty-three years ago. And I’d taken all of them to heart. I held them in my chest, knowing he was right. I’d done him a huge wrong.
Dressed in his uniform, Stone looks more imposing than I know he is. Or at least, the man he once was. He’d always been large, solid even. He was a damn good football player with a bright future ahead of him. But his heart is soft, and he didn’t have a choice, or so he’d said. He couldn’t leave his siblings behind without their father, even if the man had been a piece of shit. Stone felt he’d already walked away once by going to college.
“I’m trying to let bygones be bygones here, Cortland.” Stone crosses his arms then unfolds them again. “But my sister? Really? Why Vale?”
Vale spins at the harsh tone of her brother. A voice I’m certain he reserves for sheriff duty.
“Whynotme?” Vale counters, narrowing her eyes at her sibling, letting her hands fist at her side as she faces off with her older,biggerbrother.
Not taking my eyes off Stone, I answer, knowing exactly what he means. “You’re too good for me.”
Vale swings her head back toward me, her voice lowering when she says, “Don’t say that.”
Then she glances back at her brother. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Think I don’t know what happens in this area?” Stone stares at Vale. “With my sister?” His jaw is tight. He isn’t exerting his authority like Andy, where power has been misplaced. Stone looks angry. And hurt.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Vale’s voice drops again, hesitant and puzzled.
I almost hear Stone’s rebuke before he speaks it. “Why didn’tyou?”
Why hasn’t Vale told him the truth?
There wasn’t a plan for Vale and me to keep a secret. There wasn’t even a plan for Vale and me, period. But it happened. And I could say for right or wrong, for good or bad, it happened. But Vale is right for me. She’s good for me. I’m not accepting an end. Not like this.
Stepping closer to Vale, I set my hand on her lower back. A sign of possession but also a sign of my protection. I don’t intend to hurt her. Not like I hurt him. Even back then, it wasn’t intentional. It was being young and stupid, making regrettable mistakes with heavy consequences.
I’ve paid enough.
“I never thought you’d lie to me,” Stone lowers his tone, addressing Vale. A fatherly edge laces the words. Disappointment as well.
“I—” Vale chokes, blinking at him before looking at me and then back at her brother.
She might not have told the whole truth, but omission is still considered a lie as well.
