Page 44 of Tiger Betrayal

“We aren’t going there yet,” he murmured, brushing a tress of windswept hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. “Let’s eat and do some research.”

“Okay.” She did feel better that he seemed so confident and had a plan.

They found an empty picnic table and Stellan devoured five sandwiches. Five. They must’ve been delicious, but she didn’t really notice because she’d lost her appetite.

She’d been so looking forward to this memory lane adventure because she was actually going to touch a place her mother and father had both touched. She’d wanted to place a piece of paper over their initials and make a shading of it to add to the journal, but looking around, the city had clearly removed a majority of the trees here.

She picked at her sandwich, ate about half, and Stellan finished the rest for her and threw their trash away as she studied the sketch again. The paths had been covered in what looked like wood chips back then, and were relatively straight, but now it was concrete sidewalks, and they were all winding in some whimsical pattern. Nothing looked even remotely similar to the sketch.

“It’s okay if we can’t find it,” she said. “Sometimes that happens.”

“You’re breaking my heart right now,” Stellan told her. “Come on, we aren’t quitting.”

And over the next two hours, they went around every tree. Every single one. It was doable because there weren’t that many trees and the park was smaller than she’d thought it would be.

Stellan was relentless, and his pupils were constricted in his glowing gold eyes as he intensely searched every tree, even the ones that didn’t look like the one in the sketch.

The park backed up to a creek, and then a tall brick fence on the other side showed a clear border to the park.

“It’s not here anymore,” she murmured. “It’s okay. Really, it’s okay.”

Stellan pulled her into a hug and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m getting tired,” she admitted. Mostly, she felt defeated. Of all of the memory lane adventures, she’d really attached to this one, and she couldn’t explain why. “It’s really okay.”

Stellan inhaled deeply and looked around again.

“Come on,” she said, forcing a smile. “We’re supposed to meet up with your family in an hour, and I need to go home and change still.”

“They can wait. There’s still daylight. We can keep looking if you want.”

“I love you,” she said suddenly, before she could stop herself.

“What?” he asked, shock consuming his face.

“You worked all day, you were up late last night and up early this morning, you are running on almost no sleep, and you’re still wanting to stay and help me find a silly memory.”

“It’s not silly,” he said sternly. “It’s important to you.”

“And that’s why I just said that,” she whispered.

He chewed the corner of his lip. “I’ve never said it in the after.”

Oooh. He hadn’t said the L-word since he’d been Turned. That was a deep admission. It was exposing the depth of damage. Of course he had trouble trusting enough to love after what happened to him.

She shook her head slightly. “And you don’t have to say it now. I like you either way.”

“No. No, you said love, not like.”

Heat was creeping up her neck and spreading through her cheeks. They would be bright red in a few seconds with her blush, so she gave him a squeeze, and then detached from him and started walking in the direction of his truck. “Let’s go get ready for tonight. We only have two more days before Mars and Ren go home. We need to spend as much time with them as possible.”

Yeah, she was trying to distract him, and say her words lightly, so she could throw away the moment and give him an out.

“I love you too…Laramie.” He’d uttered her name like a prayer.

She stopped, and looked up from the ground, and it was at this moment that she saw it. The deep carving in the bark of that towering cottonwood had healed so much, it was barely visible. But it was there.

JT + AC