Page 36 of Still Yours
I press my thighs together. “I’ll give you one hall pass. That’s it.”
Stone offers a half smile. “It won’t happen again.”
We should go back to tidying the kitchen, but both of us continue standing in the middle of the room, staring at each other.
Remembering the agony that sounded out of him brings me closer. I reach up, pressing my hands on his shoulders and squeezing.
Stone lowers his head, his eyes searing into mine. “The way you’ve been there for her … I’m angry you didn’t tell me and frustrated with her for keeping something like this a secret for so long, but … Fuck, you got this handled. And for that, I’m thankful.”
My hands slide down his arms, but he catches them in his before I let him go.
“No thanks needed,” I say, but it’s on autopilot. So many people thank me for what seems to me to be the right thing to do, but maybe that’s because I’m just too close to see that not everybody would want to do this.
“No. You’re going to listen to me say it. She needs you. I need you. You’re here because neither of us can live without you right now, and I?—”
“Stone, stop.”
“—I didn’t leave this town in the best of ways?—”
“I said stop.” I try to pull my hands from his, but he holds them strong. “Don’t go there. Please.”
“But I have to. For too long, I’ve let you go without an explanation, made you hate me, and despite all that, you’ve dropped everything to take care of my mother.”
“I saiddon’t.” Seething, I yank out of his grip.
Now I own the fire.
Stone blinks at me..
“You don’t get to thank me for taking care of your mother after what happened between us, like it shouldn’t be the case that yourscornedex-girlfriend wants to help her. Despite what you think, I have not gone through life as your ex, telling everyone that I dated a famous billionaire who dumped me—though God knows, the whole town knows that, anyway. I’m doing this because I love your mother. I love her. She was there for me during the years I needed someone, and I would do anything for her. It hasnothingto do with you. And it’s selfish, soselfishof you to think that I’ve overcome bitterness toward you in order to be there for her.”
“Noa.” Stone lifts his hands in surrender. “I was just trying to say thank you.”
“Yeah, well.” I blink back frustrated tears. “It should be pretty damned obvious that I want nothing from you. Gratitude being the least of it.”
Stone shakes his head then looks to the side, as if he can find answers through the window. “You know, for someone who insists I mean nothing to her, you’re sure passionate about it.”
“I was pregnant!” I shriek.
The vehemence surprises even me. I jerk all the way to my toes. My heart’s on fire and the flames char my throat and singe my eyes.
Stone takes a deep breath, his hands still out like he could ever soothe the ache in my chest. “I know, Noa. I was a dumb kid and if I could go back, I would.”
“You left me,” I somehow garble out through my rapidly closing throat. “You left me to deal with it, all without a goodbye.”
“No. I had a plan, but then it?—”
I slam up my hand. “Not another word. If you say one more thing about this, I swear to God Iwillsmack you and I won’t be able to stop.”
My fingers tremble in the air. They blur through my tears along with his stricken, confused, handsome face.
The world washes into watercolor until I lower my arm and sprint from the room, leaving him no further space to smear his butter over the burn.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Noa
Iavoid Stone for the rest of the night and morning. By the time I wake up in the guest room, Moo angrily wriggling aside when his human pillow gets up, Stone isn’t in the house and when I glance outside the front window, his car is gone.
