Page 43 of Restored By the Mountain Man
"Excuse me?" My voice comes out sharper than I intended but I don't care. "What did you just say to me?"
Ezra steps forward and I can feel the protective energy radiating from him. "I think you need to watch your tone when speaking to her."
But I hold up a hand, stopping him. "No, Ezra. I've got this."
I turn back to Tom's parents and all the grief, guilt, and frustration of the past year crystallizes into righteous anger.
"How dare you," I say, my voice shaking with fury. "How fucking dare you come here and speak to me like that."
"Zoe, we're just concerned—," Tom's father starts.
"Concerned?" I cut him off. "You've put my life through hell this past year. Showing up unannounced, pressuring me to plan memorial services, pushing boxes of his things on me when I've told you repeatedly that I'm not ready."
My voice grows stronger with each word. "I understand that you're grieving. I understand that Tom was your son and you miss him. But I'm grieving too. I lost the man I was going to marry, the future I thought I was going to have."
Tom's mother's face crumples. "But he loved you so much?—"
"And I loved him," I say firmly. "There will always be a special place in my heart for Tom. Always. But I have to move on with my life. I have to find a way to be happy again. And that doesn't make me a bad person or dishonor his memory."
I take a shaky breath. "You have to let me go. You have to let me heal. Because this? What you're doing? It's not helping any of us."
"But it's his anniversary—," his mother protests.
"It's the anniversary of the worst day of my life," I say, my voice breaking slightly. "And I'm finally, finally starting to have good days again. I'm finally starting to feel like I might actually have a future worth living. You don’t get to take that away from me."
The silence grows pregnant between us, heavy with a year of complicated grief and guilt.
"I think it's time for you to go," I say finally, my voice gentler but no less firm. "Thank you for stopping by but I need you to pack up your things from my cabin and head back to Portland. Tonight."
Tom's father nods slowly, understanding flickering in his eyes. But his mother looks stricken, lost.
"We just miss him so much," she whispers.
"I know," I say, and my heart aches for her pain even as I refuse to let it control my life anymore. "I miss him too. But he wouldn't want this for any of us. He wouldn't want us to be stuck in that terrible day forever."
They walk away without another word and I watch them go, feeling simultaneously drained and liberated.
Ezra's arms come around me from behind. "You okay?"
I lean back against his chest. "I think so. Actually, I think I'm better than okay. I think I'm finally free."
"Good," he murmurs into my hair. "Because you deserve to be happy, Zoe. You deserve to have a life full of joy and whatever the fuck you want it to be."
I turn in his arms and look up at him. "With you?"
"If you'll have me," he says simply.
"Try and stop me," I tell him, rising up on my toes to kiss him.
When we break apart, he grins down at me. "Now, about those cronuts..."
I laugh, feeling lighter than I have in a year. "Lead the way, mountain man. I have a feeling I'm going to need the sugar for whatever you have planned for later."
"Oh, Sweet Cheeks," he says, his voice full of wicked promise. "You have no idea."
CHAPTER 11
EZRA
