Chapter 8: The Ridge Road

The storm hit while we were still a mile from the house.

Rain came sideways across the headlights. The wipers couldn't keep up with it.

Dane slowed to a crawl on the ridge road.

Then a pine came down across the gravel ahead of us with a crack that shook the cab.

He stopped the truck.

"It's twenty minutes from here on foot," he said, killing the engine. "We wait for it to ease."

The rain drummed on the roof.

We sat in the cab with the dash lights glowing.

The windows fogged until the world outside was gone.

He didn't look at me. He looked at the steering wheel.

"You asked me to ask again," I said.

"I know."

"It's tomorrow. It was tomorrow two days ago."

"I know that too."

His hands were tight on the wheel.

"I'm going to tell you something," I said.

"You said never to lie to you. So I'm going to tell you all of it."

"Nan."

"Let me say it."

He closed his mouth.

"I've watched you walk out of every room I came into for six years."

I breathed.

"I told myself you didn't like me. I told myself that was fine, because Colt was nice to me."

"Colt was easy," I said. "When he asked, I said yes because I thought it would make the ache stop."

"What ache?" Dane said. His voice was rough.

"The one that started the day I turned eighteen.

"You looked at me across the lodge, and then you left."

For a long moment, there was only the rain.

"I never loved him," I said.

"I never lied to you about that, because you never asked."

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