Chapter 9: The Honey

June's POV

Cade saw me in the doorway, and the smile fell off his face.

"June," he said. "How long have you been standing there?"

I didn't answer.

The loaf of bread slid out of my arms and hit the straw.

"Get out," Lachlan said.

His voice was very quiet, and Cade moved.

He went past me with his bandaged hand tucked against his chest and his eyes down.

At the door he looked back once, and I saw him decide to smile again.

Then he was gone.

The barn went still.

I stood in the straw and looked at Lachlan.

His nephew had just told him, in front of me, that I had been a lock on his door.

"You knew," I said.

"I knew about the bond."

"For three years."

"Since the harvest supper." He took a step toward me and stopped.

"I didn't know he knew. I swear that on my mother. I thought it was chance."

"You thought it was chance that he proposed to me a week later."

"I thought you loved him."

His voice cracked on the last word.

I laughed.

It was an ugly sound.

"I did love him," I said. "That's the stupid part."

"I loved him so much I let his mother hand me a drink every morning."

"June."

"You were there." My voice rose. "You were at that table every Sunday for three years."

"I know."

"Every Sunday I looked down that table and waited for you to say something."

"Everyone laughed. And you sat there and drank your coffee."

"June."

"You never said a word. Not once. You never told him to stop."

He closed his eyes.

"I could have stopped him with one sentence," I said. "And you walked out of the room instead."

"Yes."

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