I Was Never One of Them novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Something Else

I believed him before I reached the lake road.

I had believed him, I think, since the creek.

I parked beside the cabin at eleven at night.

The porch light was on.

He opened the door before I knocked, in a gray T-shirt and old jeans, barefoot, with the lamp behind him.

He looked at my face and understood.

"Whitney," he said.

"She slipped. She did not mean to."

"And you believe a drunk woman in an elevator?"

"I believe you." My voice was steady. "I believed you in the courthouse lot. I was just too scared to say so."

He stood very still.

"Hazel. Don't do this tonight because you're angry at them."

"I am angry at them."

"Then go home."

"I'm angry at you too."

I stepped inside and shut the door behind me.

"You let me hate you for eight years."

"I know."

"You let me write that letter, and you sat there while they read it out."

"I did."

"I called you a coward."

"I deserved it."

"You didn't."

"I did."

His eyes were bright and wrecked.

"I let a dead man's sister hate the wrong man, and I stood in a room and let her."

"Rhys."

"There's nothing in that you can forgive."

"I'm not here to forgive you."

"Good."

"I'm here because I want you."

The stove ticked.

He did not breathe.

"I told you in this room that one kiss didn't make me forgive you," I said.

"It doesn't."

"I know."

"This isn't forgiveness. This is the other thing."

"Hazel."

"Tell me you don't want it."

"I want it."

He said it, low and ragged.

"I have wanted it since you walked out of that lodge in the rain."

"With my mother's veil?"

"Against your chest."

I closed the distance in two steps.

I put my palms on his chest and pushed him backward until his calves hit the edge of the bed.

He sat.

I stood between his knees and took his face in my hands, and for a moment we only looked at each other.

Then I kissed him.

It was nothing like the first time.

It was slow and open and deep, and it tasted of coffee and salt.

His hands rose to my waist and stayed there, shaking.

"You can touch me," I said into his mouth.

"I know."

"Then do."

He made a rough sound and dragged me down onto his lap.

My knees sank into the blanket on either side of his hips.

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