AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isle of Canna, Scotland, U.K.
I brought the ax over my head and swung down. The log split in two perfect halves. I threw each half onto the pile and grabbed another one. When it was in place, I braced my feet and swung. The blade slid through the wood, breaking it apart.
Sweat rolled along my temples, even in the cold afternoon air. I liked chopping wood. I liked the repetitive motion, the mindless task, and the never-ending supply of logs. And it would help strengthen my right arm, which had come out of the cast only last week.
I stopped to drink some water, while the sheep bleated softly in the distance. There were no other sounds. Stretches of days went by where I didn’t speak to another human being. It was perfect.
There were the memories, of course. He was everywhere here, from the bedsheets I couldn’t bring myself to change, to the pans he cooked with to make us dinner. The poetry he read at night. Those were the hardest, the little things that constantly reminded me of him.
But they were soothing in a strange way, too. Like I still had a small piece of him here with me.
It was pathetic. He didn’t want me. I wasn’t sure why I was clinging to the idea of him. I needed to let him go.
Mrs. Campbell said it would eventually get easier. That one day I would wake up and not be haunted by him. I couldn’t wait. Someday I’d hardly remember him at all.
Shutting off my brain, I went back to chopping wood. I focused on the ax in my hand, the screaming muscles in my arms. Log after log split apart. The stack grew higher.
The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a lone figure walking around the side of the farmhouse. A man with his head down. His coat was too thin for this sort of weather, which meant he wasn’t a local.
Then he looked up. That face. I knew that face. I dreamt about it every night.
Was he really here? Wait, why was he here?
Panting, I set the ax down and wiped my forehead with my sleeve. I hadn’t expected to ever see him again, let alone here. How had he known where to find me? I’d been careful to cover my tracks and Mrs. Campbell wouldn’t have mentioned it to a soul.
I waited as he approached. I soaked in the familiar shift of his shoulders. And the way the light brought out the flecks of gold in his dark hair. His straight nose, his rugged chin. He was perfect, a gorgeous angel, and I ached from missing him.
It made me angry. I was tired of feeling this way. Tired of wanting someone I couldn’t have. Tired of the guilt. I had bared my heart and soul to this man and he’d rejected me. So, what was this? He needed to beat up on me some more?
Giulio stopped and leaned against the side of the house, well out of reach. He stared at me. “I don’t want it.”
I frowned. What was he talking about? Maybe this was a dream. Or a nightmare.
When I didn’t respond, his eyebrows pulled together. “Did you hear me?”
“Why the fuck are you here?”
He blinked twice, probably surprised by my tone, but I didn’t care. I’d come to this island to be alone.
“Hello to you, too, Alessio.”
“Answer the question.”
Straightening, he folded his arms across his chest. I tried not to notice how good he looked. “I don’t want your money.”
Ah. So that was why he was here. Of course. My stomach sank as if I’d swallowed a stone. “That is too bad, because I am not taking it back.”
“Well, I don’t want it. If you are trying to buy your way back into my life, you’re wasting your time.”
I shifted the ax handle to my other hand and ground my molars together. Why was he telling me things I already knew? “I am not trying to buy anything. I am trying to help you, stronzo. Make amends.”
“Amends? It’s millions of Euros. Ma che cazzo, Alessio?”
That money represented something terrible to me. Until Giulio came along, I had no allegiances, no ties. I’d been selfish, offering myself up to the highest bidder and that money was the result. And earning it had cost me the one person I’d cared about most. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s more than nothing,” Giulio said. “And I don’t need it.”
“Then give it away.”
