“God, why won’t you listen? You always have. Ben?—”
“Stop right there.” He held up his hand as Flame took a few steps backward, tossing her head like she was as mad as Ben. “We’ve done talked ourselves blue. You don’t want to marry me. Fine. I don’t need to hear you say it twice.”
“That’s not what I?—”
“Yes, Hannah, it is.” He drilled her with a hurt, angry look as he slapped his thigh. “Keep the ring. I sure don’t need it. I’ve poured my heart out to you, but if you want to throw that away, fine.”
“Ben, stop this.” She leaned farther out the window, holding on to the sill so she wouldn’t pitch forward. “I love you. Iwantto marry you. In a year. Or today, as long as you realize I still need to go to Scotland. Ben, I am not rejecting you.”
He turned Flame in a circle and looked over his shoulder, pain carved into the hard angles of his rugged face. “Aren’t you? From where I’m sitting, you might as well have tossed aside everything we’ve ever been to each other.”
With that, he kicked Flame into a canter and disappeared from view. She stared after him, clutching the ring.What the actual hell? I knew he was stubborn, but what was that?
Anotherclip-clopof horse hooves sounded. Will came around the corner of the house from where he must have been waiting and tipped back his tan cowboy hat. “I’ll keep talking to him, Hannah.”
“Why won’t he listen?”
His brother hung forward, heavy in the saddle, looking as exhausted as she. “I shared a womb with him, and I can’t tell you.”
She swiped at the tears falling from her cheeks. Would Ben change his mind once she was gone? “Keep trying to beatsome sense into him, will you? But mostly, take care of him for me, Will.”
“You know it…as much as he’ll let me.” He laid his finger to his cowboy hat. “Take good care of yourself.”
He’d been her friend as much growing up as Ben had, until she and Ben had become more. “You too. Tell Ben…that I love him. Better yet, carve it into his creaky old saddle like he did our names on Big Red. Can I give you the ring?”
“You best keep it.” He held up his hand and started backing away on his buttermilk roan. “Let those stars guide you back home to us.”
She watched him ride off. Sinking against the window, she slid down the wall onto the floor, putting her knees up and laying her head on them, fighting tears.How is it possible that after all their years together, Ben can walk away so easily?
Hannah truly hadn’t expected to be heading to Scotland with a shattered heart, but now…there was no other choice.
Ben McAllister just made sure of that.
THE BREAKING
How?
After everything…
After all they’d been…
Ben pulled up at the end of the street and glanced back at the two-story white house.Just one last glimpse of her. Please.
Because if she was leaving, she was leaving for good. She’d always had big dreams, ones he’d done his best to weave himself into.
Being apart during college had worried him. Despite talking every day and meeting halfway as often as they could, he’d felt like the gap between them making a home in Sanctuary Springs was widening every year. When she’d decided against medical school, he’d been happy he didn’t have to disguise his relief. He’d gone and searched for weeks for the perfect ring.
But then she’d discovered this super competitive herbalist scholarship halfway across the world with some bigwig… Not wanting to hurt her, he hadn’t told her he was against it or that he thought her odds were slim to none.
But she’d won it and thought he’d love to go on one of the adventures they’d talked about, and for a while, he’d tried toenvision going as she’d made all the preparations, full steam ahead like usual.
Those adventures had been happy musings with her hand in his under Big Red. He’d thought she understood the life of a rancher. They couldn’t gallivant off to places like Scotland. They had animals to feed and chores to do. Seeing how dreaming never hurt anyone, he’d played along.
Maybe he’d been lying to himself about them being able to make a home together.
“I love you. I want to marry you. In a year. Or today, as long as you realize I still need to go to Scotland.”
His mama had said similar words about how much she’d loved him and how she’d return when she left as he was starting second grade.
