Page 35 of Silver Brewer

He quickly peers over at me and then away without an answer. What’s happening?

“Explain to me what happened here?” I bite my lips, chewing at the tender skin as thoughts ramble through my head. Did he plan all this? Did he hope to seduce me? What am I missing?

“James fired a gun, and I got us out of there.”

“Not James,” I snap, my irritation growing although I’m not certain what I’m irritated about.

Processing: Giant drove up here. He set up camp. He knew I’d show. Did he set me up?

“Was this a game to you?” The thought surprises me, but I need to ask.

“What do you mean?”

“You brought me up here, but did you lead me on? I thought we were without amenities or transportation, and it was here all along. What were you doing?” Withholding running water and electricity feels like the least of my issues, though. He sighs and swipes at his hair again, but he isn’t offering an answer. In fact, he sheepishly avoids looking back at me, and his jaw clenches, reminding me of our second meeting when he proposed the camping trip.

“You tricked me into going.” But did he? I’m the one who went to his cabin. I’m the one who went up this mountain without coercion. What was I thinking? The land. I wanted the land, but was that really the only reason? my heart whispers.

“I did no such thing,” he snaps, side-eyeing me. “You came willingly.”

Oh, I came all right. Six, seven times in three nights.

Three nights. That’s how long I think you’ll last before the land breaks you.

He was so wrong. Three nights and he broke me because my foolish heart started to believe it was more, it was something else.

His cabin comes into view in the distance. His cabin. The place he inherited from his pap. On the land he isn’t going to sell. My gut realizes it although my heart doesn’t want to accept it. What was all this about then? Why did we play this game?

“Three nights,” I whisper. “You lied to me.” The words feel thick and heavy, and I’m shocked by the underlying truth. My body feels dirty, and it’s not from the grit mixed in my hair or the mud splattered on my shirt. “Why would you lie to me?”

Again, he doesn’t speak. He doesn’t defend himself. Instead, he slows the truck, pulling up to the cabin and shifting into park.

“Answer me,” I bark, and he flinches. His eyes close, and his knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.

“I’m not giving you the land.” This is no longer an acceptable answer or even my question.

“Meaning?”

“I had no intention to sell. Ever.”

Ever. The word echoes through my hollow heart.

I didn’t plan to marry you, Letty. Ever. Hudson’s admission pales compared to Giant’s. I feel my dreams crumble and filter through the wind like paper torn to shreds and tossed into the air. Giant’s rejection feels like something more, something deeper. It feels so much worse than Hudson’s. But why? I hardly know this man. Admittedly, our current situation proves I knew less than I thought.

“Then what was this all about?” Three nights. Sleeping with him, enjoying him, falling for him. I glare at Giant, cursing him in my head as the stranger he is, and aching for him as something more in my heart.

His eerie silence is my answer.

“I see.” I slowly nod even though I don’t see. I don’t understand anything. “Foregone conclusion, wasn’t I? You challenged me, and I accepted. And for what? For sex?”

What did he want from this arrangement?

“It wasn’t just sex,” Giant mumbles, but I dismiss the statement as any emotion is absent.

“Did you do it to make me feel…stupid? City girl and mountain man, or something like that?” But that’s not what I felt. Used. Betrayed. Hurt. So very hurt. But not stupid.

I nod as if he spoke, as if he said something, anything to contradict me and give me hope I wasn’t a joke. “Did you think if I slept with you, I’d forget the land?” Then another question dawns. “Or do you think I slept with you to get the land? To make the deal?”

He turns on me, his eyes narrow and dark. “Didn’t you? You with your eager eyes and your pert smile, hoping to butter me up and take this from me. Telling me everything has a price. Well, this doesn’t.” He waves a hand toward the windshield and then slams it against his chest. I don’t understand the motion and absentmindedly look at the cabin I’ll never enter.