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I shuffle from underneath the car and stare back at the cabin, rain drenching all around me.
She can never leave me.
CHAPTER FIVE
Hannah
Coltreturnstothecabin a few minutes after stealing my breath. I’m still on high alert – what the fuck was all that about? He has snow smattered in his long hair, a deep scowl remerging on his face. He’s tugged the long, blond hair up in a rough ponytail and I feel my fingers reach for my lips as he storms across the room, disappears up a dark hallway and slams a door shut.
The cabin shakes and, just like the back door, the force of his slam sends the old timber door falling off its hinges.
“I’ll fucking fix it!” Colt shouts from behind the wall somewhere.
I can’t help but smile as the sound of a shower tinkers through the crooked door.
What the hell was that? That kiss? That outburst.
Did he really come up here to escape me? Did he leave Falls Creek behind because I was so confused that night that I just ran?
That kiss meant everything to me. I haven’t thought about it much, but only because I’ve trained my brain to forget everything that Colt Brander ever did for me.
I should be pleased.
He has everything up here. He seems happy, though it goes without saying, he’schanged.I couldn’t even recognize him through the weathered tone in his skin. He’s bulkier, bigger and I’m pretty sure he’s trying to grow a beard to match the brawny man look he’s got going on.
And this cabin… wow.
It’s simply gorgeous. Homey. Rustic. It’s perfectly natural, nothing fake and no big brand names to be seen. I can see myself curling up by the fire, devouring a book with actual pages that are dirty on the edges from being read over and over again.
The entire cabin is purely authentic, just like the man who owns it.
As I feel my belly squirm with a gooey happiness, I can pinpoint the moment I lost Colt from my life. Maybe he’s right… Maybe I should never have kissed him that night? He left soon after I stopped returning his calls. And that’s right about when I started putting on weight. It’s when I began locking myself away, cutting ties with old friends and blocking out the world.
The long nights chatting on the phone were gone. Listening and laughing until the sun set and my parents screamed at me to get off the phone. Colt made me smile in a way that no one else ever could.
And then one day… it was all gone.
My teenage years were spent with Colt, and they were the happiest moments of my life.
But that kiss scared me. If I went through with whatever it was that my heart was promising, I risked losing the one thing that I had treasured. The one thing that had treasuredmeand been there no matter what.
Having Colt’s heart wasn’t an option because losing him would hurt too much.
I trudge around the cabin, taking in the rough interior as the noise of the shower teases me.He’s naked in there, you know…My finger drags across the timber wall, the texture surprisingly smooth as my lips burn. Old rusty nails hang from the timber in places, and if I was looking hard enough, I’m sure I would find at least ten faults within the structure without leaving the living area.
Somehow, I see past it all.
It’s so beautiful.
“We should get started on that checklist,” Colt’s deep voice bellows from behind me.
I turn and the color must drain from my face when I see him standing there, shirtless with just a towel around his waist. “Uh, uh, yes...”
I’m momentarily dumbstruck. Unable to move.
I think my brain is trying to ignore the pebbles of water sliding down his bare chest. Gliding across his well-defined muscles as they dip beneath the dark hair trailing down and disappearing below the towel.
I have to squeeze my eyes shut just so I stop staring.
