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“Prissy?”
Bennett laughed outright. “Compared to you? Yes.”
“Every woman is prissy compared to me.”
Stopping in the shade of a brilliant-yellow aspen, Bennett tugged her hand and pulled it to his chest. “No woman compares to you.” His dark-blue eyes searched her face, unveiled love in his stare.
A delightful shiver tickled down Hazel’s spine. Along with a poke of guilt which jabbed her heart. She wanted him to look at her like this forever. And yet she’d rejected his proposal. Even Hazel could see the contradiction there.
Seeing it didn’t mean she could change it.
“I’m glad you came back,” she whispered.
“I don’t know why you were afraid I wouldn’t.”
Hazel blinked and then looked down at her booted feet. The weight of the past month—all her worry concerning this man—provoked a slurry of emotions she could not keep back. Tears threatened, rimming her eyelids with warm liquid. At their last parting, they had left things uncertain and strained between them, and then Bennett had been gone for longer than planned.
She ran her palm over his chest and gripped his coat. “I hurt you.”
“Yes.” A gentle hand slid along her jaw and lifted her face so that she would meet his steady gaze. “Did you believe that my love is so feeble that it would collapse?”
Hazel winced. Truth? Yes—but not because she thought that only of Bennett. She believed it basically of everyone. People turned their backs on others they claimed to love for far less than a rejected proposal. Love was but a passionate reaction to physical attraction and chemistry and need. That didn’t seem stable enough to endure through hard times.
Was that all love really was? Was that allherlove for Bennett was?
She wanted it to be more. Something strong and unmoving, like the ancient peaks of her home. An abiding thing that she could count on. But that type of dependability didn’t encompass people.
When people were involved, failure was certain.
“I aim to prove you wrong.” Bennett brushed a kiss across her mouth. “We will hurt each other sometimes. Disappoint each other other times. But good times or bad, Hazel, I’m not going to stop loving you.”
Hazel wanted to believe him for all that lofty idealism. But it seemed too glorious to grab on to. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
The pad of his thumb traced over her cheekbone. “I shouldn’t have proposed in that moment. That way. You were dealing with something really big with your brother, and it was impulsive of me to ask you right then.”
There was an implication in his apology that unsettled her. Like he believed that someday she would change her mind about marriage. It provoked an uprising of irritation.
And a hint of softening curiosity.
Mostly, though, irritation.
Hazel covered his hand with hers, not wishing to embark on yet another disagreement so near to the ceasefire of the other. Then she stepped back. “The kids are pretty far ahead of us.”
“How far does the trail go?”
“All the way to the Madison, if you want to walk that far. But that’s more than twenty miles. And there’s a bridge crossing that I don’t think you’d like them to do alone. Actually, I don’t think you’d like it at all.”
Bennett looked down the trail. “Why not?”
“It’s a narrow suspension bridge.” The cable-and-plank bridge spanned more than thirty feet of space, fifteen feet above the widest part of the creek. It was minimally maintained and not for those with a fear of heights or swaying crossings.
Bennett liked neither of those, and Hazel didn’t think they could trust the kids this soon. Particularly Nathan—though she’d quickly gained a soft spot for the fifteen-year-old boy. Everything about hisI don’t care about you or what you thinkvibe spoke a familiar story to her. One of a hurt, abandoned kid who had determined not to be exposed to that sort of pain anymore.
Nathan clearly fought to live on his own terms, and Bennett might be walking into a storm. Hazel doubted she could be much help to her boyfriend with that, but the least she could do was walk with him.
“Gemma.” Bennett’s call into the evening wilderness sent birds flitting from aspens and pines. “Nathan. Come on back. We’ll go find some supper.”
“Mama B said she’d buy Janie’s deep-dish pizza for everyone,” Hazel said. “She said to meet up at the café when we got hungry.”
