Page 113 of Honey Bee Hearts

“See?” I say. “Trent says I should still leave.”

“Traitor,” Colt snarls. “She’s far safer now than she would have ever been.”

A car starts pulling down the driveway in the distance and they all tense. We watch it silently as it pulls closer and rolls to a stop. A man climbs out.

“Fable Everhart?” he asks.

“That’s me,” I say with a smile. No one moves to help me with my bags, and I glance over at them. I walk over to the driver. . .

. . . and press a hundred dollars in his hand. “I’m sorry to make you come all the way out here. But I won’t be needing that ride after all.”

“What?” Rhett asks stupidly.

“But your bags are packed,” Gunnar chokes out.

“So I can move into the big house,” I laugh. “Mel already prepped a room for me. I’m not staying in the cabin if I’m staying.”

“Why?” Colt asks, his eyes wide.

“Jethro would never forgive me,” I say, smiling. “Now, are you gonna come give me a hug and tell me I made the right decision or you just gonna keep staring at me like I’ve grown a second head?”

He laughs and lunges for me, wrapping me in his arms and swinging me around. Rhett hugs the both of us, Gunnar joining in, until only Trent stands apart. They let me go and I face him with a soft smile.

“I know you think you’re bad,” I tell him. “I know you think you’d be saving me by sending me away, but what good is being safe if I won’t be happy without y’all?”

He swallows. “You don’t. . . You don’t have to love us. You don’t have to love me.”

“Well, it’s a bit late for that,” I say, opening my arms. “I already do, Trent Coldiron.”

He hesitates before slowly walking up to me. I wait patiently as he looks me over before slowly wrapping his arms around me, enveloping me in the biggest of bear hugs. He always makes me feel tiny in comparison.

“I’m glad you’re staying,” he whispers. “Even if I worry.”

I rub his back. “I know, but don’t worry.” I rub his chest where he’d tattooed the sword only this morning. “I have a sword, remember?”

He laughs and it lights up his entire face. He lifts me into his arms and carries me to the big house.

“You’re gonna pay for that cruel joke,” Gunnar warns as he grabs some of my bags.

“I thought you liked pranks?” I tease him.

He narrows his eyes and rushes to keep up even as Rhett and Colt grab the rest of my bags. I laugh all the way to the house and up the stairs.

I laugh until the laughs turn into moans.

Chapter 63

Fable

The mountains are capped with snow, but it’s not quite winter yet. It’s coming, and soon, the cows will be home, but until then, we prepare for the cold. We’d come up the mountains on a Sunday, when no one has to work.

“Are you sure about this?” Rhett asks as he stands beside me. “We don’t have to?—”

“I’ve never been surer about something in my life,” I answer. I look down at the urn cradled in my arms. “She would have wanted this. She would have wanted to be free.”

I’m dressed in a pretty dress, simple, but comfortable. The wind sweeps it around my knees, caressing me, making me feel as if I’m not alone. Beside me, Trent, Rhett, Gunnar, and Colt stand, all dressed in their button-down shirts and nicest jeans. Trent even wears his cowboy hat today instead of the ball cap he usually wears, but there’s a single smear of grease on the edge of it where he hadn’t caught it. When I’d woken up and asked them to come with me, they hadn’t hesitated.

We’d come to the place Rhett brought me to scream, the top of the Green River Basin. It feels like the best location, where she can travel far and wide, free as she’d always been in life.

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