Page 108 of Aftermath
“I don’t need this anymore,” he said and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin.
I hurried forward and wrapped my arms around him. It took him by surprise, but he embraced me quickly.
Together, we’d grown.We’d fought our pasts and faced our mistakes head on. If anyone deserved this accomplishment, it was Stone.
My heart swelled for him.
“I’m proud of you,” I said, pressed tightly to him.
“I’m proud of you too,” he whispered back.
* * *
“I know it’s not fair of me to ask, but are you sure you can’t come to Quantico?” he asked, grabbing his bags and stacking them near the front door.
My chest ached as I tried to get a deep breath, holding back tears. Each time I tried to revisit the idea, I knew I couldn’t. I had thought it over every day since the beach.
“Francis expects me back at the museum soon,” I said, trying to hold it together. “I just started working my way up there. I can’t leave yet.”
He nodded, understanding, but it still broke me inside. To see that hopeful glance disappear as fast as it came was like ripping my heart physically out of my chest.
I could see the same sadness I felt in his features, and it only made my heart hurt more.
“I wish Virginia wasn’t so far away.”
“You’re welcome to visit anytime,” he offered.
When I attempted to force Stone into letting me help with the case, I never expected our goodbye to be this painful. Everything in me wanted to go with him, to save what we found these past weeks, but I knew I couldn’t.
I still had a life in Briarport.
My brother would become a father in only a few months, my job was waiting for me, and this was the first time I felt safety in my town.
Stone reached out, pulling me in quickly. I felt the tears escape my eyes, and as my face pressed to his chest, the little drops soaked into his white button down.
“Are you sure you have to go back?” I asked, trying to hide the shaking in my voice but failing miserably.
“I directly disobeyed orders. I have to go back and face whatever disciplinary action Grey has waiting for me,” he said with a defeated breath.
One of his hands intertwined in my curls as he held my head gently against him. I could hear his heart beat, the steady rhythm helping me chase away the tears.
“You’ll be okay,“ he promised. “This won’t be goodbye forever.”
25
STONE
“Let me cook you dinner,”I offered Len after a few hours back at the rental house.
She’d brought in a new bouquet of daisies from outside and threw out the dying ones on the counter.
‘You’re just trying to bribe me to forget you didn’t tell me you arrested Ethan,” she said, pointing the new daisies at me accusingly before placing them in the vase.
“Is it working?” I dared to ask.
She narrowed her eyes dramatically enough that I knew she wasn’t actually angry.“We’ll see.”
That wouldn’t do.
