Page 23 of Tangled Up In You
Corbin was grieving over his loss and just trying to make sense of what happened with us… and instead of helping him, I’d wounded him deeper. Giving him answers meant I’d be opening myself up to his reaction, and I didn’t know if I was ready for it.
Some secrets were better kept in the past.
Chapter 8
Corbin
The morning was cold despite the sun shining down on me. I wore sweatpants, a long sleeved shirt and a thick jacket over it, plus gloves and a beanie covering my ears, and I was still freezing my balls off.
Running helped me think, though, and I had a lot on my mind.
Hunter was definitely not the same person he used to be. People changed as they grew up, but I guess I’d fooled myself into thinking he’d be the same sweet guy who used to nerd out about classic literature one moment and then kiss me like there was no tomorrow the next.
Now, he was detached and unreadable.
There were the occasional glimpses of the Hunter I once knew, but they faded almost as quickly as they appeared.
I’d jogged that same road so many times that I still remembered it all those years later. The curve to the right once I got to the corner with the oak tree, the straight and narrow path after that, followed by another right turn that brought me back around to the entrance of Grandpa’s land. The familiarity of it allowed me to think about other things. But as Hunter went through my head—and the cold look in his eyes from a few nights ago—I decided that concentrating on the path was healthier.
A while later, I got back to the house, stripped out of my jogging clothes, and took a hot shower. I stayed in there longer than usual, breathing in the steam and letting the water soothe my muscles.
What the hell am I going to do?
Grandpa had left everything to me. Since he willed me his estate and I was the only beneficiary, it didn’t have to go through probate court and it shouldn’t take too long for everything to be finalized. Maybe a month or two. That’s where I struggled.
I had my own life in Kansas City and had no intention of moving, but I didn’t want the house to just sit there and rot with no one living in it.
The idea of selling it hurt. My whole childhood was in that house: the marks Grandpa had made on the wall as I grew taller, the fence we’d built in the backyard, and the garden I’d helped him plant throughout the years.
Having a stranger move in and take over didn’t sit right with me. And I knew Gramps wouldn’t have liked that either.
Once my skin began turning bright pink, I shut off the shower and got out. I pulled on another pair of sweats before going downstairs and starting a pot of coffee. It’d been about a week since I’d arrived in Willow and it still felt strange being there without Grandpa. I half-expected him to walk around the corner any moment and smile before talking about what he was going to cook that day.
My phone rang, and I jolted, almost spilling my coffee down my chest. Everything was so quiet out there.
“Hey, Austin,” I answered once seeing the caller ID.
“Hey, man,” he said. “You doing okay?”
I had called him the day after I got there to tell him about what happened, but hadn’t talked to him since.
“Yeah. It’s just hard to wrap my head around sometimes.” I sat down at the kitchen table and gazed into the back field. “I wonder if it’ll ever get easier.”
“It will,” he responded in a hopeful tone. “When my cousin died a few years ago, I was the same way. Feeling kinda lost and often times numb. But it eventually passes. The loss still hurts, but it gets easier to cope with it.”
“How are things with you?” I asked, needing a distraction from my own problems. “Have you proposed to Beth yet?”
Austin chuckled. “Um, no. Not yet. Shit, it’s a lot harder than I thought it’d be. Like, I love her, and I know she feels the same. But I want it to be perfect and something she’ll always remember.”
“I’m not an expert on the matter, but you can’t just keep waiting for what you think is theperfectmoment. It’ll be special to her because it’s coming from you. Don’t overthink it.”
“So, I should just stick the ring in the middle of a pizza and give it to her?” he asked, and I didn’t have to see his face to know he was full of shit. “That’ll be special.”
“Definitely memorable,” I said before taking another drink of my coffee. “Thanks for checking up on me.”
“Anytime, Taylor. Oh, hey, babe!” I was confused for a moment, until I heard Beth’s voice in the background. She must’ve just walked in. He then said to me, “I’ll talk to you later, man.”
“Okay. Later.”
