Page 10 of The Stone Family Warrior

Chapter 2

Liberty hadn’t been expecting to run into Trent Stone today, nor had she expected that she’d be driving him toward his old house. The day had gone off the rails ever since she’d overheard all the chanting and witnessed the fight between him and Hunter. The fight hadn’t surprised her. He and Hunter were always at each other’s sides, and they’d constantly picked on one another as they’d grown up. Plus, the Stone family had always fascinated her in general. They would roll into town every summer, and they were magnetic. It was hard to stay away from them. What she really didn’t expect to do was be this attracted to him still. No, she couldn’t be.

Trent was chanting some numbers as he stared out the window, so she didn’t have to force a conversation with him. Her thoughts carried her down memory lane. She remembered the way she and Cheryse had played with both brothers. She and Cheryse had been good friends—or at least she’d thought they’d been good friends. Then, when Liberty had reached out after returning from Germany, Cheryse had never responded. When Liberty’s grandmother had told her that Cheryse had gotten married, it’d hurt her badly not to be invited to the wedding. It still stabbed at that tender part in her chest, knowing that she hadn’t known Cheryse had even gotten divorced.

Before her husband had passed last year, he’d always told her that thinking about the past never served anyone. Which was funny, because he was a history teacher.

Will.Guilt and pain always assaulted her when she thought of him. The details of the accident were always intertwined in the memories; the sound of Will yelling out to her, the sound of her child crying, the sound of her own cries trapped in her throat until the firefighters got there and removed her from the twisted metal.

She shook her head, trying to erase all the bad memories. She needed to ground herself. That’s what her therapist had told her: living in the moment would help her be functional again.

“You okay?” Trent asked.

She glanced at the behemoth of a man, drinking in his bare chest and admiring muscles that were the size of … Sheesh, the man was built. “Fine,” she said. She needed to drop him off and get away from all of the questions she could see in his eyes. Questions she’d been good at avoiding the past year.

“You sure?”

Focus. “You’re the one chanting numbers, so don’t worry about me.”

“True.”

Liberty blew out a breath. There had been a hollowness as vast as the Grand Canyon inside her for the past year. The gap was palpable. She’d forced herself to get up, go to school, and teach the kids. But that was it. Most days she went home and stared at the walls for hours while lying in bed. She often would hear the ghost of her husband’s voice.

Trent flipped on the radio. She would have been annoyed, but it was nice to have noise between them. She didn’t want to think about Trent Stone. She’d read up on the recent hunts for the conquistador’s gold and the Stones. It was hard to miss. Growing up, they’d all searched for the treasure. It had been one of the things that the Stone family made fun for all the teenagers. She pulled into the inn’s driveway.

Hunter was carrying a bag to a truck in the driveway.

“Where’re you going?” Trent asked, getting out of her car.

“Got spun up on an opp,” Hunter called out. “Gotta go.”

Trent waved him over. “Come say hi to Liberty Grey.”

She waved.

Trent glanced her way, then back to Hunter. “Her last name is Hamilton now. She was spying on us up there.”

She rolled her eyes, but got out of the car. “Whatever.”

Hunter casually jogged over to the car, his grin wide. “Liberty?” he exclaimed in delight. “Give me a hug.” He seized her in a bear hug. “Lib!”

It felt good to be crushed against him. She squeaked happily, loving that the new version of Hunter was just as handsome as the version of Trent. Of course, she’d fallen for Trent way back when, but she’d always been friends with Hunter. She had been pretty sure one of them would marry Cheryse.

Hunter pulled back and asked, “How are you?”

“Good.” She always said she was good, no matter how many times people at her school had asked her how she was doing.

Hunter’s face turned somber. He glanced back and forth between her and Trent. “You got stuck bringing home this idiot, huh?”

She winked at Trent. “The babe slayer got a ride.”

Hunter laughed. “Yes, the nick name will go on forever.”

Trent glared at both of them. “Don’t even.”

They both burst out laughing, again. To her surprise, she liked laughing, it made her feel young again. Her heart raced, and she didn’t know how she’d suddenly turned back into a teenager.

Hunter put his hand in the air and gave her a high five. “That was good.” He hugged her again. “Wish I could chat. I gotta go. Duty calls.”

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