Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide
Chapter 10 - Aubree

Gwen took Aubree back to her house in the woods on Monday evening.

After the weekend, life went back to normal for Dan. He went back to work Monday morning and while he was working, Aubree packed all her belongings into Gwen’s car and Gwen waited for her in the parking lot.

Aubree prepared lasagna for him—one of his favorites—so he’d have something to eat that was quick and easy to warm up. Other than that, she forced herself to come clean when he came home.

She watched the scenery fly by in a blur of browns and greens as she stared numbly out the window while Gwen drove her car.

A melancholy song came on the radio, drawing her eyes to close and her thoughts to drift back to Dan’s return home from work an hour ago.

She sat on the couch, her head in her hands, when the door opened and Dan stepped in. Pulling herself up, she looked forward, unable to bring herself to meet his gaze.

The tension in the air thickened as he shifted his weight from his right foot to his left.

“Bree?” There, in his voice, was the uncertainty. The confusion. The fear.

The day before mirrored the events of Saturday night and the shift was evident in the air. He knew something was up. Something was going on within her when she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Couldn’t bring herself to speak to him. Every time she had tried, her throat would close up and tears would sting her eyes as her mind threw hateful words in her face.

He looked so lost. Every time he had tried to comfort her, she would push him away and shut him out. He didn’t know what to do and what to make of her tears and silence.

This time, when he came home from work, she sat up straight, rigid, and although she couldn’t look him in the eye, her body language spoke for her.

He hesitated before joining her on the couch and loosely wrapped his arm around her waist.

She lowered her gaze and pulled away from him.

It was like a slap in the face, and he recoiled. “Bree?”

She sucked in a haggard breath and choked on the emotions creeping up her throat. “I’m... I’m sorry, Dan. I... I can’t keep doing this to you...” Her voice shook; the pitch and timbre of it warbled with the war of words. “I can’t keep pretending like nothing has changed... when everything has changed.”

She could feel the confession unfurling from within her and taking shape as the words tumbled from her mouth.

Dan buried his face in his hands while she continued.

“It’s not right... It’s not fair. You deserve so much more than I can give to you. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be loved and I can’t...”

He pulled himself up and gripped her arm. “Bree, stop.”

“I can’t give that to you anymore.”

“Don’t,” he pleaded.

But she had to say it.

She closed her eyes and hung her head. “I can’t marry you. I’m sorry.”

I’m so sorry.

Gwen changed the radio station when tears dripped down Aubree’s cheek. She searched through them, pausing a few seconds to listen before moving onto the next. In the end, she turned it off and silence filled the car.

Like the silence that fell between her and Dan after she broke his heart.

She took a deep breath before opening her eyes and standing up.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, as if that could make everything better.

Her purse had been sitting next to her on the couch. She slung it over her shoulder and took a step forward when Dan finally spoke.

“Did you ever love me?”

It was like a sludge hammer to the chest. She rocked on her heels as her heart and body quaked from the impact. She struggled to breathe, the weight of his words crushing her.

“You know I did,” she whispered. “I still do, but... I can’t... I never would have agreed...”

“Then why? What did I do wrong?”

Staring down at the floor, she felt like such a hypocrite when she uttered the old cliché, but it was true. “It’s not you. It’s me.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” His pain morphed into anger. “If you still love me, then you wouldn’t be doing this right now. You wouldn’t be trying to end things. When you love someone, you work through problems together.”

She rubbed her arms in shame. “I know that.”

“Then why the fuck are you running from this? We had an accident, something happened between you and that freak, but you won’t tell me a damn thing about it! What the fuck happened with him, Bree? Because whatever happened, we can talk about it. We can try to—”

“This isn’t about the accident.”

He paused, his voice laden with cautiousness. “What do you mean?”

Emotion blocked her throat, making it difficult for her to swallow.

While the accident had been caused by a vampire and vampires were after her and endangering Dan’s life, she couldn’t tell him about their existence. But she could tell him about Stone. He deserved to know about him to some degree.

Clutching her purse to her chest, she cradled it tightly as she avoided the eyes that pierced through her with accusation and hurt. The tremble in her voice made her stutter as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Th-There’s s-someone else...”

She expected him to get angry. She wanted him to get angry. She deserved it. She deserved every hate-filled word he could think of thrown in her face. Traitor. Bitch. Cheater. Slut. Skank. Whore. All of them and every one of them because no amount of anger from him was enough to quell the resentment she had for herself for betraying him.

Instead, he was silent.

And nothing was worse than silence.

Gwen’s voice cut through Aubree’s thoughts as they pulled onto a bumpy, gravel side road into the woods.

“Almost there.”

Aubree opened her eyes when she felt Gwen’s hand touch her arm.

“You can relax now. The hard part’s over. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Just take your time.”

Aubree inclined her head before looking back out the window. One day at a time, she told herself.

Pushing all thoughts of Dan to the back of her mind, she turned the radio back on and an upbeat song filled the vehicle. She focused her mind on the lyrics as she stared out the window to the thickening forest that surrounded them. Soon, they were pulling up to the house, and who should be waiting outside for them, but Stone?

Fear gripped her heart before she could stop it.

Would he be angry at her for taking so long?

But the moment Gwen parked the car and Aubree could see his eyes clearly, she saw only worry in those ocean blues and she scorned herself for even thinking that he’d be angry with her.

He told her to take as much time as she needed, anyway.

He didn’t even wait for her to get out of the car. While she unbuckled her seatbelt, he came around to her side, opened the door, and promptly pulled her out and wrapped her in his arms.

Her breath escaped her and when she caught it again, she was filled with his scent and her body relaxed into his. Burying her face into his chest, she closed her eyes and allowed his warmth to envelop her.

It felt amazing to be back in his arms. As her muscles unwound themselves, exhaustion from lack of sleep and emotional strain clouded her mind and weakened her knees. Her heart hummed bittersweetly within as his hand smoothed her hair.

He kissed the top of her head. “Never again.”

Without elaborating, he swiftly picked her up in his arms and cradled her to his chest and carried her into the house. She protested, informing him that she could walk, but he growled lowly from his chest.

“I want to carry you.”

Relenting, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “If you insist.”

“I do.”

A shadow of a grin tugged at her lips as her eyes prickled with tears as he began to climb the staircase.

She didn’t have to ask where he was taking her. There was no place else she’d rather be than his arms. Wrapped up with him in his bed was just a bonus.

He set her feet down on the floor so he could free up a hand and pull the thin, summer blanket from the bed. He picked her back up and laid her down on the bed and pulled the blanket over her. After closing the bedroom door, he crawled in next to her and wrapped her back up in his arms.

She snuggled into him and sighed with content as her eyelids grew heavy.

This was where she belonged.

“Stone?”

“Yes?”

“I’m home.”

Because “home” was never meant to be with Dan.