“I know that, too.”
Silence slithered between us, letting her tears fall and regret ice over my temper, until we both stood drained and empty with no place else to go.
Finally, I sighed. “I knew keeping you would be full of complications. I lived an almost daily battle when you were young not to hurt you and an even bigger war as you grew older. I’ve leaned on you so much. I’ve taken all you’ve had to give. And I’ve given you the illusion that what we share is normal. That our closeness is what others have when it’s not.” I looked at her, wanting to burn her with the truth. “I’ve never had anyone. I had no love until you taught me what it was, and even as I slowly learned the opposite of hate, I’ve known all along that love would end up hurting me the most.” I laughed sadly. “I was right.”
Her spine rolled, letting my words whip her.
I breathed hard, completely drained and ready to leave this place, to leave behind these harsh truths and put everything back into the dark where it belonged. “Come on,” I whispered, “I’ll take you home.”
Her eyes flicked to mine with blue surprise beneath black remorse. “How can we go back? I thought Cassie called the police.”
I shoved my hands into my back pockets, adjusting the wad of cash stored in my waistband. “I spoke to them. They didn’t call anyone. You’ll stay with them.”
“But…what about you?”
“I can’t go back. Not anymore.”
“No!” Her cheeks dotted with urgency. “I’m not going back without you.”
“You have no choice.”
“I do. I do have a choice!”
Her anger ignited mine all over again. “Like you had a choice when you kissed me?”
Her lips twisted, and her beautiful face warred with letting me remind her of her mistakes and fighting for forgiveness. “I said I was sorry.”
“It’s not fucking good enough. You should never have been so stupid!”
“I’ll never do it again.”
“Also not good enough. How can I ever trust you?”
“You can. You can trust me.”
I shook my head sadly. “I thought I could. And I did. I trusted you with my life.”
“And I trust you with mine.” She wrung her fingers, twisting and tugging. Her blue eyes darkened as some sort of resolution shoved aside her despair. “I know things will be strained between us for a while. I get that. And I also get that I’m a danger to you—that I did something outside of your control. I also get how wrong it was, and that to outsiders, it will never be permitted.”
“Not just to outsiders,” I snapped. “I will never permit such things. Ever. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Say you understand why it will never happen again.”
“Because we’re family.”
My heart pounded at the word. For a second, I wished she wasn’t family. I wished we’d never met, so this lacerating torture would never find me. But then, the thought of living in a world where I didn’t have Della…
Fuck.
I’d rather be dead.
But that was my future now. I had to leave her behind. I had to walk away. She had somewhere to go home to, and I did not. Our lives were about to go in separate directions. I would miss her with every tormented heartbeat, but I would rather stay away if I was the reason for her confusion.
“Family don’t hurt each other,” I managed to say even though I almost choked on the lie. My own family had traded me for dollars. Perhaps that was why I’d failed Della? I had no decent role models of my own.
Della tucked unruly hair behind her ear as she stood straighter. “Can I say something?”
I narrowed my eyes warily.
When I didn’t give permission, she ploughed on anyway, “I kissed you—”
“Stop.” I cringed, falling back a step.
Before I could interrupt her with another scathing telling off, she added, “I shouldn’t have done it, Ren. I know that. I’ve learned that lesson, and believe me, I know it will never happen again. And, if I could do it all over again, obviously, I would never have done it…but I did do it. It happened. I can’t undo it. I can’t change it. And…well, I’m glad I did it.”
My mouth hung open in disgusted shock. “What did you say?”
“I said I’m glad I kissed you.” Her tears dried up, and every readable emotion on her face vanished beneath a cool veneer.
I fumbled with the change in her, hating the wall between us, cursing the sudden opaqueness I couldn’t see behind. “What the hell has gotten into you? First, you do something you know is wrong and then you take back any apology—”
“I didn’t say I’m not still sorry,” she grumbled. “I said I’m glad it happened.”
I spread my hands in surrender. “Please enlighten me because you’ve successfully confused the shit out of me.”
Once again, she flinched at my cursing, but the blank shield on her face stopped me from reading anything else.
Standing tall and kissed by moonlight, she said, “I don’t regret it because it gave me all the lessons you just mentioned.”
“I-I still don’t understand.”
She sighed as if it cost her to explain. “You asked me if I knew the difference between platonic love and romantic. I thought I did. I’ve spoken to Cassie about her boyfriends. I know how sex works and what desire is. But learning theory is different to actual experiences.”
She sucked in a breath, looking to the side as if to smooth out her tale with a script hidden from view. “In class, my teachers always encouraged us to learn with first-hand knowledge. They don’t just let us read the textbook. They make us do stuff. Just like you do. You explained how to drive the tractor but until you let me change the gears and operate the thing, I didn’t know what you meant.”
Her argument was too well thought out. Too rehearsed. Too understandable. I hated that my hackles faded under a logical explanation.
“Love isn’t the same as driving a tractor, Della.”
“But don’t you see?” She stepped closer. “It’s exactly like that.”
I schooled myself not to move, not to run as her body heat touched mine.
She looked up into my eyes. “I wanted to know the difference. And now, I do. I know you are my friend and my family. That kiss proved it. I felt nothing but warm love like I always do for you. There was nothing special from that kiss to any other we’ve shared over the years. I’ve kissed you on the lips before. Just like you’ve kissed me. Those weren’t big deals, and this shouldn’t be either.”
Her voice sped up as if her carefully thought-out debate had reached the end, but she wasn’t quite finished with convincing me. “I know the difference, Ren. And I know things are gonna be strange, but they’ll go back to the way things were because nothing has changed. I promise. I’m still Della, and you’re still Ren. I’m growing up now, and soon, you won’t have to worry so much about me. I won’t do anything bad, and I’ll be on my best behaviour. You’ll see. Just please…please…don’t send me back to Cherry River if you’re not coming. I know I made you mad, but I don’t want to live with Cassie and Liam on my own. I want…I want to come with you. Please. Please say you’ll forgive me, and we’ll stay together.”
Her chin tipped down as a glimpse of tangled things on her face hinted that her deliverance cost her. That there were other things. Deeper things. Scarier things inside her that she’d hidden.
The fact that she was old enough to be complex and have the ability to shield and reveal rather than blurt everything made wariness fill my blood.
What was she hiding?
What wasn’t she saying?
I didn’t trust her.
Not anymore.
Even if every part of me agreed with her that we’d been close in the past and affectionate in our actions, and those hadn’t filled me with terror. Even if every inch howled at the thought of walking away when I truly didn’t want that.
I wanted to stay with her.
>
I never wanted to say goodbye.
“This is too hard.” I scrubbed my face with my hands. My stomach growled for the hundredth time, reminding me that making life-changing decisions with no food normally always led to bad ones.
Della stayed silent as if knowing I was in the middle of a seesaw. A lean in either direction, and the choice would crash to the ground.
The forest stayed silent and hushed. No creatures moved. No leaves rustled. We were utterly alone—away from judgment and history and the Wilsons who knew far too much about us.
This mistake was between Della and me, and, hopefully, with her promise never to do it again and my vow to make sure it never did, we could eventually find our way back to normal.
We could find another place to call home.
“What about school?” I asked quietly.
Just that one question showed her where my mind was. That I’d already come to terms with leaving. That I’d already agreed to take her with me.
She barrelled into me again, squeezing me tight. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Her breath heated my t-shirt and chest.
I patted her shoulders awkwardly, prying her off me to look into her face.
The innocent girl was back.
The veiled mask was gone.
If she had any secrets, they’d sank far inside her, and I stood no chance at figuring them out now.
“Are you sure you want to leave behind your friends? Cassie? Liam?”
She nodded. “If you can’t go back, then yes.”
“And school? What about that?”
“I’ll go to another one.” She smiled. “I had to change anyway. I’m in high school now. This was my last term.”
“Oh.”
“But—I don’t have to go back,” she rushed. “I can get a job, too. I can pay my way—”
“Don’t even think such things. You’re finishing school, Della. University too if that’s what you want.”
She smiled with familiar love and devotion. “Okay.”
“Okay.” I smiled back, still not appeased and still tormented, but at least, for now, I didn’t have to tear us apart.
That would come later.
“Come on.” I strode toward the backpack forgotten on the ground. “I’m starving.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
REN
* * * * * *
2013
I’D LIKE TO say things went back to normal easily.
They didn’t.
After that first night, where we headed to an all-night gas station and filled up with lukewarm Hot Pockets and processed snack foods, Della and I kept our distance.
We walked side by side but didn’t touch.
We talked and laughed but didn’t relax.
And when the sun rose on a new day and the decision to leave this place and the people who knew us as the Wilds cemented into reality, we headed to the local supermarket, filled the backpack full of provisions, checked over our old tent and sleeping bag, and traded some cash for another sleeping bag, rucksack, and a few other travel requirements for Della at the only camping store in town.
It felt strange not to steal the stuff we needed, even after years of earning an honest living. It felt even stranger breaking habits and saying goodbye to familiar landmarks that had been our constant for so long.
Not strange bad. Strange good.
I hated how easily I turned my back on everything. How I merely walked out of the Wilsons lives without a backward glance—focused only on finding Della. And now that I’d found her, I didn’t care where we went.
I didn’t think about Cassie.
I didn’t worry about leaving John or Patricia without an employee.
Della was home to me, and there was something infinitely perfect just being the two of us again.
She might have upset me, messed up my mind, and ruined my trust, but nothing could change the fact that where she was, I was happiest, and she was all I needed.
I didn’t know how to change that. And I didn’t know how to make Della see that just because she was my everything, it didn’t mean I wanted to be hers.
She needed to want others. That was part of life. John had advised me on such things.
His gruff voice echoed regularly in my ears: “Show her you’re human with flaws. Figure out a way to keep her as your sister, Ren. Otherwise, you won’t have her at all.”
He was wrong when he said she’d ever feel more than a family bond for me. She’d told me herself, and despite my guardedness on her explanation, I tended to believe her.
She was ten years my junior, and I saw her as fresh-faced innocent and far too young to share the sort of relationship I wanted. But I’d forgotten something important. There were two sides to everything, and I’d failed to see how she must view me.
I’d been stuck-up to think she’d want me in any other way than as a guardian.
She had to be telling the truth because at ten years her elder, I was boring and surly and far too old to share the sort of fledgling romance she would eventually seek.
I didn’t need to show her I was human.
She knew who and what I was.
She knew me better than anyone, and when the time came for her to meet another boy, then I’d show her exactly how flawed I was by interrogating the hell out of him before he could go near her.
John was incorrect.
Della loved me.
But it wasn’t wrong or tainted. It was just as it had always been, and as the roles we’d played faded from view, and we turned toward the forest instead of the farm, I was grateful we were leaving.
Grateful to delete past expectations and remove outsider’s opinions because no matter that they came from a good place, they didn’t know us…not really.
No one truly knew the lives of another.
That was why I liked being alone, and by the time we reached the outskirts of the forest with our stuffed backpacks and wanderlust bubbling in our veins, I gave Della one last chance. One final choice—to admit this was truly what she wanted.
To run just like I’d done from the Mclary’s.
To turn her back on everything and start new.
Unlike the last time we’d lived in the forest, Della had her own backpack with extra tools and equipment and would be expected to pull her weight. Our tiny tent would be a struggle, but at least we had separate sleeping bags. Washing in rivers would come with strict privacy, and dinners would be a chore shared by both of us.
This wasn’t a vacation. This was real life. It would be hard. It would be constant. From here on out, we would be homeless until we found a new place to stay.
I needed her to understand that.
For her to accept the burden of running from people who cared because once we said goodbye, that was it.
“Are you sure?” I asked, glancing at the wind ruffling her butterscotch hair.
She didn’t look at me, keeping her gaze on the beckoning trees. “I’m sure.”
“Okay, then.”
For better or for worse, we didn’t look back as we vanished into the wilderness and said goodbye to civilization.
* * * * *
Unlike the other camping trips we’d taken over the many summers at Cherry River, this was different. What we carried was all we owned in the world. What we gathered as we wandered was all the food we’d have for that night or the next.
And slowly, gradually, the stress of living around people faded.
As a day turned into a week, and Della gave me no reason to worry, I smiled a little easier. I laughed a little louder. I didn’t wince when she touched me in passing and didn’t freeze when she pressed a kiss to my cheek.
The fear that she’d overstep grew less and less as our bond returned to what it had always been.
If anything, things grew better between us.
Different, yes.
Older and more grown-up, but still connected.
Before, when the stars woke and darkness descended, Della had been
too young to talk before exhaustion put her to sleep. Now, she stayed up late with me.
She was older, and I finally had no choice but to see the changes in her. To notice the roundness of hips and swell of breasts. She could’ve become a stranger as she lost her childish angles if it wasn’t for the blue ribbon she still wore either in her hair, around her wrist, or in a bow around her neck.
I still recognised the girl I’d raised thanks to the untouched joy she showed when I agreed to tell her a story, and the unsullied sound of pure happiness when I made her laugh.
Della was still Della, despite my fears of losing her, and after we’d eaten and banked the fire for the night, we lay side by side squished in our tiny tent.
As our legs brushed and breaths found the same rhythm, our natural freedom and ease with each other erased the residual mess and balance returned.
Nothing felt forced.
Nothing felt hidden.
Our ages didn’t matter as much out here, only our ability to survive.
By the end of the third week, I stopped bringing up the fact that we needed to find somewhere so she could return to school. I accepted, after multiple convincing from her, that the term was almost over, and she could slip into any educational system with her current grades with no problems.
I wanted to share her optimism, but we didn’t have birth records or passports or even a place to stay to enrol her. Without John and Patricia’s help, I didn’t know how I’d get her into class without people asking too many questions. However, I couldn’t shatter her dream and figured I’d solve that complication when we got to it.
For now, we agreed to spend the summer in the forest, remembering our old way of life.
Most days, we travelled a few miles before setting up another camp. Others, we stayed in a glen and swam and sun-baked.
Once a month, she’d turn extremely private, popping painkillers and staying subdued.
At first, I worried she was sick. But by the second time, I knew.
Della was no longer a child.
Her body was an adult, even if it hadn’t fully grown into one.
I offered her sympathy and tried to help with her period pain, but unlike most times where she wanted my company, she wanted nothing to do with me.