Hunter was still looking at me, his face open and hopeful.
Dr. Schwartz thought that we might be good for each other, but our first try at a relationship had ended in disaster. Still, I didn’t doubt that he loved me. He wouldn’t have come all the way out here if he didn’t.
Now that he had confided his secret to me, I couldn’t just turn my back on him. Not when he needed me most. How could I give up on Hunter when he refused to give up on us? I didn’t know if I was strong enough to help him carry his burdens, but I had to try.
I looked away into the woods for a few moments, trying to think of what to say. I wanted to give Hunter a chance, but I needed to make sure he understood that we couldn’t do it the same way again this time.
“I don’t want to use each other to hide from our problems,” I said finally. “I don’t want to keep hiding and running anymore.”
I watched him carefully for his reaction.
“We won’t,” he said. “We’ll face them together.”
His eyes were open and eager, but I wasn’t sure if he really understood what I meant.
“If we’re going to save each other, you can’t look at me like I’m always the one who needs rescuing,” I said. “That’s―”
“Lorrie, I―”
I had to get it out now, while I still could. “No! Please let me finish. The reason I left Studsen wasn’t because of you, but if you told me the truth, none of this would’ve happened.”
Hunter swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I’m sorry. No more secrets. I promise.”
I stared into his eyes and my heart melted for him. Dealing with his MS had to be so hard. Constantly worrying about his health. The fear that he might be stuck in a hospital bed for the rest of his life . . . or worse. It would have been so easy for him to never see me again after how I ended things, but he decided to drive hours to come here to try to work things out.
“Okay,” I said finally.
His face brightened and he threw his arms around my shoulders, hugging me against his massive body.
I leaned into him for a moment before pulling back to look into his eyes. “We have to go slow this time, though. We have a lot of things to think about. All of this . . . all of this is so much for me. I thought I’d never see you again, and now you’re here.”
My pulse started to speed up. “If we go too fast and don’t think about how to make this healthy, we’ll make a mess of things, and this time I just know that it’ll be worse.”
He nodded slowly, squeezing my hand tighter. “We’ll go slow, Lorrie.”
I hoped that he had the self-control to do what I asked, because I didn’t know if I had it. His lips were just a few inches away, but I closed my eyes, grateful that he just wanted to hug me for now.
We held onto each other for a few minutes and my headache slowly faded to a dull throb. When I felt like I was back on earth again, the concerns of the wider world started to come back.
“What are you doing about your classes?” I asked him.
“I can miss a few classes. You’re more important than that.”
I frowned. Hunter was pretty smart, but I didn’t like that he was skipping classes. I decided to leave that up to him for now. Still though, I wanted to make sure we were clear. “You can’t hurt yourself for me Hunter. Are you going to be okay, you know, after being in the hospital?”
“Yeah, I’m fully recovered now. I even brought my prescriptions, so if I gotta stay a little longer, I’ll be fine here. There’s motel a few miles away. I’ll just crash there for the night.”
I nodded and we sat there for a moment, holding each other.
“Listen,” he said, “I know you’ve got a lot to think about, but can I see you tomorrow?”
It had been a long day. Having some time to think about it and talk after a good night’s sleep sounded like a positive step to me.
I put my head on his shoulder. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Letting out a deep breath that I hadn’t realized that I‘d been holding, I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt. We sat in silence for another few minutes. Dr. Schwartz had been right about Hunter. It wasn’t over for us yet.
After a while I realized it was starting to get dark. How long had we been out here? The last time I had been in these woods for too long, Aunt Caroline had called the police because she thought I’d disappeared. That definitely didn’t need to happen again.
“Let’s head back to the house,” I said, standing up and dusting my pants off. “I don’t want my aunt to worry about us.”
Hunter didn’t say much as we walked back to the house so I gave him his space. He seemed thoughtful, which comforted me. If we were going to make it, we needed to be on the same page.
The world had thrown us into the deep end, and we were both just trying to keep our heads above water. He had rescued me from drowning once, before he even knew me. Now that all of our secrets were in the open, was it even possible for us to save each other?
Even though I was terrified of the fallout if we failed, I was happy we still had a chance.
Chapter Four
AWKWARD
We returned to the driveway by the same path we had walked into the woods, the dim light fading fast in the sky.
When we got to the front of the house where Hunter’s car was parked, he turned to me. “Hey, don’t be mad, but I have something to show you.”
He went to the back of the the beat-up blue car and beckoned me over. I followed him, curious. Then he pointed into the dirty windows of the backseat. I shrugged and peered in, not knowing what to expect. The thin layer of dust on the window made it hard to see anything—especially in the low light—but then I spotted it.
In the backseat was a large cardboard box covered in a blue blanket made of thick wool. A tiny fuzzy tail poked out from underneath.
“Oh my god! Why did you bring them all the way here?”
He shrugged boyishly. “Dunno. I figured you might wanna see your babies.”
“Were they okay on the drive over?” I asked, a little worried that the kittens had spent hours in the car.
“Yeah, no problems at all. They mostly just slept.”
I shook my head, but even in my exhausted state I had trouble keeping a smile from my face. The little tail poking out wiggled a bit and then disappeared under the blanket.
“Why didn’t you just leave them in Studsen and have Gary take care of them?”