Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Miranda
NOW
At first, I couldn’t process the sight in front of me. The fuzziness of my brain gave new meaning to the term cognitive dissonance. “Stone?”
“In the flesh, babes.”
I looked him up and down, as though to confirm. “What…what are you doing here?”
“Figured I’d surprise you,” he said. “Hope that’s okay.” His words were benign, but his face didn’t match them. I’d been ignoring him for days.
He looked at Marley, who stood between us.
I recovered my equilibrium. “This is my sister, Marley.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, clasping Stone’s hand briefly. “I’m a fan. My kids—I teach high school—love you too. Our family was so shocked to find out you knew Miranda.”
“I’m very glad to meet you too,” Stone replied affably. “To finally put a face to the name. And as far as knowing Miranda, I'm just glad the secret's out.”
“Can I have a minute with Stone?” I asked my sister.
“Wha—Oh, yes. Of course.” Marley started toward the living room just as James and Leo appeared in the archway.
“Leo! My man,” Stone exclaimed, stretching an arm out to clap Leo on the biceps. “Long time no see, bro.”
Leo whipped his face to mine. All it took was a subtle shake of my head and a widening of my eyes to let him know I hadn’t been expecting our visitor.
Stern-faced, Leo bobbed his head. “Stone.” He stepped behind me and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Stone, this brown-haired version of Leo is his brother James, Marley’s husband.” I introduced the two men, and they shook hands.
Leo kept his possessive grip on my arm. Stone stared at it with consternation, but his expression turned knowing when he eyed Marley and James again, as though to say, oh right. Leo’s touching you because they think you’re dating.
“This is…a surprise,” I said. A colossal understatement. Why was Stone here? I patted Leo’s hand before removing it, turning to him, Marley, and James. “I’m going to chat with Stone on the porch.”
It was cold outside, but I preferred to face the chilly air than to have this conversation where Leo or my sister could eavesdrop.
“Oh, of course,” Marley said. “How nice of your…friend to visit.” She turned her back to Stone and mouthed, “You sure you’re okay on your own?” to me. I nodded.
“I’m filming in Vancouver right now.” Stone grinned roguishly. “When I found out Miranda had come to Coleman Creek and was so close, I couldn’t resist.”
Marley seemed to buy it, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Evidently, she was not registering my lack of enthusiasm at the unannounced appearance of my friend.
“Need me?” Leo asked under his breath.
“No. I think it’s better if Stone and I speak privately.” He frowned. I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “I don’t know why he’s here, Bear. It’ll be easier if it’s only me asking. Keep Marley busy so she doesn’t try to listen in.”
He grunted softly before turning to Marley and James. “Let’s get this tree into the stand.”
I heard Marley whisper, “His car pulled up when I was in the carport. Crazy. Stone Caseman in our house.”
I grabbed my coat and exited onto the porch with Stone, closing the door behind me with a snick.
He reached for me, but I stepped back.
“So it’s like that?”
I ignored his pouty tone. “I don’t appreciate being ambushed. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“You weren’t picking up my calls, and you haven’t returned a text in days. We wrapped early today, so I figured I’d drive here to find out why. Make sure you were okay.”
From the way he phrased it, I gathered he would not have made the effort if they hadn’t finished filming early. As far as grand gestures went, that made this one on-brand for him.
I took a deep breath. Gathered my coat at my chest.
“Stone, I wanted to be in person to have this conversation, and this wasn’t the way I planned to do it, but you’ve kind of forced my hand here.” My knuckles turned white as I gripped my lapels. “I think we’re done.”
He blinked. “Huh? … Wait, what?”
“I’m going to see this latest PR scheme through, help you with all that, but you and I are over.”
He slow-blinked again and put a hand on his hip, arching like I’d struck him in the gut. Sweeping his other hand through his hair, he scrunched his forehead.
“I don’t understand, Miranda. What the fuck happened? Over? We were fine, like, five days ago when we talked.”
“Keep your voice down. As far as my sister and her husband know, we’re just friends, so try not to let on that we’re breaking up out here.” I kept my coat pinched around me as he began pacing. “And for the record, we weren’t fine. We haven’t been fine in a while.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m so confused about what is even going on right now.” He moved his hands to the sides of his head before fanning them out in the mind blown gesture.
Even in his anger, he was still pretty cute.
I remained firm in my conviction that Stone was a good guy.
He just wasn’t the guy for me. “Stone, I wanted to wait until after all this was over, after the holidays. But since you’re standing right in front of me, I don’t think it can wait.
I don’t have it in me to pretend one more thing. ”
“How long have you been planning to break up with me?”
I sighed. “After the summer, I tried to let myself be open to not ending things, but I’ve known since Halloween.”
“Halloween? That’s more than a month ago. And you didn’t say anything?”
“Like I said, by the time I’d firmed it up in my mind, you’d already left for Vancouver.
And I really do care for you, so I wasn’t going to just send you some lame breakup text or do it when I know you’re trying to concentrate on work.
I didn’t see any harm in waiting. And then everything happened with me posting the picture, so again, I put it on the back burner. ”
“But now is your moment? When I just drove from fucking Canada to see you!”
“Shhh,” I hissed.
“Sorry.” He held up his hands, and I knew his contrition was genuine. “But, darlin’, I’m reeling here. I thought we were good. Solid.”
“If you think about it, I bet you’ll see. We were solid—in our way. But we were fooling ourselves to imagine we could survive long-term. Relationships don’t work just because two people are companionable, or because it’s convenient. I need more for myself and—”
“Fine. If that’s what you need, I can do more. Be in town more. I would have done that if I’d known things weren’t okay with you.”
He really was sweet. But not quite sweet enough.
“I believe you. And you’re right that I was okay with it for a long time.
And maybe that should have told you something.
” He started to speak, but I stopped him.
“Hear me out. When you’re ready to truly fall in love with someone, you’re going to want it to be with a woman who gets a little more upset when you’re gone so much.
Or when you forget to call. Or when you cancel plans.
Or when you fake date America’s Sweetheart and get photographed with her while you ask your real girlfriend to hide away and keep quiet about everything.
Trust me when I say that you’ll want someone who would care way more than I did about being a part-time girlfriend.
Or maybe you can find another person who wants to be a part-time girlfriend so you can stay focused on your career. But I’m not her anymore.”
He dragged a hand over his face. “I can change.”
“No. Even if I believed that, you shouldn’t have to. Not for this. Not for me. What we have together, as sad as it is to say, isn’t worth that.”
I didn’t bring it into the conversation, but I knew what was missing with Stone.
How my thoughts and mind gravitated toward Leo.
Leo was the one I wanted to talk to, the one whose opinion mattered.
Even now, in the middle of breaking up with the man I’d supposedly been dating for over a year, part of my brain remained on the discussion with Leo that had gotten interrupted.
Stone slumped down onto the porch swing, and I sat next to him. “A part of me knew,” he admitted. “When you weren’t answering my texts or picking up my calls… That’s why I got in the car. I couldn’t not know anymore.”
“Sorry for not replying. That was petty.” Grasping his hand in my own, I laid my head on his shoulder. “But we’ve had a wonderful ride. I’m grateful I met you that day on the beach. Being with you taught me a lot about what I want from a relationship.”
He chuffed. “You mean it taught you I’m not what you want.”
I squeezed his hand. “No. We’ve had plenty of fun, and I don’t have any regrets about being with you.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I mused on how fitting it was to have such a quiet end to our relationship.
I wouldn’t call our breakup dignified—it couldn’t be when Stone wore a beanie with a Your Mom Says Hi patch on it—but it was soft.
Unsurprisingly, the romance we’d never brought into the light floated away into the darkness, almost like it never existed at all.
“Was any of it real?” he asked quietly. “I really thought—I just…I really like the way you see me, the way we are with each other.”
I gazed fondly at him. “Our bond is real, Stone. It’s just not the love connection we’ve been pretending it is. And we don’t have to lose that. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to stay friends.”
“Really?”
“Sure. The internet already thinks we’re goals for men and women being friends. Maybe we can make one part of this farce real, after all.”
“Just one part, huh?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He used his booted toe to rock the swing back and forth. “I can live with friends. As long as I don’t have to miss you.”
“I won’t leave you on read again,” I said. “If you call, I’ll pick up.”
“Same.”
“Even if you become a big movie star?”
“Especially then.”
I smiled. Stone could be a total potato, but sometimes he said the perfect thing.
He stretched his arms along the back of the swing, gazing out onto the street. Every house had lights and decorations.