3. Three
THREE
STELLA
I disposed of the charred remains of Amma’s bread pudding and hoped she didn’t look too closely at the trash. Now that Alden was gone, I was no longer half focused on listening for the noises he was making around the house and I could think straight.
If Amma asked, I was going to blame the burnt food on him.
In reality, I was overwhelmed. Amma helped me make soup, but I got distracted putting it away and forgot to set a timer for the pudding. Cooking used to be second nature to me, but now I felt like it was all new.
And I hated that I felt that way.
I was free to feel the sinking misery again. Alden was a good distraction from it, but the anger was simply a front. I didn’t want him to see how low I’d gotten.
“Hey, Amma,” I called. “Um, the bread pudding isn’t done, but the soup is. Do you need anything else? I should probably call Nick to get out of here soon.”
Only silence answered me.
I paused. I had been so sure she had come back. Had I been wrong?
“Amma?” I called again.
The only answer was the blowing wind, which was loud .
A prickle of anxiety crawled up my spine.
Then the phone rang.
Amma had one of those wired wall phones—a vintage thing from the nineties. She said she would never get rid of it as long as it worked because she preferred to live without a cell phone.
I didn’t know whether or not to answer it. The idea of answering a call at all didn’t sound fun, but one without any caller ID sounded worse.
When the answering machine clicked on, I heard Amma’s voice.
“Hi, kids,” she said. “The weather is getting really bad out there. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine, but you might wanna stay where you are. This is a real kicker of a snowstorm. Stay safe, you two!”
My heart stopped. She thought Alden was still here, but he wasn’t.
I had kicked him out like a fucking fool.
Maybe Amma was kidding. After all, it couldn’t have gotten that bad that quickly. I checked the time, eyes bugging out when I saw I’d been cooking for hours .
Breath stuttering, I ran out the door, begging the sky to hold off for long enough for me to call Nick and get out of here.
The brutal wind hit me first, and I regretted telling Alden to take his coat back. As I emerged from the porch’s protection, my feet slid out from under me, and my back thudded painfully on the gravel below.
Ice crystals hit my face. The strong wind was blowing against the house, bringing pure ice down on the earth.
“No,” I groaned. “It’s ice.”
Ice was less visible. Ice was more dangerous. And it was everywhere . I slowly sat up, seeing that Alden’s truck was indeed gone.
Oh my God. Could I even survive in this? Did I know how to stoke a fire? Break logs to use in the stove?
Panic made my throat close. I’d managed to keep my cool throughout everything, but this was way worse than I could have imagined.
I slowly stood on shaky legs, eyes on the scenery. Ice didn’t immediately turn everything white. It instead coated everything in a clear, dangerous concoction. While our area didn’t get much snow, we sometimes got ice, but it quickly melted because of the warmer weather.
But we were in a cold front, one destined to last for a long time.
I was hyperventilating. I’d stayed too long. I was too confident.
And then a pair of hands clamped down on my shoulders .
I let out a bloodcurdling scream, my mind going a mile a minute.
Who the fuck was out in this weather? Why were they grabbing me?
And wasn’t this ice bad enough? Did I have to get murdered too?
I tried to fight back, but it led to me falling onto my knees.
The hands tightened.
“Stella, it’s me. It’s Alden.”
My eyes finally met his. Both of our breaths were quick.
I didn’t usually feel relief when Alden was in front of me, but these were not normal circumstances. As much as I hated him, I hated the idea of being alone in this mess of a situation more.
“Wha—why are you out of breath?” I managed to gasp. “Where’s your truck?”
“I ran here.”
“You what ?”
“I didn’t know for sure if you were alone or not. And I’m not leaving you in this.”
I didn’t understand. He’d left me before. He should easily be able to do it again.
But even with our past, relief made my eyes water. The panic ebbed, replaced with the feeling of gratitude that Alden may have broken my heart, but he didn’t leave me in this ice storm .
“Why didn’t you drive back?” I asked, eyes on the empty driveway.
“The truck went off the road about half a mile out.”
“So, you’re stuck here?”
“I could have—” He paused. “Would it make you feel better if I said yes?”
“You chose to be here? In this ?”
He nodded.
My jaw dropped. It was then I realized that I was still in his grip and that I had the stupid urge to lean into it to shield myself from the cold.
I wrenched myself away, reminding myself just what Alden had done to me.
“This is a disaster. Can we get to your truck? Can we get out?”
His eyes looked back at the road. “It’s getting worse fast. We could try but ... the rule number one about driving in ice is that you don’t . I’m not risking your life right now.”
“You’re a park ranger.”
“And I know when it’s dangerous.”
“I think I’d rather die than be stuck here.”
“Not an option.”
His voice was forceful and I shook my head. “No, I?—”
“Stop arguing.” He held out the jacket. “Put this on.”
“The jacket? You ran with it?”
“Yes.”
None of this made sense. “I don’t?— ”
“Stella,” he snapped. His hand cupped my cheek and it felt hot against my skin. “You’re freezing.”
“S-so?”
“Put the jacket on.”
I leaned away. “No.”
“Then get inside before you freeze.”
My stomach flipped at the sound of him telling me what to do, and the memories of seven years ago burned despite the cold. I was holding onto my last shred of dignity like a vise, and if I had done what I was told, it might as well have been thrown out the window.
And it was him . I may have lost everything, but Alden Canes wouldn’t tell me what to do.
“No. I’m going to sit here and think about ways not to be stuck with you.”
“Stella, it’s zero fucking degrees outside. How about you quit being stubborn and let me help you?”
“Never.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. I thought he would give up, but I should have known better.
Alden got to his feet, pulling me with him. I tried to resist, but then he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes.
“What the—Alden, put me down!”
“You have five feet to shut the fuck up and let me do something for you.”
The walk was short-lived, just as he said, and he dropped me on the couch. I would have felt the blessed warmth of Amma’s house if I wasn’t already seething .
“Don’t touch me again.”
“I don’t plan to—unless your stubbornness gets in the way of your judgment. I’m not letting you freeze to death because of your pride.”
Now that I was inside, I knew he was right. The cold had settled into my fingers, and they still felt like pure ice despite the warmth around me. My teeth chattered and things would have been worse if he hadn’t stepped in.
There had only been one time I’d seen the weather turn this bad. We’d all bundled up and hunkered down until it melted, but in true Tennessee fashion, it warmed up and entirely melted only two days later. This time, the forecast was calling for the temperature to stay below freezing for the foreseeable future.
Reality hit me hard. I should have listened to the weather. I should have never come here and downplayed it. And now I was locked in Amma’s tiny house with Alden fucking Canes.
My body was already shaking, but now my emotions made it even worse. All the fight drained out of me. I was an idiot and now I suffered the consequences. I wouldn’t survive this week, not with the cold hostility added to the room surrounding us.
I heard the door to the wood-burning stove open, making me look up.
Alden wasn’t glaring at me anymore. Instead, he was adding logs to the fire. The heat from the opened door curled around the room, chipping away at the ice that had formed around me .
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have acted like a brat out there.”
He paused and turned to me. “Excuse me?”
Oh God. I’d never live this down. “I said I’m sorry. Do you have to make this a thing?”
“You don’t apologize, Stella. Usually you take whatever you’re wrong about to the grave.”
Old me would have. New me couldn’t even look him in the eyes. “Guess I’m not the girl you knew.”
“Who the hell did”—he gestured to me—“this.”
“Why does it matter?”
“Because this isn’t you.”
“And how do you know who I am?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve known you your whole life.”
“Not for the last seven years you haven’t.”
His lips pursed, and he turned back to the fire. Our conversation froze over like the ground outside.
“Besides,” I said, “this is going to be easier if I don’t be the person you know.”
“Not for me, it won’t.” His voice was low.
“What does that mean?”
“It means it’s easier if you’re you . I don’t like seeing you fold into yourself like this.”
“The other option is me being angry.”
“Then be as mad as you want, Stella. In fact, I welcome it.”
“No man in his right mind would want to be stuck with me when I’m mad. ”
He slowly turned. “I never said I was in my right mind.”
My brain couldn’t comprehend that he’d come back, much less what he was saying. Was I still in the snow? Was I dying and dreaming all of this up?
That would be the only way this would make any sense.
Alden didn’t like me. It took me a long time to see it, but he only tolerated me because of his relationship with Nick.
Sure, he said he found me physically attractive once, but if that had been true, he obviously regretted it.
I used to think it was his loss. But these days, it felt more like mine than anything else.
Why did I ever think sleeping with him was a good idea? I should have let it be. We would have stayed friends at the very least, and I would have one less man making me feel like I wasn’t enough.
Winnie would kick my ass if she knew how much I was spiraling about who I was. She was fearless, always staying true to who she was even when people looked down on her. I wished I could be that way, but after spending two years being told I was too much, it had started to sink in.
And now I was stuck with the man who was my first rejection.
My first heartbreak .
This was not going to be a fun week.