Chapter 7
Shay
Every day, I walked to Hadley Park. It was a beautiful place with a huge playground and amazing hiking trails.
I’d been going to that park since I was a kid.
I’d slid down those slides a million times with my parents and Mima.
When my father wasn’t in his best shape, Mima would get me out of the house, and we’d build sandcastles for hours.
Then she’d walk me down one of the trails toward the two biggest willow trees I’d ever seen.
They were twisted together with their branches intertwined.
Together, they were called the lovers’ tree.
Growing up, I always explored those trails and sat near the two willows.
It was still winter in Illinois; therefore, all of nature was still fast asleep.
The leaves hadn’t returned from their slumber, and the flowers weren’t yet in bloom, but the bark of the willows still stood strong.
And in their trunks sat deep initials. There were dozens of initials carved into the trees.
Legend had it that if you carved the initials of yourself and your loved one into the bark, your love story would last forever and always.
Years before, Mima had carved hers and Grandpa’s into the trees. Mom’s and Dad’s sat against it, too.
I thought it was the most romantic thing in the whole world—a tree filled with lovers. I wished someday to carve my name into the tree, too, with my future love.
I had a sensitive heart. Love was something I believed in fully, even though I’d never experienced it on my own. One day, my initials would rest against that tree bark, just not with the likes of someone like Landon.
I had no doubt that I’d win our bet, because I knew Landon wasn’t the type of person people loved.
Lust, perhaps. But love? Never. He wasn’t built that way.
He didn’t have the ability to let people in the way they needed to be invited into his soul in order for them to love him.
His heart was shut off from allowing others to hear how it beat.
In my mind, Landon would never be the hero in my story.
Maybe for some other girl, but not for me.
I wasn’t going to let that happen. I wasn’t going to fall in love and be left with shattered shards of my soul. I might have had a sensitive heart, but I refused to let it be sensitive to him.