Beyond the Pine by Kate Benson

Author:Kate Benson [Benson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B01H0S65LC
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Asher

As I watch her leave the stables, I swallow the emotion coursing through me and rake my hands over my face. With a long, exhausted sigh, I lean back against the wall behind me, letting everything sink in.

I’d just taken her, just tasted the very skin I’d been agonizing over since they’d found me on the side of the road all those weeks ago.

I got what I wanted. I should be happy.

If I was smart, I’d revert to the asshole I was before she found me on the other side of that tree line.

I’d take her warning seriously, work on my bike and find a way to get the hell out of here while I still can. Ditch this place like I’d planned all along.

I can’t though.

I’d known it just as well as then as I do know that when I whispered the words of love she’d needed to hear it was just as much for myself as for her.

A part of me wishes it hadn’t been. A huge part of me knows falling for Riley is the thing that’s going to cost me... both of us... everything.

I sit for a few minutes, giving her time to get home undetected and me time to process everything that just happened.

Once the sun’s finally set, I lift myself from the bench we’d spent so many hours on and head out into the night.

Everything had happened so quickly, things had taken such a turn, I hadn’t even had the chance to tell her I’d be staying next door to her in Josiah’s cabin.

Reluctant to go back to my temporary home just yet, I stop by the infirmary, slipping in through the small divider beside my previous neighbor, Josiah.

He’s lying in his cot, eyes shut tight as he dutifully whispers his prayers, looking calm despite the disease running through his ragged body. Although I’m doing everything I can to stay silent, not wanting to disturb him, his eyelids flutter open a moment later, finding me sitting in the chair beside his bed.

“Asher,” he says, his voice tired and rugged with age. “How are you, my boy?”

“I’m good,” I lie, giving him a small smile as I lean forward on my knees. “How ‘bout you, old-timer? How’re you feeling tonight?”

“Blessed,” he replies, same as always. “Just saying my nightly prayers.”

“Don’t let me keep you from it,” I offer, smiling when he nods silently and lets his eyes drift shut once more.

During my time in the infirmary, I’d been confined to the bed just on the other side of the thin curtain next to his cot.

Long nights of pain and uncertainty on both sides of that fabric paved the way for our unlikely friendship. On nights when sleep wasn’t an option for either of us, we lie awake inside these walls, talking about most everything.

I’d thought I had it all figured out pretty well before I found myself inside this place, but after a few nights talking with Josiah, I realize how wrong I’d been about most things.

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