Page 30 of Hung Up
When we approach the exit for the ranch, I tell him to go left instead of right. He doesn’t question me just does as I say.
“Park up here on the hill.”
He puts the truck in park. It’s too dark to see the gorge below, where if you kept driving, you’d plummet into nothingness. It would take weeks, probably, before anyone would ever find you.
“I like to come up here sometimes when I need to get away from it all. It overlooks a steep, rocky valley.”
I started coming here after everything that went down with Kenzington. I needed a place where I could be alone and be able to sit with my grief. It’s no less crushing now than it was then. It floods my chest like a flash flood—no warning just rushing water ready to swallow me up.
“Are you okay?” he asks softly.
I laugh, a short, ugly sound. “No. Not really.”
“When I saw him, towering over you—God, Sorrel, you looked so scared.” He swallows. “I wasn’t going to let him hurt you again. I saw him come into the bar and he watched you go out the back door. I had to get to you. I don’t know whathappened between you two, but I know it was something. When you’re ready to tell me, if ever, I’m going to be here for you, Sorrel.”
I feel something in me unfreeze a notch. I’ve been holding it in for so long. The shame and guilt I’ve felt over the past year isn’t something I’m sure I’m ready to tackle yet. But for some reason, Denton feels safe. I want him to know my hurt so he can understand why I’ve been so cold toward him. That it isn’t him, but it’s something broken inside of me.
13
SORREL
We sit in the pickup, windows down. Crisp air and the sound of the wind rustling the pines fill the cab. I think back to that night. I’ve tried to erase it from my memory—I want so bad to forget it ever happened. The words cut like razor blades as I try to get them out.
“I thought he loved me. I made every excuse in the book for him.”
Denton just gives me a look that says it’s okay and to keep going. And I bare it all to him.
One yearago
We were in another one of our breakups when he showed up at the ranch, determined he was going to get me back.
It was cold and gloomy that evening. We were outside by the arena when the rain started coming down. We were arguing back and forth. He begged and pleaded, said he would change. It would be different this time.
I gave in to him. We ran into the barn to take cover from the storm.
He grabbed my face, pressing his mouth to mine.
It was passionate and soft at first. I missed him, and his touch, the feel of his hard muscles beneath my hands.
He pushed me up against the haystack.
Our kisses became more frantic and intense. I knew what it was leading to.
My skin was wet from the rain, and my sundress was soaked through. I ran my hands through his wet hair as he slid his hands up my damp thighs. He began to slip his fingers into my underwear.
“Not here, someone could walk in,” I told him.
Anyone of the hands could have walked in or even worse, my dad. But Huck wasn’t listening. He kept going. Caught in the heat of the moment, I knew he was needy.
It wasn’t the right place and I didn’t want to get caught with him in the barn. He had been pushy before, but nothing like this.
It was a matter of seconds before he turned me around and bent me over the haystack. His grip on me tightened, sliding my dress up with his free hand.
“No one will come in. It’s fine, baby,” he promised.
I gritted my teeth and gave in to his needs.
He loves me. He’s my boyfriend. He wouldn’t hurt me.
