“Not a bad idea, actually.”
“What? Changing my name?”
“Yeah. It’s a simple way to let something go. I wish I could do something that simple.”
They’d reached the bottom of the stairs, and he placed his hands on her shoulders. “In all fairness, Kory, I think you went through some shit that was a lot more traumatic than what I went through. I felt a lot of anger, but beating hell out of the drums for several years helped me deal with it. You…you had to handle something a lot more brutal, and I think it would take a lot more to get over.” He pulled her close. “Besides, I’m older than you.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’ve had more time to figure out how to process that shit.”
She nodded. It made sense. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders after flipping on the light switch to the hallway. She said, “Still…it would be so nice to just let it go that easily.”
He didn’t look at her, but she could see the pained expression on his face. She needed to stop talking. She hadn’t realized until she’d said it that talking about it made it harder for him. He couldn’t do anything to help, and it bothered him. Maybe she needed to save the discussion for Natalie and just try to put on a happy face for Stone. “Yeah, it would, but then we would be robots, not people.”
“But I thought—”
He turned to her again. “Kory, just because it seems like I was able to let my pain go by using a different name doesn’t mean I really was. Changing my name was the equivalent of flipping off my dad and this town. It’s not that simple. It was something I had to work through, something I had to figure out, and I managed. No, it doesn’t bother me like it used to, but that’s because I’ve had a long time to process it—over ten years. And what my old man did to me didn’t leave the kind of scars you have.” He sighed. “You need time.”
She nodded but realized she didn’t want to talk about it…not now, at any rate. She was tired of hashing it through. It felt like all she’d done over the past couple of months had been to wallow in old memories and lots of pain. Being with Stone should have made her feel alive and happy—and it did—but she needed to let go of the baggage. It was pulling her under. She leaned her head against his side and he pointed to the right-hand side of wide hallway. “Those are empty rooms there—they could be bedrooms if I needed, but I have the one guest bedroom on the main floor and the other bedroom there that I used for an art room. For now, I don’t really need more. I’m not sure why I had them build such a big house. Anyway,” he pointed, “the door at the end is to the bathroom. Nothing fancy. Then this side…that’s the cool stuff. Let’s start at the back.” They walked down the hall and Stone opened a glass door. The first thing she noticed was a large window that started at floor level across the room. It wasn’t facing where the road would have been, where they could see the lights from town, or the drive as it climbed up the hill toward the back of the house. No, it looked off to the virgin side of his property, and, even though it was dark outside, all she could see was forest…and—when Stone turned on the light behind her and it flooded the outside as well—a barely visible chain link fence. Once the light was on, though, her eyes were drawn to the space inside.
It was a hot tub, and the floor around the space was a mosaic of flat rocks in grout. It wasn’t a big area, but it was warm and inviting. “Watch this.” Stone turned the dial that controlled the lights. First, they dimmed. Then he flicked it again and strings of colored lights dangling from the ceiling turned on as the warm yellow light switched off. The space felt magical, even if overly sultry. “Come on. I have more to show you.” He turned off all the lights and they walked out the door.
She wouldn’t have minded spending a lot more time there, but maybe later. There was another door on that side of the wall, and he opened it, flipping a light switch on. Holy shit. It was like a mini gym. There were several weight machines and a treadmill. There was even a big screen TV hanging on the wall. “Wow.”
He smirked. “It would be more impressive if I used all this stuff. I never touch the treadmill. If I’m gonna run, I’d rather do it outside. I mostly use those three machines.” He pointed to three upper body machines, and Kory then understood why he was so ripped underneath the shirts. He wasn’t bulky or overdone, but he wasn’t lumpy or soft, and she liked that.
He switched the light off, but before he closed the door, he called the dog out. Kory hadn’t even noticed that the little thing had snuck in.