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CHAPTER FORTY
REN
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2013
2013 STARTED LIKE all the rest.
Cassie tried to tempt me out to a local party where sex was guaranteed and liquor was compulsory. Even though I was twenty-three and of legal age to drink, fuck, and do all the stupid shit adults do, I still had responsibilities. I still had a girl dependent on me. I still had a life I valued and secrets I needed to keep secret.
So, just like all the other times, I declined.
And just like all the other times, Cassie promised she’d be back later and would give me my New Year’s Eve kiss. It didn’t matter she was getting serious with Chip. She believed that because I’d been in her life for so many years, I wasn’t classified as cheating.
However, I was done being the other man.
I was done sleeping with her period.
Frankly, I’d grown tired of her games and immaturity a few years ago, but because I had no desire to find another girl to sleep with, I allowed my cock to keep me in an arrangement that offered no other satisfaction apart from a cheap release. But even that couldn’t compensate for the shame I felt afterward, knowing some poor schmuck was in love with her and this was how she treated him.
Instead of doing the usual soul-crushing hook-up, I stayed in my room with Della and stayed up far too late laughing at some stupid TV show and falling asleep amongst chip packets and lolly wrappers.
We hunkered down through winter, believing nothing would change and our content, happy lives had nothing to fear.
For months, we continued to study by night and go off to our separate lives by day, and Della continued to transform into a stu
As much as I would like to, I couldn’t call her a girl anymore. Sure, the softness in her eyes still said child rather than woman. Sure, the roundness of her cheeks when she smiled hadn’t given way to the incredible sharpness of her cheekbones just waiting to sweep up and steal her forever from childhood.
Her body had hips with the fledgling hint of breasts. Her stare was full of both heartache and i
She was far too beautiful, and it made me uncomfortable.
I cursed morning and night when she’d change in front of me.
Before, I didn’t care if she’d strip off her top beside her single bed and slip into a nightgown. I didn’t think anything of it when her jeans slid down her legs and she kicked them across the room with all the care of a teenager who didn’t believe in housework.
For years, I’d refused to get undressed around her. I’d ensured I dressed in the bathroom after a shower and only swam in board shorts rather than ski
She should follow those same rules.
But for some reason, I struggled to tell her to hide when it wasn’t her with the problem but me.
Her i
Not anymore.
Her growth from child to almost-woman should’ve been the first hint that things were about to change.
Drastic things.
Things we could never undo, and things that would ruin any future we might have had at Cherry River Farm.