Trust (Chasing Shadows) by Mia Fox

look on her face was one of total heartbreak. “What’s wrong?”
    She just shook her head and I could tell she was holding back tears, not daring to speak as if they would fall freely if she did.
    “Ella?” I asked slowly approaching, but she took off down the trail and around a bend. She was already gone.

Chapter 31 - Nate
     
     
    “Way to go, boy scout.”
    Ethan had no idea what he had done, but it was a doozy. I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. It was bad enough to watch the girl who would have become my fiancée wake up in the arms of another man. But adding insult to injury is realizing that the only way she’ll get over me is to move on with her life, which seems to include Ethan.
    But dude, you had to go and purchase pastries from La Conversation? Seriously?
    Hadn’t she ever mentioned that was our place? Those pink bakery boxes were a regular weekend fixture around our house.
    It was going to take more than a little luck to smooth out this faux pas. I had to go after her, find her, and once and for all, convince her that it’s okay to open her heart to him.

Chapter 32 - Ella
     
     
    One step forward, two steps back. I was disgusted with myself for even thinking in those terms, but I couldn’t help it. I grabbed a rock off the ground and chucked it with all my might over the embankment, watching it tumble below into oblivion. I had gone from crying my eyes out every waking moment of the day and well into the night until I was too tired to feel...at least I thought and hoped I would never feel again. And that’s when I did. I felt an emotion nearly stronger than my anguish. Could it be love?
    The rising tides of my emotions were tumultuous, breeding and migrating from one into the next. From sorrow came depression. Hope gave way to guilt. And now, I had rounded the corner to the one that cut me to the core. It was guilt. I hated its festering growth inside of me.
    The last thing I wanted was to associate Nate with negative emotions, but seeing that bakery box made me feel as if I would never be whole again. I was never going to find happiness because I didn’t deserve it.
    Why should I fall in love with another person when the perfect man for me had died?
    “Why should I get another chance at love?” I shouted to the heavens while I picked up another handful of pebbles and threw them into the air.
    “Because you deserve happiness.”
    I turned suddenly, surprised that Nate was here and ashamed all at once at what he must have witnessed.

Chapter 33 - Ethan
     
     
    With much effort, I began to fold the sleeping bag that I had shared with Ella just hours earlier. It was slow going what with only one working hand, but I had nothing but time as I replayed our recent conversation in my mind, trying to make sense of her sudden departure. I shook croissant crumbs from the mat, but couldn’t shake the thought that something was bothering her. I tossed the remainder of yesterday’s sandwich that had gone stale out of the small rock divide that had formed our shelter last night before hauling the sleeping bag onto my pack.
    If...when she came back, we would have to make another go at trying to find our way to the highway. As much as I wouldn’t mind spending another night with Ella, this wasn’t the time or place. Our modest food supply wouldn’t hold out much longer and we had both been through enough health hazards.
    Even from behind the rocks, I could feel the breeze picking up and I figured that it must be coming off the ocean in the distance. Somehow, we had headed west instead of east, the direction we should have taken to get back to the highway. We must have walked for over eight hours yesterday, which meant that we had an even longer way back in the correct direction today. I checked through my pack and the supplies that I had brought. I had a hand-held can opener along with three cans of tuna, a package of beef jerky, fruit roll-ups, and a box of granola bars. It was enough to get us through