Page 6 of Where We Fall

Then she leaned back, her palm against the empty space of desk behind her, and swung her foot with a grin. “You make sure, before you eventhinkof finding that woman, that you’re ready for her. The worst thing to do would be to find her when you aren’t ready. And I know,” she said, pausing to hold up her hand, telling me not to interrupt her before continuing, “I know she’s who you want. But that doesn’t mean shit if you don’t know what to do when you find her again.”

* * *

A few days later,Tammy entered my office and closed the door.

She had a folder in her hands and was tapping it against her leg as she assessed me.

I glanced her way, noting the look in her eyes—impatience.

I sighed and ran my hands over my face, intending to finish my email before getting into whatever it was she wanted to discuss.

It wasn’t my turn to fire another employee. I’d done it the last time.

As I typed, she lost the last of her patience and tossed the folder on the desk. “It took a simple search on the Internet to find her. Honestly, Dex, you didn’t even try.”

I stopped my typing and looked up at her.

Her right foot tapped against the carpet as she stared at me.

“I was hoping it’d be a little harder, so you didn’t have to know how much of a coward I’ve been,” I confessed.

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall. “What are you so afraid of?”

She asked it as if it were easy to answer. As though breaking a young woman’s heart was the easiest thing to do. Like, even easier it’d be to find her and hope she could find it somewhere within her to let you in again.

My fingertips drummed on the desk before I pushed my chair away and stood. “Maybe the same thing she was afraid of—that big love. And maybe, of history repeating itself.” Maybe of not being able to save her, of being helpless to her demons. I was afraid she couldn’t forgive me for leaving her the way I did. How could she?

Tammy shook her head in disbelief. “I’ve got my brother keeping an eye on her right now. You gotta see her. This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever witnessed, and it can’t end with you never seeing her again.”

I closed my eyes, envious that right now her brother was near Noa, watching her.

Did she still have the blue hair?

God, I hoped so.

Either way, she’d still be Blue. But I’d have to face her hate to see for myself.

“Where can I find her?” I asked Tammy.

She smiled and said, “Atta boy. Everything you need to know is in that folder.”

Dexter

“I toldmyself I wouldn’t step in again.”

I looked up from my current position, hunched over on the floor just beside Noa’s hospital room door. Doctors and nurses walked past as I looked at the old man seated in the chair like any other person would.

Except he wasn’t a person.

The Angel of Death might’ve looked like an old man to the untrained eye. But after being caught in his web, dealing with him for years, I could tell he wasn’t of this world. Those wrinkles, the innocence in his eyes, they were all a façade.

“Can they see you?” I asked.

When a passerby looked at me and the space where I was focused on, I knew they couldn’t.

Still, he shook his head with a small smile. “Don’t make me regret this, Dexter Andrews.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do?”

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