Page 16 of Dare to Need

“I’m sure you’ll do great.” He offered a small smile. “Will you have the opportunity to do some shoots yourself?”

I nodded. “Part of the internship is dedicated to taking her seminars, which she only allows three students to attend per year. So every two weeks, she gives us an assignment and I’ll have dedicated time during the internship to complete the assignments. The cool part is she does each assignment herself, so we can compare our work to someone who has made a career out of it already. Honestly, I don’t know how she does it all, but I’m really glad to have the opportunity to learn from her.”

His eyes flicked up over my shoulder and as I turned to see what he was looking at, my gaze landed on a tall willowy blonde with ice-blue eyes that almost appeared translucent. Long tan legs spilled out of a black pencil skirt that accentuated the slight curve of her hips. Tucked into the skirt was a crisp white button-down shirt that brought out the sun-kissed tone of her skin. A black silk scarf was elegantly tied at the base of her neck.

She was stunning and as she spoke there was a hint of a foreign accent that I couldn’t quite place. Swedish maybe. Whatever it was, it sounded beautiful as she told us the captain was ready for takeoff and it was time to buckle up.

Just as I reached down to grab each end of the belt, Garth rose from his chair.

“I’m going to the bedroom to get some sleep for a little while,” he said without looking at either one of us. “Wake me up if I’m not out by the time we arrive.”

Without another word, he walked off toward the rear of the plane where he opened the door into what I assumed was the bedroom and disappeared from sight. My heart clenched in my chest—it screamed at me to follow him, to open that door and demand he talk to me. Only so that I could try to figure out how to help him through whatever he was feeling right now.

But I didn’t follow him. I sat glued to that chair, my arms and legs feeling as though they were made of concrete and I wasn’t strong enough to move them.

“He’s always had a hard time with things like this.”

Garrett’s eyes were glassy, his words strangled with the tears I knew he was holding back. Just as I was holding my own back.

“Has something like this happened before?”

A shadow passed across Garrett’s face and I knew whatever memory flitted through his mind was a painful one.

“The first time we lost someone was when Lucas’ sister, Lilly, passed away. She was like our own little sister and at that age, none of us really understood what death meant. The hardest part was watching her fight so damn hard against the cancer, only for it to win in the end.”

My heart clenched at the thought of a child dying. Garth had mentioned once that Lucas had to grow up fast after his sister died because his parents were in such a bad way.

“And Garth was incredibly close with our grandparents, especially our grandfather. He always understood Garth and never put pressure on him to be something he wasn’t. Garth was twenty when he passed from a heart attack. It was difficult for the entire family, but Garth took it the hardest. They weren’t just family. They were best friends. I don’t think he’s had anyone else understand him like that since…well...until you came along.”

I knew he was trying to give me some comfort, but I couldn’t help but feel that I didn’t know Garth at all. At least not at this moment. The second I stepped onto the jet, I knew there was some part of his life he was hiding from me. And to experience the death of his grandfather, someone so close to him in a way that now threatened to take his father’s life was something I thought he would have told me by now.

But this wasn’t the time to sift through my own concerns. Just by the look of him, Garrett was barely holding it together. And here he was trying to makemefeel better.

“I’m so sorry you lost your grandfather. I can’t imagine what that feels like. And now having your father be ill.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Garrett.”

“Thanks for saying that. As scary as it is, I know our dad will pull through. He’s the most strong-willed person I know and he isn’t done living yet.” A throaty chuckle escaped from him as he said, “Knowing him, I’m sure we will all be forced to eat a heart-healthy diet any time we’re around him from now on.”

“I think we can all get on board with that.” As I did my best to smile at Garrett, the pit in my stomach only grew.

We sat in silence for the rest of the flight and just as we were flying over the city, I saw a thunderous storm in the distance. Lightning crashed down among the twinkling lights. As I looked toward the door at the back of the plane, something deep in my heart told me that I would need shelter from a different kind of storm that was coming.

ChapterSeven

GARTH

Iwas drowning.

My chest was rising and falling, but I couldn’t catch my breath. It kept escaping me. As though it were a butterfly and my net had too many holes in it. There was no grappling the fear that strangled me. It had won and now I was barely hanging on.

Misery and regret enveloped me the moment I stepped onto my father’s plane—the same plane that he had worked his entire life for. It was a symbol of his success, of how hard he’d worked to beat the odds and make a name for himself among the leaders of the economical world.

And I’d resented him for it. The legacy he wanted to leave behind had been tarnished by my selfishness. I hated myself for it. For every moment I spent hatinghim.

Now, all that regret was bubbling to the surface with a vengeance and I doubted my strength to keep it in.

I loathed myself even more that I was being weak in front of Eva. She had just recovered from her own hell and now my issues were plaguing her.

There was no escaping it on the plane, so I left her like a fucking coward to sulk on my own. As she bore a hole into my back with her frightened eyes, I knew I was going to be remorseful about that moment for the rest of my life. I should have stayed. Let her and Garrett try their best to distract me from my whirling mind.

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