Page 56 of Falling for Grace

I grin, taking it off him. “Ain’t that the truth.”

Brandon leans over, his hand on the chair, his chest moving across me as he peers down at the paper with my scribbles. His scent fills my senses again and I find myself right back at the May Ball. When we snuck away and lay on the school field. When we stole our first kisses. When we lost ourselves in each other.

My cheeks burn and I clear my throat. But goddamn it, my eyes focus in on those lips of his. Full and pink, his bottom lip larger than the top.

Not today, Grace.

“You okay?” he asks, giving me a strange look, which in fairness is probably in return for the look I am currently giving him.

“Erm, yeah. I just had a brainwave for the eulogy,” I lie. “Oh, here.” Passing him a CD that I found in the box. “Track Number 17. I knew I would remember it when I saw it.”

Brandon looks down at the Greenday CD and turns it over, reading the track list on the back.

“Good Riddance (Time of your life),” I say.

“Why did we think it was a good idea to discuss funeral songs at the age of sixteen?” He smiles. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

He softly closes the door behind him. I look at my scribbles and grab a blank piece of paper.

It doesn’t take me long. I don’t know whether I have done him justice, but I feel slightly cleansed by having put some of the things I’m feeling down on paper.

Chapter 21

The sun is still shining as I step out into the driveway. A black Mercedes is waiting to take us to the thing we are all dreading.

Iwatch as Sue and Ted climb carefully into the front car and I find myself glued to the concrete, my legs unwilling to move. I stare at Brandon. His eyes meeting mine, he pauses and climbs back out of the car gracefully.

He holds his hand out which I look at stupidly.

“Grace?” My tear fill eyes look at him, the realisation of what was about to happen suddenly hitting me like a freight train.

“I’m just having a moment; my legs aren’t moving.” He bends his knees bringing himself to my eye level, his green eyes searching my stormy grey.

“You can do this, one foot in front of the other, besides I can’t do this without you. I need you.” he admits kissing my forehead, in the exact same way he had done at our May Ball and on many countless times after that. I close my eyes, it’s such an intimate gesture, one I love and hate.

I watch as he puts his hand back out, but this time I take it, and he squeezes it gently. Leading me to the car like a lost child, opening the door for me. I climb in and look back at Sue and Ted. His arm wrapped around his wife as she sits staring at a white tissue in her hand. I catch his eye and he nods once at me and then kisses his wife’s head in such a caring, loving way.

Brandon joins us, his hand resting gently on my leg, rubbing circles on my knee, and mine holding onto his arm.

Grounding us.

The car ride is torturous.

Sue’s soft sobs filters through from behind me, Ted whispering comforting things in her ear. Brandon’s leg is bouncing up and down, the nervous energy causing him to continually move, as he stares out the window.

We pull into the driveway, which leads us past beautiful flowers and headstones, the cars stopping underneath a covered awning on a small roundabout planted in whites, red and blue pansies.

A few family friends are already there; I watch as Brandon greets them and nods his thanks as words of condolences are passed between them.

“Grace?”

I turn around. “Harry?”

“Jesus Grace, I thought you were a mirage,” he says grabbing me into a bear hug. He steps back but still holds onto my shoulders with his club-like hands. “You look amazing.”

“Thanks!”

Harry was always short and stocky at school, but he had filled out to epic proportions. Where he used to be fat, he was now rippling with muscles.

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