Page 107 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

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Shay

One Thursday morning,Greyson called and asked me to come visit Karla. I was a bit surprised when the call came through, because I was certain Karla wouldn’t want anything to do with me due to my connection with Eleanor. I headed to the clinic as soon as the call came through.

My nerves were through the roof as I walked down the hallway toward Karla’s room. When I looked into her space, I smiled as I saw her sitting at the desk with her notebook and pen, scribbling away.

I hadn’t known what she was writing, but I was happy to see her pouring words onto the page. No matter what, written word had a way to heal broken souls.

“Hey, you,” I said, making Karla look up from her notebook.

Her eyes widened with joy, and she came limping in my direction. “Hi.”

She stood in front of me for a moment, rubbing her hand up and down her arm as she stared at the floor.

I smiled. “Well, are you going to hug me or what?”

A breath pushed through her lips as if she was waiting for permission to give me a warm embrace. She wrapped her arms around me and held on tight.

“I thought you hated me,” she whispered.

“What? Why in the world would I hate you?”

“Because I broke my dad and Eleanor up. I didn’t mean to, really. I’m just…trying to figure out everything. I can’t understand how my dad could be happy with someone else after losing my mother. I mean, I really like Eleanor. She’s a good person. I’m just…I feel like I was betrayed,” she confessed.

I thought back to my own mother, and the betrayal I felt when she announced she was engaged to David. Instant guilt hit me, because I knew Eleanor and Greyson had a true connection. Maybe my mother and David did, too.

I just couldn’t see it until I looked at someone else’s storybook and saw the similarities to mine.

“If there’s anything I know about life, it’s the fact that love is complicated,” I explained, taking a seat at Karla’s table. “I’m still trying to figure out how it works myself, but if it’s true love, you’ll all figure it out. I swear.”

“I’ve been writing a lot lately,” she told me. “It’s been helping me figure out what’s going on in my head. And I think I’m kind of getting it. I’m thinking of myself as a character like in my books. I’m the heroine, who has a lot of character arcs to me. I have flaws, but I’m trying to see how they make me beautiful.”

I smiled. “I think that’s beautiful, Karla.”

“Maybe you can read my story when I finish it?”

“I’d be honored. I’m proud of you for doing the hard work. For digging deep and looking inside yourself for answers.”

She nodded. “Uncle Landon has been helping me a lot with that. He said the end goal is happiness, and that’s all I want. I want to be happy again.”

“And you will be. I promise. I can’t wait to see you soar.”

“I’ve been making lists of things that make me happy. Like songs, and movies, and stuff. I think that’s helping me.”

“That’s a really good idea. I think I might do the same thing for myself.”

Perhaps it was time for me to study my own character arcs, because no matter how old one was, there was always room for growth.

After I finished my time with Karla, I headed straight over to my mom’s house. When she opened the door, she had a frown on her face, obviously still upset for my childish behavior.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I told her, shaking my head. “I’m just so scared of love. I don’t know how it works, or how it moves, or how to stop heartbreak from coming. I reacted so poorly to hearing the news about David, and I am so sorry about that.”

Her frown slowly began to turn around. “I did sort of spring it on you,” she confessed. “I could have prepared you and Mima for it a little more.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I reacted so poorly. I know what Dad put you through all those years ago, and I never want you to hurt like that again.”

“I know. Believe me, I’ve spent so much time living in that world of anger that I’ve struggled with letting people back in. I don’t trust men—I still don’t as a whole and that’s something I’ll need to do some work on. But I do trust David. Shay…if you knew how he treated me, you’d never doubt his love. Your father’s love caged me, while David’s sets me free. I’m so happy,” she exclaimed, placing her hand against her chest. Her eyes welled up, but this time it was from her joy. My mom was…happy.

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