Page 20 of Choosing Forever
“Caleb’s got the station there for a few more hours, cleaning up the debris. I couldn’t stay.”
My best friend steps in front of me and takes my mug of coffee away to set it on the counter. She confirms how messed up I look when she wraps her arms around me and gives me a rare hug.
I tense my jaw as a wave of emotion rolls over me. Returning the hug, I cling to her a bit tighter than I would have normally.
“Do you have any Baileys to put in that coffee?” she mutters into my shoulder.
“I doubt I’d keep it down.”
With a heavy exhale, Bryce pulls back and stares up at me with blue eyes focused enough they can dissect my every thought.
“Should I ask?”
“Ask what?”
She scowls, handing me back my coffee. “Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I remember you asking me these same questions when it came to Daisy.”
“That was different. The two of you were always different.”
“Fuck that. I can still stand here and ask you how you’re feeling and what you’re thinking. The drive-in wasyourplace, D. It belonged to you two. The rest of us were always just visitors.”
I pull away from her and leave the kitchen. She doesn’t let me get away. When I sit on the couch, she joins me, keeping a further distance now.
“She was there,” I say, dropping the words into the silence.
“There . . . at the drive-in?”
“At the drive-in. Watching as it burned and we failed to save it.”
That haunted look in her eyes as she stared at me followed me home. It reminded me of the last time I saw her before Abbie was born.
“By the time we got there, it was already up in flames. The projection room went first, then it just collapsed. There’s nothing left, Bryce. Nothing.”
She remains silent for a second, hands fidgeting with her long black hair. “Can it be rebuilt?”
I don’t mean to laugh, but it comes out anyway. Bitter and dark. “With what money?”
“I could talk to my dad. Tell him how important the drive-in was to the town,” she offers.
“No offense to your dad, but he never gave a shit about that place. It didn’t go up in flames on its own. Our guess is someone tossed a blunt, and it caught on the old wood. The town let it get to that point, B.”
The mayor saw it as a waste of space and money. Most of the town did. Hell, even I’d written it off for too long.
“I know. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t try and convince him to change his mind.”
“And if you did? Then what?”
She stretches her legs out and lets her head fall back against the couch. “I don’t know. You could help me instead of pissing all over my parade.”
“How?”
Her brow lifts when she looks at me. “That depends on how badly you want it fixed.”
“What would be the point?”
“Darren,” she says pointedly. ‘I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt because you’ve been up all night, but are you being serious?”
I scrub a hand down my face. “You’re not talking about the drive-in.”
