Page 20 of Until I Found You
Eight
Graham
I know I shouldn’t let her get to me the way she does, but I can’t help it. I’ve never been able to control the emotions she evokes in me, even after all these years.
The rest of the night goes by painfully slow. Halle spends most of the night laughing with the girls, while I try to do my best to keep my eyes off her. I thought after my apology, maybe it would ease the tension between us, but it seems like it’s only done the opposite.
She doesn’t look my way for the rest of the night.
A little while later, after I step away to use the restroom, I feel the pang in my chest when I return to find Halle missing.
“Halle left,” Kinsley says, as if picking up on my question. “She told us to tell you goodbye.”
She gives me a forced smile. Deciding to call it a night, too, I make my way around the table saying goodbye to my friends. Callum and Ellie are wrapped around each other on the dance floor. I don’t want to ruin their moment, so I ask Mason to tell his brother bye for me and I’ll see them next weekend when we take the trip to Chicago.
Kinsley stops me before I can make a beeline out the door.
“G, I don’t know what’s going on between you two. She won’t talk to me about it, but I know she’s torn apart seeing you again. She may not say it, but I know she’s thinking about how things used to be.”
I think about it too. When I was eighteen years old, she was everything to me. She was all I could see. She was like a ray of sunshine into my life. I would’ve done anything for her.
I will continue to do anything for her to make her happy. I don’t deserve her, her light, her goodness. I don’t deserve Halle, I never have.
“Nothing’s going on between us. I just wanted to make sure she got home okay.”
Kinsley’s laugh pulls my attention away from where my eyes are focused on the door, where she went. It’s loud and full, nearly causing her to fold her body in half letting it out.
“What’s so funny?”
“You! You’re so clueless. Nothing is going on? Are you serious?”
I want to say “yes, I’m serious” but she’s right. I’m a fool if I think we could be in the same town and know nothing would happen between us.
“I don’t deserve her, Kins. I don’t. Everything’s so fucked up.”
“You do deserve each other. Just promise me you won’t hurt her again or so help me, Graham Shaw,” she sighs, pointing her two fingers at her eyes and back to me. She squints her eyes, trying to intimidate me.
“I never wanted to hurt her. I’d rather rip my own heart out than do anything to hurt her. Please tell me you know that.”
Kinsley drops her hand, as the sadness returns to her face. Leaving Arbor Creek was never about wanting to hurt her but protecting her from me. She made me do reckless things to be near her and I’d never want the recklessness to lead to her being hurt.
Saying goodbye to Kinsley, I wave to my friends before heading toward the back door I entered through earlier that night. Stepping outside, I’m hit with the cool breeze. The sun has long since gone down and the heat from earlier in the day has settled into a cool air without the sunshine beating down on me.
Walking across the parking lot, the sound of the gravel crunches beneath my feet as I hit the lock on my truck. The sound of the alarm beeps, just as I hear the soft whimpers in the distance.
“It’s okay, Halle. It’s okay.” I hear whispered, causing my entire body to tense.
The sound of her muffled words has me on high alert, searching around me for the source of her cries.
“Halle, is that you?” My voice is firm, loud.
“Graham?” she asks. Her eyes blink beneath the dim light in the parking lot. They are full, with tears streaming down her face.
I want to stop and just stare in awe at her beauty, but I remind myself she has been crying. Despite what I just got done telling Kinsley, nothing is going on and I would never hurt her; I can’t deny whatever is hurting her now I want to be the one to be there for her. I want to be the one who holds her, comforts her.
Jogging across the parking lot, I approach her and pull her car door open. Crouching down next to her, I put my hand on her knee.
“What’s wrong?”
