Page 118 of We Finished Here

I stare at him. “Saint?”

He backs it up with nothing.

“I made the biggest mistake of all time, Taylor. We know that, so that doesn’t make me a saint exactly, does it?”

“You were smart to leave back then,” he goes on. “You wouldn’t have liked the person I became. Plus, I travel so damn much, sometimes I forget where I even am.”

“You’re still the great guy I knew back in high school, so I don’t know why you’re saying that… Are you forgetting the times we came here? You taught me to skate right there.” I point over in the direction of the ice skating rink. “You told me to hold on to you and not look down at my feet.”

He glances at me. “That was a long time ago,” he says, his eyes hazy.

“Why does it matter?” I shrug. I’m trying to make light of this conversation while he’s been drinking. I need to get him home, even if I don’t know how I’m going to drive his freaking Porsche.

“How did we let it slip away?” he says sadly. “I should have come to you… I wanted to.”

I bite my lip, fighting back tears. He’s changing tact so fast I can’t keep up.

“I know you did, I did too. But we’re here now… it’s okay,” I tell him. “It’s all going to be okay.”

He turns then and reaches for my fingers, lacing my hand in his, pulling me to him as he wraps his arms around me. I feel his shoulders shake, as everything pours out.

I know everything has bottled up over years, like it has for me, and this scary brain tumor situation with his mom has brought it all to the surface.

It’s a pretty scary thing when you’re facing a lot of fears all at once.

We hold each other for the longest time. Eventually, he pulls back and wipes his eyes.

“You better not tell the press about this,” he says, moving my hair off my shoulder with his hand. “Ruin my reputation and all.”

I laugh a little. “We couldn’t allow that to happen.”

“I think I need to lay down,” he says.

“I’ll take you home, Tay,” I whisper.

He nods and we make our way back to the car.

He plugs his address into the navigation system while I start it up. I’ve never driven a Porsche before, and it’s a scary ordeal. I can’t really ask him too much about it because he rests his head back and falls asleep before I’m even out of the parking lot.

I’m just glad I’ve got him here with me. I can take care of him until the morning and make sure he’s okay during the night.

When I pull up into his impressive underfloor garage, he stirs, enough so that I can make it through the security gate and park.

He has a sleepy grin on his face as he watches me. “Never thought I’d see the day,” he whispers.

I help him up to the elevator and into his apartment, and he immediately stumbles over to the couch and lays down. I find a blanket from his room and cover him while I sit next to him for a while and stroke my hand over his hair.

I’ll stay as long as it takes.

There’s only him and getting him right for his big day tomorrow.

* * *

Taylor

I wake up with a thudding so prominent in my head I feel like there’s a mariachi band playing in there. It’s either very, very late, or extremely early in the morning. I’m not sure which. What I am sure of is I’m lying on the couch under a blanket, and Emmerson is lying next to me with her head on my shoulder.

I recall the events of last night at the lake and run my hand over my face.

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