Page 115 of We Finished Here

“He’s an interesting guy… and very sweet,” she says. “I may have to break him in a little… but hey.”

We laugh, and I can’t help but shake my head at her bluntness.

“So you plan on seeing him again?” Susie asks. “Tell me you got his number?”

She nods. “Yeah, we’ll talk. It was only an afternoon at the stadium and a coffee the next day, thanks to Taylor and Emmerson inviting us to tapas.”

“Speaking of which…” Cindy looks at me suspiciously. “What’s going on with you two?”

I bite my lip while I think of what to say. I mean, I haven’t exactly prepared myself to answer questions about us yet.

“We’ve been getting along quite famously,” I tell them.

Maddie gives me a playful shove. “Umm, it’s a little more than that.”

Cindy and Susie look on interestedly while we eat our bagels.

“What gives?” Cindy asks. “Are you guys, like, back on?”

I laugh nervously.

“OHMYGOD. You are, aren’t you?” she shrieks.

“Back on is a little out there,” I say levelly, trying to keep things on track. But it’s hard to do that when we’ve both professed our feelings to each other.

We just haven’t discussed the future.

“Is there a chance you’re going to reconcile?” Susie asks me.

“I honestly don’t know,” I sigh.

Maddie wraps her arm around me. “I think you do,” she says. “By the time I get back to Florida, I want to know that you’ve claimed him for real, Emmerson! That’s a direct order.”

I laugh and shake my head. “We’ll see.”

She wags a finger at me. “There’s no ‘we’ll sees,’ there’s this moment you’re living in. Now is the only time we have. You should go for it.”I remember Taylor saying something similar about being in the moment.

Cindy and Susie are both nodding.

They’re pushy friends, that’s for sure, but then again, they know my feelings for Taylor were always very real.

It’s sad watching Maddie go, but I’ll be seeing her when I fly back in a couple of weeks. That puts a little bit of a pang in my stomach, but I brush that off for now. When we leave the airport, I drop the girls back home, with plans to meet up tomorrow to go to the first final game when the Hawks take on Vegas Heat.

After that, I go with mom to the hospital where dad is being discharged.

Welcoming him home again feels like the best thing in the world. It feels like so long he’s been gone, yet it’s only been a few days. Mom has been his tower of strength during the whole ordeal.

We see Gillian when we pull in… She’s talking to Taylor’s dad in the driveway, which strikes me as odd to begin with. When he drives off, she walks over to say hello.

We don’t chat for long because mom wants to get dad settled and comfortable inside. But when they retreat into the house, she tells me why Taylor’s dad was there, and what happened in the last twenty-four hours. I’m shocked beyond belief.

I actually can’t believe it.

“So it was a tumor like they suspected?”

“Yes, and no matter how much I try to tell Taylor they caught it early so my chances are better, he just doesn’t seem to hear it.”

“Gillian, I’m so sorry.” I hug her for the longest time. “So he didn’t take it well?”

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