Never Far Away (The Never #2)(94)

He broke every traffic law driving to the rental, running every red light, passing cars on the 101, even driving on the shoulder when people wouldn’t get out of his way. When he finally arrived at the driveway all he saw was an unfamiliar car, which only made him angrier. His door nearly came off with the force he used to open it, the engine still running, the headlights still on. He started to run to the porch but it felt like he hit a brick wall and he fell to his knees on the gravel.

Ella sat on the porch steps, her head resting on her lap. If he never saw anything, ever again, he wanted to remember the sight of her right in front of him. His hand found his chest and he gripped his shirt over his heart and he felt it pounding at an alarming pace. Tears sprang from his eyes and he breathed her name. “Ella.” It was quiet, but she must have heard it because she looked up at him.

The f*cking roller coaster he was on took another nosedive when he saw her drenched in blood.

“Ella,” he yelled, suddenly on his feet and at her side, not sure how he made it to her when a moment ago nothing on his body worked properly.

“Ella, look at me,” he said as he grabbed her face, making her look at him. “Where are you hurt? Baby, tell me. Where are you hurt?”

“Porter?” She looked at him with confusion. “You can’t be here, you have to leave.”

“Is he in there?” He stood up to go inside, but she grabbed his shirt.

“You can’t go in there!” She yelled at him.

“Did he do this to you? Ella, tell me what’s wrong?” Porter pulled out his phone to call 9-1-1 again, but then heard sirens coming and put it away figuring they would be here before he got through anyway. She pulled his shirt down with so much force he had no choice but to sit down next to her on the step. He wrapped his arms around her and wished she would just tell him she was ok.

The police cars pulled up and the same officers who had came to his house both nights were there.

“Are you two alone?” The officer asked. Porter looked at Ella for an answer.

“No, Kyle is in there,” she answered quietly. Porter immediately moved to stand up. “No! Porter, please, don’t leave me.” The officer placed his hand on the gun in his holster and started to make his way into the house.

“You won’t need your gun,” Ella said with a distant and faraway look in her eyes. “I already killed him.”





Epilogue


Porter


It had been three months since the incident with Kyle. The effects that night had on Ella were far reaching and still not quite resolved, and they might not ever be. Porter might not ever be fully himself again, either. But they were together and that seemed to be the overriding factor to their happiness. They both had issues to work through, but nothing was standing in their way of being together anymore. Their lives had become boring and uneventful in the most fantastic of ways.

He knew that night of their first date he wanted to marry her and he would have, in an instant, had he thought the timing was ever right for them. They fought so many battles together that he knew she would always wonder if their relationship was born out of some need to fix them or to bind them together in times of trial. So he waited. So many times in the last seven months he’d wanted to simply take her to Vegas and just get it over with, but he knew he had to wait for her to realize that all their obstacles were behind them.

Tonight he was going to surprise her at Poppy 2.0, as they jokingly referred to the new store in Salem. The store was almost therapeutic for her in that she had something to focus all of her nervous energy on and it was something brand new that hadn’t been tainted by the events revolving around Kyle. It was a fresh start for her and for them together.



He opened the door to see Ella standing on a step stool, reaching far above her head, trying to reach the very top of the wall near the ceiling with a paint roller. Her tee-shirt was riding up and reveled the slightest sliver of skin above the waist of her running shorts. She was on her tiptoes stretching her long and lean legs even farther than should be legally allowed. He stood in the doorway for a moment and simply took her in. She belonged to him, in every way possible, and he was hers as well. He could look at her all night, but he wanted to feel her in his arms.

“Hey, Babe,” he said as he walked towards her. She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. He was secretly proud of her for not startling and jumping at his sudden appearance. It took her weeks to not jump at the sound of people’s voices who snuck up on her. She was incredibly strong and he loved watching her grow stronger every day.

“Hey to you too. I thought we were going to meet at home.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said as he raised his head up for a kiss, smiling a little at the fact that for once, she was taller than him. She leaned down and gave him the kiss he was looking for. He took advantage of his height issue and wrapped his arms around her waist, placing his hand on her ass. “These shorts are nice,” he said against her lips as he squeezed her through the fabric of them.

“You’re a pervert,” she said laughing at him. He gave a shrug, not willing to deny it. “You’re not trying to take me anywhere are you? I am not dressed to go out in public.”

“Nope,” he said. He turned from her and started unloading the backpack he had with him. He pulled out a blanket and spread it out on the floor in the middle of the empty store. Then he pulled out a bottle of champagne and two plastic flutes. He looked at her and was rewarded with a smile so big his heart missed a few beats. He held up a finger to indicate ‘one more’ and he took out a paper bag that had dinner in it. “I got us some hot dogs from the food trucks down the street, since I didn’t think the fire marshal would appreciate a campfire in your store here.”