Within These Walls (The Walls Duet #1)(15)

The trip to California with Megan had been a surprise present from my parents. The night of our graduation from college, our families had gathered together to celebrate our joint success. I had gotten down on one knee and asked the girl I’d been in love with since Business 101 four years earlier to be my bride. Everyone had been thrilled, and to celebrate in the typical style of my outlandish family, my father had booked Megan and me a two-week vacation to California and Maui.

He’d made a speech about how proud he was and how he couldn’t wait to finally bring me into the family business. I’d already been in the family business since I was in middle school. Blessed with the gift for numbers and analytics, I had been a gold mine in the eyes of my father. At the age of fifteen, I could predict and evaluate the market better than he could at sixty. I’d fought my way out of the house and gone away to college.

Four years, Jude. That’s all you get.

From across the table, he’d held his glass high and toasted us, the happy couple. He’d wished us well on our trip as he’d given me a look that said, It’s time to cash in.

Fun and games had been coming to a close.

I’d left for California, knowing my father owned my life once again. So, I had done the best I could to make sure Megan and I had the time of our lives in California because I’d been too scared to think about what our lives would be like when we returned.

A week into our vacation, the day before we were supposed to leave for Hawaii, we’d been hanging out with a few new friends we’d met in the area. After staggering out of the party late at night, we’d played Rock, Paper, Scissors in the middle of a deserted street. The loser of the game had to drive back to the hotel.

I’d lost three times in a row.

“I don’t want to,” I whined, dragging my sluggish feet behind me just for effect.

“Jude! I’m tired, and you clearly lost! You have to drive!” Megan yelled back, walking in front of me.

Her tight black skirt accentuated her ass as she sauntered back and forth in her heels. I took a moment to enjoy the view.

My future wife is hot.

Her tanned long legs went on for miles, and she had beautiful dark brown hair that I loved to run my hands in, and that—

“Are you checking out my ass?” she said, suddenly pivoting around. Her hand shot to her hip, and she raised an eyebrow.

Busted.

“Mmm…maybe. If I tell you how nice it is, will you drive us back to the hotel?” I asked with a wolfish grin.

“Ugh! Maybe we should just stay here for the night,” she said.

“No!” I immediately shot down the suggestion. My legs revived in an instant at the thought of spending the night anywhere but in a king-sized bed with Megan, and I jogged to catch up with her.

We finally made it to our rental car a few blocks away, and I slowed the last few steps.

Closing the gap between us, I pushed her against the car. “If we stay here, we’ll be sleeping on some nasty-smelling sofa with a bunch of drunk college kids.”

“We were drunk college kids just a few weeks ago, if you’ve forgotten.”

“Yes, but we’re not anymore, and we have this amazing”—I kissed her shoulder—“wonderful”—I moved across to her collarbone—“huge”—I left a trail of kisses up to her lips where I stopped and hovered—“hotel room. I really want to make good use of it, don’t you?”

I could feel her breath growing heavy with each kiss to her skin. By the time my lips were almost touching hers, she was practically panting.

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Yes, what, Megan?”

“Yes, I want to go back to the hotel room,” she answered.

I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. I quickly planted a kiss on her lips and slapped her ass. “Good, so you’ll drive then?”

Being the loving, agreeable person she was—she’d taken the keys and gotten in the driver’s side of the car, ready to drive even though it should have been me.

Those were some of the last moments I’d had with her while she was still conscious. Minutes after that glass had been raining down on us as the screech of metal permanently seared itself into my brain.

I’d looked over at her as the world spun and thought of all the things I wanted to say before we died and couldn’t. So many things I could have said in those last few minutes in that parking lot if I’d known.

We’d never lived together. After graduation, we’d boxed everything up, and focused on finally moving in together, but first, we had a bit of fun planned.

After she’d died, I had nothing left of her and nowhere to go where she would still be present. Her parents had taken her ashes and buried them in a family plot near their home in Chicago. I was done with school and I didn’t want to go home because she wasn’t there. So, I never left California. I never left the hospital. I’d just roamed the halls until Margaret offered me a job.

That was why days off were so difficult. I had no life in California outside the hospital. It wasn’t just a job for me. It was where I felt most alive—or as alive as I could be anymore.

When the person you were meant to spend your life with died before that life had a chance to even begin, how would you survive? For me, I’d just kept putting one foot in front of the other, coming back to the place where I could feel her presence the most.