Until Harry(79)

“What?” my mother whispered.

I looked at her and hated that I saw tears in her eyes. “I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon after Lavender’s funeral.”

“What?” everyone screamed.

I jumped and tried to think of something to calm everyone, but there was nothing I could say that would change the situation.

“Lane,” Nanny shouted, getting my attention. “You cannot up and leave the country. You’re distraught over losin’ Lavender and about Kale startin’ a family, but this isn’t the right move, sweetheart.”

“Staying here isn’t an option,” I replied. “I need distance. I need space. I need time.”

“Are you hearing this bullshit?” Lochlan snapped at our uncle. “How can you stand there and be so calm when she is talking about leaving the country on her fucking own when she is in this state of mind?”

My uncle locked eyes with Lochlan. “Talking her out of it was the first thing I intended to do when she mentioned it, but I saw in her eyes that she was leaving here whether we wanted her to or not. It’s be on board and help her or—”

“Or nothing!” Lochlan snapped. “If she leaves, I’m fucking done. I refuse to worry myself sick over her. I’ve done it all my life.”

“Are you kidding me?” I said to my brother. “I never once asked you to bother yourself with worrying about me. I never asked for anyone to do that, but you all did it, and I know it’s because you love me, but you can’t protect me from everything. I have to do this.”

“Why?” my father shouted. “Why do you have to leave?”

My shoulders slumped. “It’s too hard.”

“You will get over your crush on Kale—”

“It’s not a crush. I love him!” I shouted.

My father narrowed his eyes. “You’re twenty and you’ve never had a relationship. What do you know about love?”

My father’s words cut me deeply.

“I know that watching him be with someone else is killing me, do you understand that?” I asked, my voice tight with emotion. “It. Is. Killing. Me.”

“She’s in a state over Lavender and—”

“Nanny, stop,” I said, cutting her off. “I’m not blinded. I’m seeing clearly and I need to leave here.”

“If you leave here, Lane,” my father said coldly, “don’t come bloody back!”

With that said, he left the room, leaving me staring after him with fear swirling around in my stomach. I looked to Lochlan and Layton when they stood up.

“Please,” I pleaded. “I don’t want to leave and be fighting.”

“Then stay and there won’t be a problem,” Layton bit out.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Then I have nothing else to say to you.” Layton walked out, and I looked from him to Lochlan, who was staring at me with a pain in his eyes that I didn’t understand.

“If you leave here, and you cause a rift between all of us, then I am done. Fucking done.”

My lower lip wobbled when my mother and grandmother stood and left the room without a word in my direction. Not a curse word, not a farewell. Nothing.

“Oh, my God,” I breathed. “They hate me.”

I felt my uncle’s arms come around me. “They don’t hate you. They’re hurt and scared for you. I told you, you’re precious to us all.”

I hugged my uncle tightly. “They don’t understand me.”

“They will, just give them time.”

I nodded and breathed my uncle’s scent in, remembering everything about him in that moment because I didn’t know when I would next be able to hold him like this.



Do I have everything? I thought to myself as I scanned my parents’ sitting room for the millionth time. I was flying out to America today to start a new life, and I was a nervous wreck. I was so emotional. Breaking the news to my family had been an utter disaster. I couldn’t lie: it hurt that they didn’t even want to say goodbye to me, but I knew how upset and worried they were for me. They just couldn’t get on board, and the Edwards stubborn trait reared its ugly head when I wouldn’t change my mind for them.

It didn’t help that I had buried my sweet Lavender only a few short hours ago and was experiencing a pain that I had never known until they lowered her six feet below the earth. My trip was a great distraction, though, and I immersed myself in it instead of thinking about my friend.

“Money,” I mumbled to myself, and checked my personal belongings once more.

My Uncle Harry would be by soon to bring me to the airport, and he would run through a checklist with me. He had travelled hundreds of times and would catch something if I forgot it.

“Lane?” Kale’s voice suddenly called out.

Oh, bollocks. I paled. What the fuck was he doing here?

I turned and looked at Kale with wide eyes when he walked into the sitting room. His eyes went directly from me to the two large suitcases that were next to me. He stared at them, hard, before he lifted his gaze to mine.

“What are they for?” he asked, frowning.

Please, I silently pleaded, go away.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, dodging his question.