Until Harry(82)

I rubbed my eyes.

“I made things right with my family again. Being away from them, from here, was solving nothing. It was only causing more unnecessary heartache. And after all that shit that went down with Jensen when I was a kid, I really shouldn’t have upped and left the country in the first place. Layton told me how much they would worry for me, but I didn’t listen. I’m home now, though, and I’ve made things better.”

I sighed and pushed loose strands of hair out of my face.

“I’ve yet to have my proper talk with Kale, and I’m honestly quite scared about it. I have absolutely no idea what will happen after we do talk, and the not knowing is terrifying, but no matter what happens, we need to clear the air. He needs to know how I still feel about him, and he needs to know why I couldn’t be here anymore.”

I was silent for a long time after I finished speaking. I just sat there as still as a statue while the magnitude of loss swept over me. It was a part of life, but it sucked. I was grateful to finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I needed my family now – I saw that clearly. Their love and concern wasn’t overbearing anymore. It was comforting.

I wasn’t staying to please anyone else, I was doing it for myself, and I couldn’t help but smile because of my uncle’s sneaky hand in it. I’d do right by him. I’d talk to Kale because I needed to speak to him for me, not for an inheritance. At the thought of Kale, I looked in the direction of Kaden’s grave, and I froze when I saw who was standing before it.

Drew.

I watched her for a moment, and before I knew it, I was on my feet and walking towards her. I had no idea what I was going to say to her, but I needed to say something. Anything.

I approached her with the gravel crunching under my feet. I stood a few feet from her and exhaled a deep breath. “Hey, Drew,” I said softly.

I startled her, because she jumped and looked at me with surprised eyes. “Lane?” she breathed, and placed a hand on her chest. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry.” I frowned. “I thought you heard me walking up.”

She shook her head. “I was in a world of my own.”

I shoved my hands into my coat pockets. “I was visiting Lavender and saw you down here. I wanted to come and say hello.”

She flicked her eyes over my shoulder before sliding her eyes back to mine. “I never got a chance to say it, but I’m sorry about your friend. Kale told me how devastated you were when she died. He said he lost you that day in the hospital.”

I stared at her, surprised she’d revealed that to me.

“He said that?” I questioned.

Drew nodded. “He used to have nightmares about it. He’d sit up in the middle of the night apologising to you and trying to console you, but then he’d wake up and realise you weren’t there.”

My stomach churned because I knew that he had been trying to make amends and comfort me because that was when he had told me he and Drew were going to have a baby together.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Drew blinked. “What for?”

“For being on his mind when he was with you.”

Drew smiled then, and I couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. She was older now, but she was also still the nine-year-old girl I’d first met in the school playground all those years ago.

“Lane, you were always on Kale’s mind. He’d talk about you without realising what he was doing. We’d be watching a film or having a random conversation, and you’d pop into his head, and everything would become about you.”

Shame filled me.

“I’m so sorry.”

She laughed. “Why are you sorry? You couldn’t help that he thought about you.”

I knew that, but I felt guilty all the same. “I owe you a massive apology, Drew,” I said, keeping my gaze on hers.

She blinked her emerald-green eyes. “What for?”

I swallowed. “For how I treated you growing up when you were nothing but sweet to me. I was petty, childish and plain horrible to you for no other reason than you had Kale. I was out of order to ever be rude to you, and I should have known better. I’m so sorry; I hope you can forgive me.”

Drew stared at me for a moment, and then the corners of her eyes creased as she smiled. “You don’t have to be sorry.”

My mouth fell open, and it caused her to laugh.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Of course I do. I was awful to you.”

“I forgave you years ago.” She shrugged. “You were heartbroken, and I now know that people do things beyond their control when they are heartbroken.”

I looked at Kaden’s picture.

“He was a little stunner, Drew. You and Kale created someone incredible, and I’m so sorry that he died.”

“He’s still with us.” Drew looked from me to Kaden’s picture on his headstone, and she smiled. “He was a hoot – you’d have loved him.”

“I would have,” I said quickly.

She sighed. “I miss him every day. He’d have been nearly six if he were alive now.”

“Six,” I whispered.

“He was a mini Kale,” she mused.

I smiled. “Kale showed me videos and pictures, and I said Kaden was the double of him, but he was adamant that he looked like you.”