Page 258 of His Virgin Romance Series

“Have I been different?” I asked, realizing she had turned the tables on me.

“I think so,” Abby nodded. “Almost like you wanted to tell me something all week that you’ve been holding back.”

It was on the tip of my tongue. I was about to tell her the truth and say, “I love you, Abby, just stay here with me. And if you don’t want to stay here with me… I’ll follow you wherever you want to go.”

The words didn’t sound so crazy in my head, and I contemplated saying them out loud for a moment. But then my courage stalled, and I turned my gaze away from her blue eyes. “No… I haven’t been holding anything back.”

“Oh,” Abby nodded, and she sounded disappointed. “Ok.”

I looked at her carefully, wondering if there was something important I was missing. “Abby?”

“Yes?”

“You’re sure this is what you want?” I asked. “I mean… the move and everything?”

“Oh… yes,” she nodded. “I think I need some distance from everything I’ve been through here.”

I nodded. “Right.”

She took a deep breath and turned to me. “I’ve decided to leave today, Ryder,” she revealed, much to my dismay.

“What?” I asked. “You were supposed to leave tomorrow morning.”

“I know,” Abby nodded. “But I woke up today with the weirdest feeling in my gut. I knew I would have to leave tomorrow and… well, anyway, there’s nothing keeping me from leaving today.”

“But—”

“I don’t really want to do a whole big goodbye,” Abby interrupted me. “I kind of just want to leave without a whole big thing.”

“There’s no big thing.”

Abby smiled. “I just came up here to take a moment for myself before going.”

“Were you even going to tell me?”

“Of course I was,” Abby sounded stunned that I would even ask her that. “Of course I was going to tell you before I left. I just didn’t want it to be a big scene.”

“Why would it be?” I asked, without thinking.

She raised her eyebrows for a moment and nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “Why would it be?”

“I’ll be seeing you, Ryder,” she said. Then she leaned in abruptly and kissed me gently on the cheek before she started off down the hill towards the house.

I watched her go, knowing that she didn’t want me to follow her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do… I just watched her walk away from me knowing that I might never see her again. It was odd how the world felt shaky underneath my feet all of a sudden. I watched from a distance as Devon came out of the house, followed by the rest of the guys.

I saw Abby give each one a hug. I saw Devon load up the trunk of the car. I saw Abby wave to the boys before getting into the passenger’s seat. She rolled down the window and smiled at the boys. At the last minute, her head turned in my direction, and her eyes found me. I couldn’t see her expression very clearly, and I didn’t really want to. I turned my back on the moving car, but my ears followed the sound until it had vanished into the distance.

Then, I turned back towards the house and just like that… she was gone, and my life had gone back to normal. Except nothing about it felt normal. I certainly didn’t feel normal. In fact, I felt sick to my stomach. For a second, I actually felt the need to throw up. Pushing down the urge, I went down to the house and walked into the living room. The boys were all lounging around, doing different things, but everyone looked up at me at the same moment.

“What?” I demanded, hating the scrutiny.

“Abby just left with Devon,” Red said.

“I know,” I nodded. “She told me she was leaving early.”

“Did she say goodbye to you?” Lonny asked.

“Yes,” I said shortly, trying to get up to my room so that I wouldn’t have to deal with their stares.

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