Page 75 of Unforgettable
Haven knelt beside me and took my hand. “The hardest thing for me when my mom died was reading her gravestone. Something about seeing the inscription punctured a hole in my heart. I cried like a baby that day, and when I was done, I felt a little less suffocated. I’m not going to give you clichés about healing, and I can’t tell you it will get easier. But do those things that will make them proud and happy as they watch down over you.”
“Living my dream of playing for the NFL would make my old man happy. Finding love would make my mom and Leigh happy. As for Randal, he would be stoked to see me laugh with him.”
“Then do those things.” A tear ran down her cheek. “And laugh as much as you can.”
I didn’t want to be cocky and say playing for the NFL was easy because it wasn’t. I hadn’t had any scouts talk to me yet, but I still had one year of college to go after this year. As far as finding love or a steady girl… well, that would be like trying to climb Mount Everest.
“I didn’t know your family, but reading their epitaphs, I would say they were awesome people, especially your sister.”
More tears flowed as I clutched Haven’s hand as though she were my lifeline. “Leigh was special.” My voice cracked.
She sniffled. “You two were close?”
“Very.”
“Tell me something about her.”
With my free hand, I wiped my nose. “She was brave and full of life. She worried about me, though. She worried that I would be a single man the rest of my life. She wanted me to find a steady girl. She thought love could tame the beast inside me. Her words exactly.”
Haven giggled through another sniffle. “I wish I could’ve met her.”
“She would’ve liked you.”
The trees around us rustled as if Leigh were telling me she agreed.
Suddenly, I was bombarded with memories as though I were on a battlefield. My childhood flashed before me, and I could hear Randal’s laugh as if he were right there. I could see my mom’s smile as though she were standing behind her gravestone.
I shivered as I listened to my old man tell me to stay focused on football. “Keep your sights on the NFL.”
I could even see Leigh smiling at me.
I threw my face in my hands.Why? Why did the plane crash? What went wrong?My old man had been flying the private jet. He’d been meticulous about maintenance and repairs. But sadly, I would never know the reason, and even if I did, it wouldn’t change the fact that they’d died.
More tears started streaming down until I was laboring for breath.
Haven leaned her head on my arm. “I’m here for you.”
I wanted to ask her why she would console a man she hardly knew. Maybe she was turning out to be someone I could count on, someone I could turn to.
Before I could think, I was sobbing in her arms like a little boy.
She didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to. Her holding me, rubbing me, crying with me said so much. I knew she had to be mourning her mom, but I also could feel her empathy, sympathy, and so much more.
I shoved my hands into her hair and rested my forehead against hers. “Why are you here, Haven?” I was asking myself more than I was asking her.
She batted her long lashes. “Because I’m your friend.”
In that moment, time came to a screeching halt as I captured her lips in mine in a tender, soft, and gentle kiss. Something inside me changed—blooming, twisting, flipping, and flopping—masking the pain I’d been accustomed to since that fatal day.
I slid my tongue into her mouth as she opened for me. One hand cupped her cheek, and the other seated on the back of her neck. My breathing was staccato as I took my time to explore.
She was putty in my hands. Maybe she was allowing me to release my sorrow and my pain. But I knew that was a lie because she was breathing as hard as I was.
She tasted of sunshine and home, and I didn’t want to stop. The more I kissed her, the more that stabbing pain eased its hold on me.
I adjusted us so my ass was on the ground and she was straddling me, just like the first night in my media room when I’d known nothing about her and the feeling of her on top of me had been lust, pure and strong.
But now I didn’t want to splay her out and have my way with her. I wanted her, no needed her, to make me forget that I was alone on this planet, to make me forget that my family was dead, to make me forget that when daylight came the next day, that I would be okay.
