Can't Let Go - By Michelle Brewer Page 0,22

to rest in front of her, reaching out and touching her glasses. He lifted them until they rested on top of her head.

She wanted to look away—she didn’t want him to see her like this. But she couldn’t. Logan found her eyes and he held them, each of them revealing to each other the depths of their pains. The tears continued and he reached out, touching the palm of his hand to her cheek and using his thumb to brush them away.

“I know it does, Abby.” And she could hear the anguish in his voice. He really did understand—he felt her pain, because it was the same for him. Blake was as much his family as Hayley was hers. “I wish I could make it go away for you—for the both of us. But I can’t—and nothing will. This is a pain you will feel for the rest of your life.”

Though Abby knew that he was referring to the sudden loss she’d just experienced with the death of her friends, part of her wondered if he was talking about the pain he had left her with. Because, until now, that loss had been the worst she had suffered.

She had been so young when her mother had died, she could barely remember the pain. But when she had woken that morning after Logan had left her to find only a note waiting for her, she’d experienced an overwhelming sense of grief as she realized what it meant.

Abby turned her head then, breaking contact with him. She couldn’t do this—she couldn’t remember that day and deal with her current circumstance. Not at the same time.

She sniffed, wiping at her cheeks and shaking her head. “We should let Allison know what we’ve chosen.” And with her words, the moment was broken. She’d revealed too much of herself, and now it was time to go back—to hide within herself and keep the rest of the world at bay. She replaced the sunglasses and turned back to face him.

Logan nodded, a sense of sadness washing over him. He longed to reach out to her—longed to comfort her, to prove to her that everything was going to be all right. But he couldn’t. He knew this.

With a very gentle sigh, Logan turned and began to make the trek back to his rental truck, his eyes on the petite frame of the girl he’d once loved.

The girl he still loved.

She was trying so hard to keep everything together—he could tell. He wished she knew that she didn’t have to put on any shows for him. He wouldn’t judge her.

But Abigail Lewis had always been a headstrong girl. Asking for help would simply be out of the question.

And so, Logan thought to himself as they reached the truck, he would just have to make sure he was there to extend the offer whenever she might need it.

Chapter Four

Abby woke with a start, staring groggily at the ceiling. She rolled over and glanced at the clock.

It was only nine in the morning.

She’d only just fallen asleep two hours ago. With a groan, she rolled back over and stared up at the ceiling.

It felt as if she was living in a fog.

She replayed the events of last night in her mind. They’d gone back to the funeral home, where the final arrangements had been made—and then she’d come back to the motel and proceeded to make various phone calls. When two a.m. rolled around, she had lain down in the bed and gone through various checklists in her head—whatever she could do to keep her mind from the present.

But then she’d found herself thinking about Logan anyway.

She had tossed and turned for several hours, going back and forth in her mind between the loss of her best friend and the return of her former lover, unable to linger on either for too long because of the overwhelming ache that filled her chest—but she hadn’t been able to focus on anything else.

It had been a long night, and on more than one occasion, she’d had to flip her pillow over because it was soaked with tears.

Finally, though, she’d succumbed to sleep. But even her dreams had plagued her, images of the past and present equally as haunting, and finally, she’d woken with tears in her eyes.

She and Logan were supposed to go to Blake and Hayley’s house today, so that they could choose the clothing that their friends would be laid to rest in.

Part of her was anxious to see him.