Lines Drawn (Drawn to You #2) - Ker Dukey Page 0,57

some sand. There’s a flutter in my stomach at the thought of him taking someone. It’s not something I want to dissect but my brain will anyway.

You just don’t want him to be too preoccupied to save you from the awkwardness of the whole thing.

Yeah, that’s it.

“And do you have one?” I ask, looking out over the water.

I can sense his eyes staring at me.

“How would you feel about that?”

I turn my eyes to him. “What does that mean?”

He laughs and pulls on my arm. “I just mean how would you feel going alone?”

Dipping my eyes, I shake my head in a sign of indifference. “I’ll have Mary. Girls’ night.”

“She’s taking a date.”

My feet halt again and my mouth pops open to form an O. “Since when?”

“Since today. She told me earlier.”

“Well, damn. Good for her.”

We pick up our steps again and walk in silence for a few minutes before he turns and stops us again. Facing me, he takes a piece of hair that keeps flittering across my eyes and tucks it behind my ear.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. There’s going to be no date.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Because you feel guilty making me sit there alone?”

“Exactly. What kind of friend would I be if I wasn’t available to dance with you?”

“You dance?”

“When it’s with a pretty girl I do.” He grins.

But before he can take off walking again, I grab his arm. “You’re the best kind of friend, Gav. Thank you for everything.”

“Don’t. You don’t need to thank me.”

“But I want to. I want you to know that I see you.” I place my hand over his heart. “I see you.”

Looking the part and feeling it are two different things. My hair is done, make-up on, and dress sitting just above the knee, but I don’t want to be here. Gaby has sat me next to Finlay and it’s cruel of her.

She loves us, I don’t doubt that, but her wanting us to reconcile after knowing how desperately I loved him and how crushingly he broke us there’s no going back from that. Fin is my soulmate, I know that, and I’ll have to go through my life knowing we only had each other for a passing moment in time. Parts of me will always long for him, need him, murmur his name in my dark sleep, but when I needed him to be there for me when I was losing everything including my own identity, he couldn’t stay strong enough. What we shared wasn’t enough for him. I pushed him away as a defense to try and heal, and he let me. He used that distance and obliterated us.

It’s awkward as hell. We don’t talk. We’re both just trying to hear the conversations of other people at the table so we don’t have to address the uncomfortable atmosphere we’re cocooned in.

A brush against my skin just between my neck and shoulder makes me shiver. Lifting my head to see who’s standing there, I see the blue depths of Gavin’s eyes boring down on me.

“Would you mind switching seats with me? I’d like to chat with Finlay.”

He’s saving me, we all know it, but we all need it.

“Sure.” Grabbing my glass, I down the drink and hurry from the seat.

Gaby and Mike tap a glass to bring everyone’s attention to them.

They look happy; their smiles reach their eyes and they can’t stop touching each other. Maybe she is ready for marriage. God, I know how fast life can change. We need to grab on to the good moments and keep them as long as possible.

“Mom has put a little something together, so if I can ask you all to look at the monitor.” Gaby beams.

A projector has been put up against the back wall of a beautiful Italian restaurant they hired out exclusively for this night.

Light flickers on the screen and then a baby picture of Gaby graces the canvas, followed by one I’m assuming is Mike.

The screen flits to black and then there’s another picture of Gaby around four or five, dressed in a summer dress and her mother’s high heels. Her body is bent over as if she’s tumbling. The image blinks and then there’s another of Mike. Everyone awws until the screen fills with a picture of me. My brows pinch together. The image is of me at prom being goofy, poking my tongue at the camera that James was holding.

Gaby’s eyes find me across the table and she’s smiling. Why would she want that in her collage?

Picture after picture of me