Falling into Forever (Falling into You) - By Lauren Abrams Page 0,41

yourself for good. Because I don’t know. I just don’t know. I think if anyone ever managed to figure out this whole love thing, they’d have to shun society and live alone on an uninhabitable mountaintop to keep the people from beating down the door. If you’ve heard of anyone who’s ever actually done that, it might be worth taking some uninhabitable mountaintop climbing lessons.”

That makes me laugh. “Uninhabitable mountain climbing lessons, huh?”

“It was the best analogy I could think of. I’m not the wordsmith. Ben was.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“See that you do.”

I extend my hand to Sam, and he shakes it tentatively.

“Thank you, Sam.”

“You’re welcome, Jensen. And if you let it slip to Hallie that I told you any of this, I will kill you. No alleys needed.”

I take one last glance at the pile of candy wrappers and nod my head at him before we make our way back to the main gallery. As we reach the bottom of the stairs, he turns to me and shakes his head.

“You’re a prick who doesn’t deserve a woman like that. You do know that, right?”

“Does any man ever really deserve a woman?”

I tilt my head towards a brown-skinned knockout wearing a silver dress who’s tapping her watch and giving Sam a death stare. They obviously belong to each other.

He takes a look at her and grins back at me.

“Fair enough, man. Fair enough.”

I see the way that Sam’s hand rests on the woman’s back as they move into the waiting crowd, and I try to ignore the familiar twinge of longing before turning to scan the room for Marcus. I find him and Eva tucked away in a corner. She’s gesturing with an animated expression on her face, and he’s matching her, waving his frenzied hands in the air. People have moved away to give them a little bubble of space in which to air their anger. I think about going over to rescue him, but I decide against it.

Even Marcus needs a good ass-kicking sometimes.

Chapter 11

HALLIE

The plane ride from New York to Wisconsin is just interminable enough that I manage to indulge all of my wildest fantasies about Chris and me before slipping into a melancholy state that’s only enhanced by the clouds passing by outside of my window. I read somewhere that planes make you nostalgic. Something about the lack of fresh oxygen.

I should have taken a bus, because that nostalgia is making me forget all of the reasons why I should forget everything that happened in New York. Instead, it makes me remember.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved me. I loved him back. I thought that was all we needed. All we would ever need.

The worst part about it, even after life intervened and taught me that it can never be that simple, is that maybe I still believe that it’s enough.

I should know better by now.

* * *

6 ½ Years Earlier

New York

“I have to go back to Greenview.”

The last thing in the world I really want to do is to go back to Greenview. Eight months with him isn’t enough. I need more. However, my mother’s nagging, insistent voice plays like a broken record, saying, “Hallie Viola Caldwell,” over and over again. Of course, she just has to add the middle name each time. It takes me back to my kindergarten self, standing, with my hand literally caught in the cookie jar. Damn it. Moms.

Chris twists a long lock of my hair between his fingers. “I know.”

“And you need to go make a movie. The cop movie doesn’t count. It won’t be seen by enough people to be a real follow-up to James Ross, and you really have to think about your career. I know I sound like Marcus right now, but you really need a new project that will keep your name on everyone’s radar. A big-budget film is the only real way to do that.”

“What if I just want to play house in Atlanta with you? You know. We can see how dirty the dirty South really is?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I laugh at his cheesiness.

“Don’t even joke about things like that. We’ve had eight months, of Prague, and here, and everywhere in between. We were only supposed to have a week together, if you remember correctly, and we’ve managed to extend it for this long. We should just take that and be grateful. Besides, it won’t kill us to spend some time apart. People do it