Hollow (Heaven Hill Generations #4) - Laramie Briscoe Page 0,25
D.”
“I honestly love you,” I whisper to her.
Locked in the truck with the fog starting to rise from the ground around me, it’s easy for me to pretend like we’re in the early stages of our relationship again, trying to hide it from everyone. All those conversations we used to have with whispered voices and hidden feelings come flooding back, the same excited beating of my heart. The same flutter in my stomach as I hear the tone she reserves for me, and only for me.
“I love you too, Dalton, and I’m so sorry about how we left things the last time we saw each other.”
Thinking about the night in the field still hurts, but I’m man enough to look past it, if she’s willing to put in the work on herself. “We were both lost.” I play with one of the zippers on the pocket of my coveralls. “We were looking for two different things and neither one of us realized it. I was hurt at the time, I’m not gonna lie to you, but I’d much rather be upset about something than not have you in my life.” My voice catches, and I do my best to push past it. “When I heard you almost…” I trail off, not yet able to say the word. “My world stopped, Mandy. You and Walker mean so much to me, I’m so sorry you felt the way you did.”
“I’m learning a lot, and one of the things I’m learning is I have a habit of abandoning people before they can do the same to me. I’m sorry for that, I’ve abandoned you more than once.”
What else is there for me to do? Even though we have so much to work on, there’s no way I can’t accept her apology. She’s giving it, and I have to respect how much she had to work on herself to even ask for it.
“I accept your apology, babe. It’s so good to hear your voice, and let’s not forget I abandoned you before too. We’ve both fucked up. We’ve both pushed each other away instead of talking things out.”
“It’s good to hear yours too, and you’re right. We have to start communicating. I don’t want to be in this position again. But enough about that, how is Walker? Did he get my letter?” I haven’t heard excitement like this in so long from her, if I could bottle up and save it for the hard times, I would.
“Yeah, he about killed me when he ran into the dorm and hugged me so tight I thought he was gonna squeeze me to death, but it was the tears that did me in.”
“I caused that.” She sounds resigned.
“We both did,” I remind her, not wanting her to fall in the trap of negative self-talk. Maybe I’ve done a little research myself. “There were things I could have done differently, and I didn’t.”
“We’re gonna talk about it,” she says with firmness. “A few weeks from now I’ll be able to invite you into my therapy session, and I hope you’ll come.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back to me, Mandy. My life…” I look for the words to express what I’ve been feeling, how lost I’ve been without her, and they don’t come as easy as I once thought they would. “It isn’t a life without you and Walker in it. Perfection doesn’t exist, but the three of us? When things were good, they were close.”
“I agree, and I know Walker will need to be part of the conversation too, but I want to make sure our relationship is strong before we bring him into this. He’s been through a lot, D, things I never wanted him to deal with, situations I never wanted him to see. Right now, I have a chance to fix things, and if I don’t do it now, I’m afraid I’ll never get another shot.”
“Then we’ll do our best to make sure this is what our family needs. We won’t stop until we all feel good about it, even if it means we’re still talking to people about our shit fifteen years from now. I’ll do whatever it takes to have my family together, babe. I can’t go on without you again.”
“I can’t go on without you again either.” I hear someone talking in the background. “I gotta go, my time is up. Caelin got that phone specifically for me. Keep it on you? I’m not sure when I’ll get other