Inevitable - Kristen Granata Page 0,60
below him, the night before he died.
Graham turned my incomplete sketch into a large canvas photo.
“I know you said it’s not finished,” he continues, “but that’s my favorite thing about this piece. I figured it could serve as a reminder that your story is never finished. There’s always more you can add to it, another way your life could turn.” He pauses. “Do you like it?”
I stand and swipe the tears from my cheeks. “This is so thoughtful. I love it. Thank you.”
We face each other, unspoken thoughts and feelings surrounding us in the silence, electricity crackling in the air.
“I’ve missed you,” he says.
“I’ve missed you too.” The words rush from my lips, and I don’t regret them. I’ve never regretted the way I felt about Graham.
The way I still feel.
His dark brows jump at my words, his eyes igniting like the strike of a match. That’s always how it’s been between us—a firework explosion of emotion, booming and sizzling, lighting up even the darkest of nights.
“I have some things I’d like to say.” He edges closer to me. “I know I’ve destroyed your trust in me. I know I ruined what we had. I lied to you and I went behind your back, and I put you in harm’s way. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you that night, if my father had ...”
He squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head, as if to knock the thought from his mind. When he opens them again, he focuses them on me and I feel every word he speaks in my soul.
“You are beautiful and perfect, inside and out. You have a heart that’s bigger than I’ve ever known to exist, and you deserve every good thing in this world. I’ll never forgive myself for hurting you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the mistakes I’ve made, and every night I imagine all the ways I could’ve done things differently. My dreams echo your name, begging for you to come back.
“You told me you needed time, and I heard you. I respected what you wanted. I let you go, even though it gutted me, even though I wanted to run after you and convince you to stay. I’ve watched you from afar over the past year, watched you grow and bloom and fight to move past all the heartache in your life.”
He takes another step closer and reaches out to caress my face, his fingers tracing the curve of my cheekbone. “You blow me away, Eva. No one compares to you. You’ve changed me, you make me want to be better. But that doesn’t mean shit if you’re not with me. The truth is: I don’t want to live my life without you in it. Please, Eva. Give me another chance. I’ll do it right this time. I wasn’t ready for you when we met, and everything was so wrong, but I promise you, I’ll give you everything I have in me if you say you’ll be mine.”
More tears roll down my cheeks, my bottom lip quivering as I try to keep it together. “You’ve been watching me?”
His giant shoulder lifts and falls. “I had to make sure you were okay.”
A small laugh escapes me. “You were always good at stalking me.”
One corner of his mouth lifts. “I love you, Eva. I’m yours, if you want me.” His voice breaks, and he grips my face in those massive hands. “Please, put me out of this misery and tell me you still love me too. Tell me we can start over.”
The passion in his eyes, the verity of his words, the emotion in his voice ... it consumes me.
“I wasn’t sure if I could learn how to forgive you,” I say. “It took me a long time to stop feeling angry, to wrap my head around what you did. The betrayal stung, and it skewed all of my favorite moments we had together. It felt like I didn’t have one true moment to cling on to. I felt used.”
Graham’s face falls, preparing himself for what he thinks I’m about to say next.
“But eventually I realized something. You found Eric’s letters, and you brought them to me. You knew it would blow your cover, that everything would change the second you handed me that envelope, and still you risked it all so that I could have one last piece of my brother. You knew what it meant to me, and you put