about that.”
He sighed a little. Then he said, “I was afraid I’d be too late.”
“For what? The party’s just getting started.”
“For you.”
“Well, another hour or so and you would’ve been. This dress turns into rags at precisely midnight.”
“I’m serious. I feel like I let you down again.”
I considered that, along with the fact that he still wasn’t moving.
“How long have you been out here, Cary?”
“About forty minutes.” He took a breath and sighed again. “I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it without leaning on you. But… I kinda got stuck.”
“Right here?”
“Yeah. Right here.”
I glanced around until I saw him; Liam. On the sidewalk, not far away. Waiting by. “It really doesn’t matter, Cary. Don’t you get that? What matters is you’re here.”
“But here isn’t there,” he said, finally turning a little to glance up at the hotel.
“Cary. Baby. You’re doing that thing. You’re stalling by cutting yourself down. To try to make an excuse to not go in there. By telling yourself that you’ve already failed, when you haven’t.”
“Yeah. I am,” he agreed. And I knew he was scared to walk into that party. How could he not be? It had been five years since he’d done anything like this.
And the last party he’d celebrated… basically ended with the death of his best friend.
“Look, I’m sure there would’ve come a time, eventually, when you would’ve been too late for me,” I said. “I mean, maybe if you walked up to me in my rocking chair when I’m eighty and said, ‘Hey babe, I’m ready. Let’s give it a go,’ I might be like, ‘Fuck you, buddy. You had your chance.’” That won a small smirk. “But you know what? We’re young. The night is young. And you’re not too late.” I laced my hand through his. “You made it this far. You can make it the rest of the way. There’s no difference between here and there.”
“There’s a huge difference, Taylor. Here, it’s just you and me. There, it’s hundreds of people.”
“But we’re still just you and me.” I squeezed his hand. “And nothing bad is going to happen. It’s a party. Zane even showed up fully clothed. There’s nothing to fear.”
A reluctant smile crept over his face.
“Good things happen at parties, Cary. Especially parties hosted by Summer Sorensen and Trey Jones.”
He looked up at the hotel behind me again. “I can imagine.”
“You don’t have to imagine. You can live.”
He met my eyes.
“It’s really dark in there,” I assured him. “We’ll find a dark corner and we can just sit down. And when a nice, slow song comes on, you can dance with me.”
“Okay,” he said, finally. His grip on my hand tightened. “Don’t let go of me.”
“I won’t,” I promised him. “Not ever.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Taylor
Stay in My Corner
This time when I walked into the party, I noticed how intense the whole scene was.
The noise. The crowd. The glitter.
The loud music.
The darkness.
I held Cary’s hand, and just like I promised, I didn’t let go of him.
He did amazingly well, considering. He stayed pretty glued to me, but I hardly minded. As long as it didn’t involve him puking or passing out or turning and hightailing it out of here without me, I’d be happy with however this played out.
I took him straight over to Xander and Courteney, and when they laid eyes on us, I silently willed them not to flip out on him too exuberantly.
“Cary!” Courteney gushed, immediately giving him a hug.
When she stepped back, he took a look up and down her sexy mermaid outfit. I met his eyes and grinned.
“You look great, CC,” he said.
“So glad you made it, brother,” Xander said, and he and Cary exchanged a manly hug and back slap.
And that was that.
We were in the door. We were among friends. And Cary was doing well.
We said hello to everyone in the band. Brody. Trey. Eventually, we said hello to probably a few dozen other people that Cary knew. I asked him if he wanted to find a corner to hide out, but he just said, “I’m here. I can hide out at home.”
He was calm, reserved, quiet. He was polite. He was warm, given that he was probably uncomfortable.
I was so proud of him I could’ve wept.
I kept wondering at what point I should whisk him out of here so as not to overdo it and ruin what we’d already achieved tonight.
The later into the night we got, I kept wondering if my time was running out.
But I didn’t