Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,156

than ten minutes to accomplish with all eight of them. Very few words were needed, and even fewer were used. As he went back to the task at hand, Greg kept one eye on Taylor. He was fighting the anger at all she had been through already, now this. If he could rip whoever did this to shreds, he gladly would have.

“Does the lamp go too?” Lauren asked quietly working at the desk.

“Uh, yeah,” Taylor said as she headed to the closet to help Ryan and Nelson. She scratched her head and ran her fingers all the way down her hair. “It’s mine.”

“Okay.”

Wes came back in and went over to where Lauren was. They had a quick, quiet conversation that Greg didn’t really hear or pay attention to.

“Do you want me to clean out the night stand?” he asked, standing there. The last thing he wanted was to start pulling things out she didn’t want anyone to see.

“Uh, no, I can get it,” she said. At the closet, she told Ryan and Nelson to just throw everything into the little tubs and she would sort it all out later.

“I ran into Celeste in the hallway,” Paige said, coming in. “She said she’ll need to come and do an inspection when we’re all done here.”

“Oh, okay,” Taylor said, but Greg wasn’t sure she’d even heard that as she came over, opened the top drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a few things that she laid on the bed.

“These books go?” Wes asked, standing there already holding the stack of them at the desk.

“Yeah.” Taylor took out two more things before opening the bottom drawer.

Greg heard the sigh as he stood watching. He wished they could’ve done this any other way. She reached inside and came up with something he recognized—the picture of the four of them right after high school graduation. Strange, he had thought her copy of it was probably back home or long gone. Standing there, watching her hold it like that, like it was fragile and precious and the last thing in the world she had to hold onto, however, he put his gaze down and waited a breath. If she needed a moment to gather herself, he would just stand right there for as long as she needed.

Holding the picture, Taylor closed her eyes as hot tears stung her eyes, and she tried desperately to grab onto that night once again. That night everything had seemed possible, but the memory was fading now in a way that scared her. Why was hope getting harder and harder to hold onto when bad things happened? How had she even gotten here? This time wasn’t even her fault. It was like bad was following her now and getting closer and closer with every step.

She opened her eyes and watched helplessly as her life came undone once more, and honestly, she was just tired of fighting all the bad that kept dragging her under. If this was a battle, she was losing it badly. Shaking her head slowly, she wrapped the picture to her chest and sat down on the bed as tears started sliding down her cheeks. With that, Greg sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

“Why does it always feel like I’m starting all back over?” she asked, the brokenness cracking her voice into pieces.

Greg nodded with understanding as he pulled her into his embrace. “You’re not. It’s just time to move on, that’s all.”

Tired of it all, she laid her head onto his shoulder. What she wouldn’t give to just give up right there. “This is really hard.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’re really brave.” He angled his gaze down to her, then pulled her close and rubbed her arm. “Remind me again, who was it that stranded Jimmy Dublouski in the tree because he couldn’t go as high as she could?” When she didn’t answer, he shook her gently. “Who was that?”

Taylor ducked closer to him and sniffed. “Me.”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought,” he said, nodding as if he really was trying to remember it. “And remind me who it was that stood up to those sixth graders that time they told us we couldn’t use the slide when we were in the fourth grade?” A breath and he shook her again.

“Me,” she said, turtling in closer to him because her tears were starting to turn into a reluctant smile. Somehow, she’d almost forgotten that girl—the one who stood up to the world