Never Let Me Go (39 page)

“I’m definitely surprised, pretty girl,” Colin said, his green eyes ablaze. “Thank you. All of you!” He turned to address the rest of his guests before turning to Hayden and Lizzie. “And thank
you
, Hayden and Elizabeth, for planning this for me. This is all I ever could have wanted and so much more.” Hayden raised his hand in a silent ‘you’re welcome’, and Lizzie gave him a thumbs up from behind the lens of her camera.

Colin had spoken not a moment too soon. The minute he stopped talking, the maître d came over to the table with a large rolling tray with plates full of food. Colin grinned, raising his shoulders in a shrug.

While everyone was served dinner, everyone took turns greeting Colin’s siblings, and I made my way over to Hayden, who was standing next to his sister and whispering in her ear.

He caught my eye the minute I was close to him, strolling casually over to me. His arm draped around my shoulder, he leaned forward and kissed the top of my head. “Hey, you.”

I smiled up at him, letting my small arms encircle his trim figure. “Hey.” I stared at Colin’s family talking and getting reacquainted with each other with a heavy heart. It was just a shame that Colin’s parents couldn’t be there. “This is quite the shindig, Mr. Jax.”

Hayden shrugged, like he did stuff like that all the time. Sure, he did. In fact, he’d made a career out of it. But honestly, my compliment wasn’t aimed toward the party in itself. It was aimed toward the personal touches he’d jumped through to put on this party for the one person in my entire life who deserved it more than anyone else.

“Don’t shrug at me.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “You don’t even know what you’ve done, do you?”

Hayden shook his head, leaning his head down and regarding me questioningly. “What’ve I done?”

“You’ve made this the best day of Colin’s life since the day he met Nic.” I snuggled my head against his chest, watching as Colin smiled the brightest smile I’d seen in a long time. “You
do
realize that when they get engaged, you’ll have to plan their wedding, yes?”

Hayden blinked down at me, his amber eyes piercing through my blue ones.

“I’ll do anything for them, as long as it means you’ll look at me this way all the time.”

“What way?”

“Like I’ve hung the moon.”

“Haven’t you, though?” I didn’t know how I could possibly explain it to him without telling him all the intimate details of my best friends’ personal lives. “Colin and Nickayla are two of the kindest people in the entire world, and they’ve been through more shit than any people their age should ever have to deal with. So just the fact you’ve gotten them to smile
that
big,” I pointed to them when I said the word
that
, “after all they’ve had to endure this year alone means you’ve hung the moon in my books.”

He stared at me like I’d grown three extra heads, like he couldn’t tell whether I was being serious or not. But I was serious as a heart attack. He’d won
major
Brownie points with me.

“Well, I’m glad I could do that, then,” he said. “I’m happy to hang the moon for you any time, love.”

I watched the guests with him, and once everyone had taken their seats at the table once more, I took my boyfriend’s hand and led him toward the table so that we could join everyone else. I took a seat beside Nickayla, and Hayden sat on the other side of me.

The food before us looked magnificent. Thanks to Nickayla, Mexican food was now Colin’s absolute favorite, so naturally, he insisted on Mexican cuisine at his party. As a backup, though, we’d ordered fried chicken and mac and cheese for those who didn’t want to eat what we wanted.

We’d ordered
birria de res
, which was basically a pulled pork in a red
chile
sauce, and as sides, we had red rice and refried beans, with both corn and flour tortillas, and homemade green and red
chile
on the side. That’s what most of us were eating, with the exception of Nana and the younger kids who couldn’t handle the spices.

Before we dug in, Nana insisted that she say a grace over the food so that it was blessed. No one wanted to argue with Nana, so we prepared to comply, but Colin shot me a weary glance. We couldn’t bless the food or eat until
everyone
was in attendance.

Everyone meaning Brody.

According to what Nickayla had told me, Brody was somewhere in the house, and he wasn’t going to come out until it was time to eat. At first, I thought that maybe he wasn’t showing up because I was there with Hayden, Skylar, and Lizzie, but Nickayla quickly shot that idea down.

“Mich, I’m saying this because I’m your best friend in the entire world, and all we’ve ever been is honest with each other,” she’d said, her palms splayed atop my shoulders as her chocolate eyes stared directly at me. “There are billions of suns circling billions of moons circling billions of planets circling one point. And that point is
not
you.”

So, I let that notion go, and I continued going on about my day, but I couldn’t help but feel worried about him. If he wasn’t avoiding me, there must have been something going on in his life that was keeping him withdrawn from the rest of us. As an ex-girlfriend, I’d lost the privilege to ask about such things, but as a best friend—which I’d hoped that we still were—I still had the privilege to worry.

We were all holding hands while Nickayla disappeared into the house to retrieve Brody. I twined my fingers with Hayden’s, squeezing his hand lightly as I gave him another smile. Skylar, running up to the table with the rest of the kids, came and sat next to her dad, but that didn’t stop her from peeking around him at me from time to time with a wide grin. I could tell she was excited, because nearly everywhere else, there was an adult table and a kid table, but this time, we wanted everyone in the same place. Skylar had expressed earlier in the day that she felt like a big girl sitting with the rest of us.

“He’ll be out in two seconds,” Nic said, walking briskly toward us in her four inch heels and reclaiming her seat beside me. “Sorry for the hold up, guys. Birthday Boy wants everyone here.” She stuck her tongue out at Colin before leaning over and kissing him.

Even though I hadn’t meant for them to, my eyes drifted over to the back entrance of the house just in time to watch Brody emerge, fumbling with the buttons on his shirt and blowing his overlong hair out of his eyes. He looked up, and his eyes met mine for a split second before he looked away and trotted over to the table.

Hayden squeezed my hand—whether to reassure me or to reclaim me, I wasn’t exactly sure—and I turned to give him a quick peck on the lips.

Brody took a seat at the foot of the table, and he took the hands of Colin’s two teenage cousins—who I was sure had been gawking shamelessly at him from the moment he stepped out of the house—Kelly and Alia.

“Sorry, I’m late, everyone,” Brody said, addressing the table but avoiding my gaze. “I had some stuff at home to attend to.” He paused, waving at Nana and giving her a tight smile. “So. Grace?”

It was silent for a while, and then Colin’s uncle Benson spoke up. “What’s your name, son?”

Brody cleared his throat and locked eyes with me before averting his gaze. “Brody. Brody Durham, sir.”

Benson smiled, giving him a nod, which I supposed was a guy’s way of saying hi without actually saying hi. “Well, Brody, since my nephew was insistent on us waiting for you to arrive, why don’t you say Grace for us?”

Brody nodded slowly, then coughed a bit. He bowed his head, and the rest of us followed suit. I closed my eyes, and I could only assume that everyone else followed suit. I listened closely as Brody cleared his throat.

“Heavenly Father, we gather here today in celebration of Colin’s eighteenth birthday. We’d like to thank you for allowing him to see another year of life, for blessing him bountifully, for letting him see another year
healthy
, and for bringing him into all of ours. He’s so much better to us than we deserve. We thank you for bringing Colin’s family to sit at this table and celebrate with us, and we ask you to bless those that were unable to make it. Thank you for the means to produce such a celebration, and thank you for the food that we are about to receive for the nourishment of our bodies and our souls. We ask that you bless this food, Father, and that you bless those that partake of it. Good bread, good meat, good God, let’s eat. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

And with those words, we commenced eating dinner.

Chapter Twenty Seven

“Happy birthday, dear Colin! Happy birthday to you!” we sang in unison.

We watched as Colin blew out the birthday candles on his cake, and then beamed up at us. One of the waiters was behind Colin, pulling candles out of the cake and getting it ready to slice.

Nic and I had picked the cake ourselves.

There was a small bakery across from Van Leer’s that Summer absolutely
swore
by called Heartfelt Bakery. We’d ordered a square, two tiered fondant cake. One tier was red velvet with cream cheese filling, and the other tier German chocolate with chocolate mousse and coconut filling, which was apparently Colin’s favorite flavor of cake.

Nic grabbed slices of cake from the side table and began handing them out to everyone who wanted some. Brody had disappeared sometime after dinner, but he reappeared about ten minutes ago when Nickayla told him that we were about to do the cake and presents.

Immediately, I went to work handing out cake and ice cream to the children. We wanted to make sure that all of them were satisfied before any of us sat down. When I was certain that they were all occupied with sweets, I found Hayden. He was walking toward me with two slices of cake.

“I didn’t know which you’d prefer; I can take either, but I wanted you to choose first. I got corner slices.” He held the plates out to me as he led me back toward the table, and I grabbed the slice of red velvet.

I took a bite of the cake, and once I’d effectively chewed and swallowed, I smiled up at him. “How’d you know that corner slices are my favorite?”

He leaned forward, taking a piece of the German chocolate cake on his fork and feeding it to me. I moaned with pleasure as the succulent flavors assaulted my taste buds. “Corner slices have more frosting. Frosting is sweet. You’re sweet. It added up in my mind.”

I gave him a bite of the red velvet cake, sighing a bit as I set the cake on the table.

I looked around the party, at all the guests talking and laughing with each other, at Brody sitting on the steps talking with Colin’s cousin Meghan and her husband Evan, at our dogs frolicking with Bruno, and I knew that, despite the drama that’d ensued, my trip to Big Springs was pretty much a success.

“I can’t believe that I only have one day left,” I mused, looking over at Hayden as his eyes glossed over.

We’d decided to have Colin’s party on the 29
th
, because Nic’s last day at her internship was the 28
th
, and no one else could come up any sooner than that. We were leaving at 11 a.m. on the 31
st
, and then we’d be back home by three p.m. That meant that I only had about a day and a half left with Hayden.

I didn’t know how I was going to live through saying goodbye to him, to Skylar, and even to our dogs. I didn’t know how I was possibly going to be able to let them go. But it was inevitable, and there was no way I could change the outcome of the end of the summer.

“Don’t think like that,” Hayden cooed, the calm in his voice causing the exact opposite reaction in me. “Sure, it sucks ass that you have to leave, but if you meant what you said before, that you wanted to come back and start a life with me, then you can think of it as the first day of the rest of our lives. It’s going to hurt like Hell not having you near me, but it’ll get better. Trust me.”

I sighed, and he opened his arms for me. I got out of my chair, walking over and sitting on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, and I leaned my head back so that it was resting on his chest. I closed my eyes.

“I wish there was a way to avoid it, though,” I said. “We’ve only been together half the summer and we’ve been through
Hell
already! I can’t imagine having to put us through more than that.”

“I know.” Hayden’s voice was gruff and low. “God, I know, but it’s what we have to do. It’ll only make us stronger in the end. Just think of it as a test, love. Think of it as a test to see if we’ll survive the distance. And if we can, our love will be stronger for it.”

I groaned. I turned around, opening my eyes as I faced him. “You really believe that? That we’ll be stronger at the end of all this? Because as I sit here, riddled with the thoughts of having to leave you behind, having to leave Skylar behind, having to leave all that we’ve created behind…in this moment, imagining all that we’ll have to go through in just two short days, I’ve never felt so weak.”

With a laugh, Hayden kissed the side of my neck. “Well that’s the good thing about being in love, Michele. You don’t have to be strong all the time. You have someone who’s always willing to hold you up when you’re weak.”