I didn’t make it out though before Sully cornered me in the foyer. “Please don’t go Adelay.” His beautiful, cloudy blue eyes were focused solely on mine.
“I have to Sully. I’m not myself; nothing is the way it should be. I just need to get back to some sort of normalcy, if even for a short time.”
“Your emotions are too fragile to be alone right now. I’m worried about you.”
“I have to go.” He put his arm over my shoulder, entrapping me between him and the wall, hindering my exit.
“Then, at least let me come with you. You won’t even know that I am there.”
I started to shake my head at his suggestion, but he caught it in between his hands holding it there and making me look straight at him. “Even though you were forced into being with me doesn’t mean I don’t love you or feel it’s my responsibility to make sure you are okay. My brother isn’t able to do it anymore; so, now I will.”
Suddenly, I felt selfish. “Oh Sully, I wasn’t forced! I knew exactly what I was doing when I made that choice. What’s really eating me up inside is the reality that my best friend is dead because of me, and now I’m told that I have to leave my parents for good. Everyone I love is being taken away from me. My life isn’t mine anymore. It’s a little too much to take in. I just need to get away from here so I can wrap my head around all of this. I’ll be fine alone.”
He touched my cheek with the back of his hand, pulling me into him, and wrapping his strong arms around me hugging me tightly against his solid chest. It wasn’t Davin but it wasn’t an entirely bad feeling.
“I know you love him, Adelay. I can feel it in the way you’re tense in my arms as I hold you close to me, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be your ear to talk to, your shoulder to cry on, and your voice to let you know that everything is going to be ok. You saved my life Adelay, and for that I will forever be indebted to you; but I’m begging you, please don’t shut me out. Let me help you through this.”
I loosened my shoulders a little, letting my body ease into him. “God gave me a second chance, yet I still feel like I’m dying inside. Where do we go from here?”
“I can’t answer that princess, but you can rest assure that I will be with you every step of the way.”
The threatened tears ultimately gave in, trickling down my cheeks onto the floor. “Okay fine, you can stay with me. There’s an extra bedroom upstairs for my sister when she visits. No one will know you’re there.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
My driveway was deserted when we pulled in, which wasn’t surprising since my parents were generally gone to Manchester or Lebanon almost every weekend, living their own secret life since we moved to Hanover, or so it seemed. I didn’t mind it though because it made getting Sully inside the house much easier with their absence. I threw my Expedition in park before heading inside with Sully shadowing behind me.
The smell of freshly baked cookies and robust coffee overpowered my nose. It was good to be home. Sully continued to follow me into the kitchen where I poured us both some coffee that was still hot in the maker, indicating my parents had just left this morning, and added a splash of hazelnut syrup before taking a seat next to Sully at the breakfast nook.
We sipped our coffee, silently watching the little white snowflakes that were covering the ground outside the large window.
“Oh, I forgot to give this to you earlier.”
He handed my cell phone over to me; whether or not it still worked I had yet to find out. It had been left in the snowstorm for a quite a while last night, so my hopes weren’t too high. To my amazement it powered on without a problem.
“Wow, I thought for sure it was gone. Thank you, Sully.”
There were countless missed calls from Gretchen and Robbie, all within frantic minutes of each other, undoubtedly trying to reach me after I bailed from Cult without an explanation. Gretchen knew there was reason for concern for my disappearance. Skipping over the numerous voicemails, I opened up my unread text messages first.
Sadly, the first one that showed on the screen only broke my heart all over again.
I love you so much Adelay, I will be home soon. Please stay safe! I don’t want anything to try taking you from me.
Screw you Davin. I set my phone on the table not saying a word. I didn’t want to read anything more. Sensing the sudden melancholy shift in my disposition, Sully wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in close without any questions, so that I could rest my head against him. I accepted his consoling gesture.
“The wounds on your heart are still fresh that only time will heal. They may not disappear completely, but eventually they won’t hurt as bad.”
“Only time will tell I suppose,” I sighed.
He kissed the top of my head. My phone buzzed, alerting me that I had a new text message. I was hesitant to open it, fearing that I was going to be expected to do some heavy explaining to either Gretchen or Robbie; which wasn’t something I was ready to do just yet, or that it would be something sadly reminding me of Davin. Neither of the two scenarios put my fractious nerves to rest.
Thankfully it was
