ENDURING {Sequel to Everlasting}

Chapter 19

*I don't own any rights to the picture above! But this is how I imagined her outside chill space!*

My fingers glide across the piano, the familiar feeling of music at my fingertips strange to me after all the years I've not played. I haven't touched a piano since school, but when I saw this beauty for sale, the only one in the entire world, I had to have it.

I find myself falling into a song, one that I've heard on the radio a couple of times this week.

"I guess all the mountains that I moved just weren't enough." I voice softly, barely singing as I play the piano.

It's soothing, and it makes me feel like I can get out the words that I never say.

"And all those nights I walked you home from crowded bars, when you were drunk." My eyes close, fingers dancing over the keys effortlessly.

"Well they meant nothing 'cause you up and walked away, and I just wonder what it's take to make you stay."

"Cause when you said jump, I said how high?" I sing, singing the high key without so much as a wince.

"But when I jumped you said goodbye." My hands shift on the piano as I move to the chorus.

"I woulda walked through hell,
to find another way.
I woulda laid me down,
If I knew that you would stay.
I woulda crossed the stars,
To keep you in my life.
But now I'm falling hard,
Without you here tonight."

My throat tightens as I feel tears prick my eyes, my fingers becoming still on the keys. The last thing I want to do is cry, especially right now, with Lisa and Kade here.

So I take a deep breath, brush away the slight dampness on my eyelashes and slap on a smile as I exit the large room.

Following the sound of faint laughter, I head down the hallway and through the kitchen, sliding open the huge patio doors. Kade plays hide and seek with Cami, pretending he can't see her crouched behind the small table.

The sight makes ma happy, I'm glad that he's so great to Cami, no child deserves to be treated the way I was.

Kade chases Cami down the field, opposite end of the horses, so I walk away from the doorway and join Lisa on the seating.

"This place is amazing, it's so quiet and peaceful." Lisa is the first to speak, her voice quiet as she stares out calmly at the huge space surrounding the house.

It's strange really. I spent so long alone until I met Hardin, and then I learnt to love being around the pack, I adored the noise of children running around and the bickering. What Lisa calls peaceful, I call loneliness.

"You're welcome to visit whenever you like." I say, giving her a small smile.

"It's a big house for one person, wasn't Jackson supposed to be here too?" Lisa asks curiously, which I assume Kade must've told her.

"I offered, but he's with Hardin's pack...he wanted a family." I admit, ignoring how my heart twists with the words.

Jackson wanted to be with his family, as in the pack. I don't blame him, I just thought that I was his family?

"I'm sorry." Lisa says softly, as if seeing the pain that flickered through me.

I just force a convincing smile. "No, don't be. To be honest with you, I bought this house because Hardin wanted to start again, and I figured this would be big enough to have...to have a family, you know?"

Lisa stares at me with a crease between her neat eyebrows, eyes a little confused.

"What happened?" She sits up straighter, giving me her full attention which only makes me look away.