"Two souls are sometimes created together and in love before they're even born." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
When eight year old Beau Ruby met twelve year old Colton Caine, she had no idea she was meeting the love of her life. She had no idea she'd grow...
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Again, days turned into weeks.
This time, I was counting seconds. Seconds ticked by slowly, each one taking up the space of what seemed like ten in its wake. Seconds turned into minutes that seemed to take five. Minutes turned into hours that drug on and on. Hours turned into days that never seemed to end. Days turned into weeks that ran together like rain on a roof, all the drops running toward the gutter.
I prayed for sleep to a god I wasn't sure I even believed in. I spent my hours at work dragging my feet around the shop, cutting flower stems aimlessly while Aunt Verne chatted at the counter. I had taken up shop in the back. I didn't want to face people anymore. I was done.
I missed Colton with a force that was indescribable. I knew we were over, but I couldn't stomach it. I cried myself to sleep every night, wrapped in my quilt and sobbing into my pillow.
The first few nights, Aunt Verne had sat up with me, brushing my hair from my wet face. I eventually told her to stop coming upstairs, and I faced the nights on my own.
No texts. No calls. No Colton.
Jack had found me still on the dock the day I had told him about the baby. I was still crying. My foot still bleeding from jagged glass. He had promised that Colton would come around. It had been five weeks, and he hadn't yet.
I had even tried to call. Tried to text. Tried to go to his house. He wouldn't talk to me.
I was sitting in my bed on a Thursday night staring out of the window that faced Colton's house. Two nights before Halloween. I had my knees drawn up to my chest, and my hair dripped tiny water drops from my bath down my back. I was wearing his same old Hammond Tigers T-shirt and a pair of leggings when the thunder rumbled outside. I could see lightning in the distance. Another storm without him. Another night without him.
I couldn't spend another moment without him.
I bent, pulling on an old pair of rain boots Aunt Verne had gotten me before I ever left Hammond. They were perfect for traipsing through the field on days after it rained. Grabbing an old flannel slung over the pillows on my window seat, I pulled it over my shoulders before I tried my hardest to tip toe down the stairs.
Any night before I had left, and Aunt Verne wouldn't have cared that I was leaving. Now, she'd have a million questions. She'd be concerned about the incoming storm.
I should have been. I knew how late fall storms could turn when it was far too warm outside for fall. I also knew that it was well after eleven, and I knew Colton would most likely already be in bed. I also knew there was a possibility that Jamie would be there.
