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He couldn’t knohat those words did to her “Don’t, Zach It’s too late I can’t take it again Just … let ood-bye Throw the Thermos in the Sound ”
“I miss her,” he said, and Lexi felt the start of tears
Hoas it they had never had this conversation? She started to say how sorry she was, but he shook his head and said, “But I miss you, too, Lexi ”
“Zach…” She could barely see hih her tears now, but she wouldn’t wipe them away
“I don’t see how you could forgive et it if you hate me But Lex … oh, man … I’m so sorry ”
“You’re sorry? I killed your sister ”
He looked at her She sa uncertain he was, how afraid “Could you ever love ain?”
She stared at this blurry version of hiht, and remembered the first time he’d kissed her, the first time he’d held her hand, the day he’d stood up in court and said he was guilty, too, the day he’d taken their daughter in his arood, the exceptional, the sad, the horrific Everything that they’d been as kids and the adults they were trying to now be She could no hts into the Sound and drown herself Sos sis It didn’tor that there were a dozen reasons for them to be apart It only mattered that his blood had somehow found its way into her veins and without him she was lost “I do love you,” she said quietly “I tried to stop…”
He took her in his arms and kissed her At the touch of his lips, so sweetly, achingly familiar, she felt as if her soul, bound in chains for years, broke free, stretched and opened its wings She was flying, soaring She clung to hi at last for the best friend she’d killed and the years she’d lost in prison and the daughter whose babyhood would forever be hidden from her This moment was more than she’d ever dared to hope for, and the love she’d tried so hard to extinguish overwhelmed her
She drew back and stared at him in wonder Tears spiked his lashes, iven her heart to all those years ago on a night like this, with the lights of the highway rushing past them “Hoas all she could say, but she knew he understood How could they go back, really?
“I love you so much, Lexi,” he said “That’s all I know ”
“So, what do we do? Hoe start?”
He handed her the dirty Thermos as carefully as if it were an artifact from a lost civilization, which, in a way, it was “We keep our promise ”
Lexi held the tis, the Saint Christopherfriendship bracelet within
Lexi felt Mia with the of the trees, in the steady heartbeat of waves She kissed the sandy curve of the Therain When she was done, she patted the sand in place “She’s here,” Lexi said, feeling her best friend beside her for the first time in years