She laughed. “Why are you sorry? You couldn’t help that he thought about you.”
I knew that, but I felt guilty all the same. “I owe you a massive apology, Drew,” I said, keeping my gaze on hers.
She blinked her emerald-green eyes. “What for?”
I swallowed. “For how I treated you growing up when you were nothing but sweet to me. I was petty, childish and plain horrible to you for no other reason than you had Kale. I was out of order to ever be rude to you, and I should have known better. I’m so sorry; I hope you can forgive me.”
Drew stared at me for a moment, and then the corners of her eyes creased as she smiled. “You don’t have to be sorry.”
My mouth fell open, and it caused her to laugh.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Of course I do. I was awful to you.”
“I forgave you years ago.” She shrugged. “You were heartbroken, and I now know that people do things beyond their control when they are heartbroken.”
I looked at Kaden’s picture.
“He was a little stunner, Drew. You and Kale created someone incredible, and I’m so sorry that he died.”
“He’s still with us.” Drew looked from me to Kaden’s picture on his headstone, and she smiled. “He was a hoot – you’d have loved him.”
“I would have,” I said quickly.
She sighed. “I miss him every day. He’d have been nearly six if he were alive now.”
“Six,” I whispered.
“He was a mini Kale,” she mused.
I smiled. “Kale showed me videos and pictures, and I said Kaden was the double of him, but he was adamant that he looked like you.”
That made Drew chuckle, and then a long stretch of silence unfolded before Drew looked at me and said, “You need to help him.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Kale,” she said. “You have to help him. I’ve tried for years to help him find peace about losing Kaden, but he is trapped in time. Every day it’s like he relives the day our son died. It took time, but I now relive the other memories we shared with our boy. I remember the good times. When I think of him, happiness fills me, but I know when Kale thinks of him, he’s filled with sadness.”
“I don’t know how to help him,” I admitted. “He isn’t the same Kale I knew. Too much has changed between us.”
To my surprise, Drew touched my shoulder and said, “The pair of you are two sides to the same mirror. You’re the same but reflect different things. You know him, Lane, better than anyone. If anyone can help him, it’s you.”
I didn’t know if her faith in me was well placed.
“I’ll always love Kale, Lane,” she continued, “but he was never mine.”
My hands began to shake. “Of course he was.”
She shook her head. “He was yours. He just didn’t know it. I knew it, though, and I fought tooth and nail to have him when I knew I should have let him go to be with you. He chose you over me, and I know that if I’d never gotten pregnant with Kaden, he wouldn’t have stayed with me as long as he did. Kaden bonded us together, but our son was never going to keep us together. We loved each other, but he loved you more.”
“Drew—”
“The night of your uncle’s birthday party, when I threatened you to leave him alone, I followed him back to your house, and I heard him tell you he loved you and that he wanted to be with you.”
Shock tore through me.
“You did?” I whispered.
She nodded. “Instead of being mad at him, I started to hate you like you hated me. I hated you because you had his heart and I could never get it, and you hated me because I had his body and attention.”
I didn’t know what to say so I stared at Kaden’s headstone.
“I can’t believe things have wound up this way,” I said after a few minutes of silence.
Drew chortled. “Trust me, I’ve thought that for years.”
“I’m glad we’re talking about this, though,” I said to her. “I ran away to America to escape these kinds of conversations.”
“How did that work out for you?” she asked, sarcasm laced throughout her tone.
I laughed. “Not good. I still feel the same as I did six years ago.”
“Tell Kale that then, Lane,” she pressed. “Don’t leave anything to chance. You don’t know what’s around the corner for anyone. You could be here one minute and gone the next.”
I nodded. “I thoroughly believe that.”
“I’m sorry about your uncle,” Drew said, as if she sensed me thinking of Harry. “He was a sweetheart and was great with Kaden when Kale brought him around.”
I smiled. “I’ve no doubt. He was brilliant with me and my brothers when we were little. I think that he spoiled us because he never had any kids of his own.”
Drew linked her arm through mine. “I want to be your friend. I want to get to know the Lane that Kale always went on about, because she sounded pretty cool. A little crazy, but still pretty cool.”
I laughed as I turned to her and gave her a tight hug. When we separated, Drew walked up to Kaden’s headstone and kissed his picture. “See you later, sweetheart.” She turned to me and winked. “Don’t be a stranger.”
I nodded. “I won’t. You’ll see more of me, I promise.”
Drew left then, and I could have collapsed with the weight that lifted off my chest. Never in a million years would I have thought a conversation with her could turn out that way, but I thank God that it did, because I didn’t realise how much I needed to resolve things with her.
I looked at Kaden’s sweet picture once more before I turned and walked back up to Lavender’s grave, where I retook my seated position on the grass.
“Dude,” I breathed, “I just made up with Drew Summers.” I shook my head in disbelief. “She wants to be my friend and wants to get to know me. She wants me to help Kale too – can you believe that?”
I exhaled a deep breath because I still couldn’t quite believe it.
“Lane, is that you?”
I looked over my shoulder when a man called my name. I pushed myself to my feet and brushed my clothes down when I saw a familiar face walking towards me.
“It is you,” he said, smiling wide, his eyes gleaming.
I gaped at him in utter shock. The moment he smiled, I knew exactly who he was. There was only one person, besides Kale, whose smile I thought was stunning, and this man was rocking it.
“Daven?” I gasped. “Daven Eanes?”
He gestured to himself with the large bouquet of flowers he had in his hand.
“The one and only,” he chuckled.
It was the strangest thing, but I felt like I needed to hug him, so that was exactly what I did. I moved to him, threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly. For a few moments he did nothing, but he eventually hugged me back, and laughed when I stepped away from him with wide eyes.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he mused.
I blinked. “I feel like I have, I haven’t seen you since . . .”
I stopped talking and frowned.
Daven gave me a small smile. “Since our girl’s funeral?”
Our girl. That made me smile.
“Yeah, since then,” I nodded. “It’s been so long. How have you been? You look great.”
He really did. He’d been a slim twenty-year-old boy when I left, but now he was a twenty-six-year-old lean man.
“Thanks, you’re looking pretty good yourself,” he said, winking playfully. “I’m doing great. I’ve got myself a beautiful wife, and we have two kids – twin boys. My wife is working on our third.”
I gasped. “You have a family?”
Laughter rumbled from him. “You seem quite surprised.”
Shit.
“It just seems so grown up.” I chuckled, hoping I didn’t offend him.
He smiled wide, taking my shock in his stride. “I did a lot of growing up after I lost Lavender. After she died, I did a lot of reflectin
g, and I didn’t like the person I was. I was an all-round arsehole, and I didn’t treat Lavender the way she deserved. Thank God she put up with my shit all those years; I treasure every one of them that I had with her.”
My heart warmed.
“She loved you,” I said with a smile. “Trust me when I say I argued the case of how much of an arsehole you were better than anyone, but she knew you deep down, and she loved who she saw.”
“Thanks, Lane,” he said, his voice holding some sort of emotion that he chased away with a clearing of his throat.
I nodded. “It’s the truth – she loved you greatly.”
“I know,” he said, smiling sadly. “I love her too. I always will.”
Present tense. He was still in love with my wonderful friend, and I didn’t blame him. She was one heck of a girl. “I love her too.” I smiled, sorrowfully. “I miss her every day; I still can’t quite believe that she is gone. It doesn’t feel real, and I don’t think it ever will.”
Daven nodded in agreement, then turned and looked down at her grave for a moment before he placed the beautiful bouquet next to the flowers I’d brought her. He had a small smile on his face, and leaning down, he kissed her picture and murmured, “Hello, babygirl.”
It choked me up.