Page 37 of Everyone Loved Her
“Yeah, but you know what’s crazy?” He dropped his eyes to his hands for a moment before looking back up to me. “You never even said goodbye. You jetted out of this place before Icould get to you, to tell you how sorry I was for what happened. I lost my best friend, and then I lost you.”
“I had to leave,” I reasoned, fisting the inside sleeves of his jacket. “The rumors started, and I couldn’t even remember what happened. I just knew we wrecked, and you never took a test to check your alcohol levels. That’s what everyone was saying, and then the fight… Everyone kept talking about the fight. You beat him up so bad?—”
“Because he called you a slut for sleeping with me,” Garrett snapped, his face suddenly full of fire. “I had full intentions of marrying you someday, I told you over and over.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t even tell me you loved me,” I laughed, but it was chalked full of heartache. “Andthat’swhat we fought about that night. I told you I couldn’t do it anymore.”
“And I told you I loved you.” He looked away from me, his voice straining. “I told you as we argued about putting Sam in the backseat. You didn’t want to sit with me.”
My eyes widened, lost memories trying to return at his words. “I don’t remember that.”
“Your dad told me you didn’t really remember anything from that night.” Garrett ran his hand down one of the cedar posts. “But I thought it was because you didn’t want them to know about us.”
I shook my head. “I think my mom knew.”
“My dad sure did,” he chuckled. “I lived and breathed you, Beth. You’re the only reason I stayed in this town when I turned eighteen. I took a year off to work at the shop, and when it was up, I couldn’t bring myself to go. And here I am, sixteen years later, still here, scared to death that if I leave, I’ll never have the chance to see you again.”
The way he was just recalling history, like I wasn’t there, ripped at my emotions—but I swallowed it. “There’s the internet, you know.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “I didn’t want to see you and your big fancy lawyer husband. It reminded me of everything I couldn’t be.”
“He never cared about me,” I said. “He saw what I could do for him, and I was so messed up over what happened… He swooped in and took advantage. I mean, it took me years and some therapy before I understood his narcissism, but when I did, it was all clear.”
“I’m sorry.” As he said the words, a pair of headlights lit up the road through the trees. His eyes followed them, and then bounced back to me. “It’s getting late.”
I glanced down at my smartwatch. “It’s only ten-thirty. You’re usually out all night.”
“Yeah, not anymore,” he chuckled. “Took one look at you, and suddenly it doesn’t hit the spot anymore. What did you want to talk about?”
I met his gaze, unable to conjure up the hard questions about the night Sarah was murdered. Every time I was around him, I just went backwards, desperate to be seventeen again—before everything happened.
Garrett shook his head and pushed off the porch railing. “For someone who wanted to talk, you’re not doing much of it. You used to never stop.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered as he closed the distance between us.
He lifted my chin gently, bringing us closer than we’d been in years. “Then let me just take you home, Beth. You can come back and get your car tomorrow, give me another reason to see you.”
My heart pounded in my ears as his fingers remained warm against my face, and my lower lip trembled as I searched his gaze. There should’ve been alarms blaring in my head. He was potentially dangerous, right? But before I thought twice, I was on my tiptoes and he met me halfway, our mouths meeting in a daze.
He threaded his fingers through my hair as I parted my lips for him, deepening our kiss. And for a moment, I let the nostalgia and longing for what once was, win. I was suddenly seventeen again, Garrett nineteen, and we were young, stupid, and betting on a forever that would never happen for us. However, for a split second, my heart gave me reason to thinkmaybeit wasn’t all lost… But as quickly as it came, it left—in the worst way.
We were lit up, blinding headlights pouring across the porch. Out of reflex, I pushed him away, and he stumbled back, the two of us staring at each other with wide eyes for a second and then turning our attention to whoever had just caught us.
Chapter 18
Garrett threwhis hand up to shield his eyes from the headlights, his heart racing beneath his T-shirt. Henevermeant to kiss her. He shouldn’t have let it happen, and with all the vehicle tracks he had found when he got home, he shouldn’t have let his guard down.
“Well, guess the rumors are true,” a voice called from behind a now-open driver’s side door. “Ole Garrett Myers is shooting his shot with Beth Young.Again.”
A chill ran down Garrett’s spine as he turned to Beth. “Go inside.”
“Who is it?” she choked out, her voice still raspy from their kiss.
He shook his head, this time lowering his voice to get the point across as he gestured to the door. “Go inside.Now.”
“I—”
“Just go,” he snapped once more at her, heading down the porch steps to confront Ty Miller head on, without the haze of the lights on his truck. “What do you want, Ty?” He approached the dark figure, not missing the bat inhis hand.