Daisies & Devin by Kelsey Kingsley

Author:Kelsey Kingsley [Kingsley, Kelsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Devin

The last time I was in Kylie’s old bedroom, I was helping her pack her things. Boxing up clothes and trinkets, old CDs and pictures.

Years later, there were still a few empty boxes sitting untouched on the floor. Layered in dust and time.

The boxes on the bed, were newer and sealed. Kylie slowly approached them with caution, hands shaking at her sides. I closed the door behind us and I took two hurried steps past her, standing at the bed.

“Do you want me to do it?” I offered gently.

“No, I think I’m okay,” she said in a voice stronger than I had expected and she took the final step to the bed. Placing her hands over the lid of the first box. Her deep breath was controlled, her fingers firm, but I stood at the ready. Prepared to catch her.

Kylie’s eyes lifted to mine. “I never realized how much of her life was given up, because of him.”

Then she shook her head, taking a step backward. “Well, no, I know things were fucked up. He was addicted to drugs, for crying out loud. Shit was far from normal, I know that, but … she stayed with him. She could’ve left if she was so miserable.”

My jaw tightened and tensed. “Love doesn’t always give us a choice, KJ.”

“We always have a choice,” she disputed, her expression stony and unmoving.

I looked down to her and shook my head. “I never did.”

She scoffed, fingertips scraping over cardboard. “You’re telling me that you would stay by my side, even if that meant giving up everything you—” Her words came to an abrupt halt as a certain realization dawned over her. I watched her features loosen and her lips part. Her eyes softened and raised back to mine, and she shook her head. “Devin … I never—”

“Before you say anything, I want you to know that I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I don’t regret the store. I don’t regret the years I’ve spent in construction. I regret absolutely nothing, okay? So, don’t feel guilty for how I’ve spent a huge chunk of my life, because it brought me here,” I said assertively, holding her gaze with mine and meaning every single word.

“In my old bedroom. Yeah, that’s a really great place to be,” she said quietly, shaking her head.

“I’m with you, aren’t I?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, but—”

“Yeah, well, that is the greatest place I could ever be,” I said. I took her hands from the box and turned her body to stand parallel to mine. Brought her fingers to my neck, laid them over my skin, and reached down to rest my hands on her hips. “Sometimes love is sacrifice, Kylie.”

“But my mom acts like she was miserable,” she said, as I pulled her into me, flush with my body.

“Sometimes love makes us miserable.”

“Have I made you miserable?”

I thought about that for a moment, looking into her eyes of blue and bluer still. I thought about my words, how I’d string them together if I were writing a song.

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