Taking Root by Katherine McIntyre

Author:Katherine McIntyre [McIntyre, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Limitless Publishing, LLC
Published: 2019-07-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

When Adrian had discovered Betty cheated on him and when she left him, the world he’d known disintegrated. Change like that didn’t just require an adjustment; it caused a full out heart restart, defibrillators to the chest. He’d told everyone he got over her by throwing himself into work, but truth be told he’d been shambling through the days like the walking dead.

Running into Danny Reynolds brought him to life again. For the first time in too long, he hadn’t just ghosted through the days, and he looked forward to every text, every smile, and every new interaction brimming with the promise of something powerful.

Until she’d walked out his door.

Days later and she hadn’t responded to a single text, as if she’d been some brief apparition of happiness, and now she’d blinked out of existence. Adrian sat in his backyard, feet nestled in the grass as he leaned back in his neon orange lawn chair. The fading beams of a gorgeous day soaked into his skin, but none of the warmth seeped past the surface. Out under the sun, kicking back after a long day at work with a six-pack, he should’ve been basking in bliss.

He’d been walking through the darkness ever since she left and took all the sunlight with her. Betty might’ve reshaped his entire future, but this one, this was an arms-aching swim with no land in sight, grasping for land, only to get swept into the sea again. Adrian swiped for his half-empty bottle of lager, tipping it back for another futile swig. The IPAs she brought remained untouched in his fridge, as if by keeping them it meant things between them weren’t ruined.

Their conversation replayed dozens of times in his head, and each time he’d invent some new scenario where he could’ve changed the outcome. But he pushed, and she bolted, as simple as that. The threads binding them together had been so fragile, and given the tension, they snapped. All the logic in the world didn’t change the empty ache in his chest.

Adrian’s phone buzzed, and he cast a quick glance to see if Danny responded.

Nope, Cal. One by one, almost everyone in the family had called him the past couple of days, and for the first time in a while, he brushed them off with the “busy at work” excuse. Look at that, he’d finally managed to establish some boundaries—not like it made him feel any better right now.

A second later, his phone buzzed again with a text from Lex. Adrian rolled his eyes and dropped his phone into the grass by his side. He’d respond in a little while. Mom didn’t have any issues after the tumble she took the other week, so his siblings’ emergencies could take a backseat.

He’d soon resume his normal of fixing everyone’s problems but his own. Danny’s words still haunted him, how he needed to stop trying to save everyone and carve out some time for himself. Even with her, he’d let her take and take but didn’t demand half of what he needed.

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