Never Let Me Go (38 page)

Standing up, he walked over to a small dresser on the other side of the room, pulling out a stack of papers. He walked back over to me, his shoulders pushed back a bit as he handed me the papers.

“I actually looked into getting a puppy a few days ago, before you told me you made your choice. I told Asher and Vik to look into it for me, and it turns out that one of my employees, Niall, knows a breeder who could get me a German shepherd puppy for a pretty decent price. I’ve been corresponding with Niall via email, looking at pictures and what not. He has a three month old with all black fur who’s playful and one of his sweetest. So, on a whim, I bought her. They’re dropping her off tomorrow at noon.”

I dropped the papers in my lap, flabbergasted. There was no denying that his story was true, because a picture of an all-black puppy sat on the very top of the stack, and emails between [email protected] and [email protected] sat right behind it. “Shut up. You did not! Oh, my God! A puppy!”

It was Hayden who grabbed my waist and guided me toward his lap so that I was straddling him. I laced my fingers through the hair at the back of his neck, smiling down at him.

“A puppy is what my girls want, so a puppy is what my girls are gonna get,” Hayden said with a smirk. “I’d do anything for you, Mich, just to see that smile—the one right there on your face right now. And Skylar, well, she gets pleased with just about anything. She’s not picky.”

Frowning, I withdrew my hands from around his neck. Hayden laid back, then bent his knees so that I was straddling his waist and my back was against his thighs. Running my hands along the rough ridges of his chest, I bit the inside of my cheek. “I haven’t actually gotten you anything.”

I knew that Hayden didn’t mind, but I did. I liked for things to be equal in relationships. I liked to do just as much for a significant other as they did for me, and I felt terrible that I hadn’t given Hayden anything at
all throughout the course of the summer.

“Michie, I thought we went over this already?” His voice was menacingly low. “You’ve given me everything I could ever want or ask for. I couldn’t possibly ask for more than what you’ve already given me—and what you’ve already given Skylar.”

I scrunched my eyebrows, not believing my ears. “What
exactly
have I given you and Skylar that you seem to think is so priceless?”

What he said next I was sure completely stopped my heart. “You. You gave us you. No material thing that you give us from here on out would ever measure up, I can promise you that.”

Chapter Twenty Six

The next two weeks flew by faster than I anticipated. I spent every moment that I could would Hayden while he was still on leave from work, and once he returned to work, my days were filled with comforting and getting to know Skylar Rose.

I only went back to the beach house on the weekends to do laundry, catch up with Nic and Colin, and gather clothes for the following week. I avoided Brody like the plague, because the remainder of my time in Big Springs was to be devoted to Hayden. I’d have plenty of time to work on my friendship with Brody when we were back in Harlow.

Besides spending time with Hayden, the other part of the rest of my time in Big Springs was spent planning Colin’s eighteenth birthday party. Nickayla insisted that he didn’t want anything huge: just a small get-together with his family and friends. He wanted it small and intimate, presumably because he wanted to announce that he was going to take over for his late grandfather in the family business.

It was the day of Colin’s party and the last of his family had finally arrived about an hour before. We didn’t waste time on a theme or senseless things that other people cared about. This was Colin, one of my best friends, and he cared about the simpler, finer things in life.

We settled on a classy, sit-down dinner party, with a jumper in the backyard for Caleb, Rhys, Julian, Skylar, and Colin’s youngest cousins, Melinda, Hillary, Annabel, Jamie, and Cane to occupy themselves with.

When Colin’s family showed up, I was surprised by how big his family was in comparison to mine. His aunts Leslie and Irina showed up with their husbands and children, and his uncle Benson came with his wife and children, as well as Colin’s Nana and their family dog, Bruno.

Two weeks ago, Hayden, Skylar and I met our new puppy, Sadie, and her twin sister, Maggie. When Niall, Hayden’s coworker had showed up with his breeder contact and both dogs for the price of one, Hayden had no choice but to take both dogs. The fact that Niall said neither dog was much of a pet without her other half and mine and Skylar’s puppy dog eyes didn’t help his case either. There was no way he could say no to us, and we used it to our advantage.

We’d decided on the names Sadie and Maggie together, and we didn’t hesitate to bring them when Colin said that Nana was bringing Bruno. Unfortunately for me, I’d already fallen in love with both of our dogs, and I was dreading leaving them most of all.

Besides the remainder of the Westwick clan, Callum and Amanda, Rory, and Jamie and Addison had showed up at the party. It was amazing at how wonderfully we were able to pull this off for Colin.

At the party, all of the Westwicks embraced Nickayla with open arms and treated her as though they’d known her all their lives. What’s more is that apparently Colin’s cousins Haven, Meghan, Kelly, and Brooke had been corresponding with Nic all summer, texting her old photos of Colin, sending her emails with their favorite memories of him, and they’d even showed up early to help us set up the decorations for the party.

Now, we were sitting down at an overly large family sized table, waiting for the maître d’s that Livie had hired to serve us dinner. A slideshow played on a projector right in front of the table, shuffling between both old and new pictures of Colin with the people that he loved, while some of his favorite songs played faintly in the background. Nic’s plan was that everyone who wished to could stand up and share their favorite memory of Colin.

Haven was one of the first to stand up, ready to open up. “I remember when Colin was just a wee thing—he was the shortest out of all of us until he turned about fifteen. He hated being the smallest, hated not being able to reach things the rest of us could. The majority of our childhood, he spent up on Keaton’s shoulders, thinking he was on top of the damn world. This one time, though, we were spending the weekend at Nana and Grandpa’s, and he’d stuffed something in Keaton’s PlayStation and it wouldn’t work after that. Keaton
loved
that thing, and it was the only present Uncle Holden didn’t try and take from him when he got grounded. So, to punish him because of course, Grandpa would
never
punish his precious Colin, we—Meghan, Keaton, Kelly, and Braden—went into the tree house Grandpa had built. When we saw that Colin was coming, we tossed the ladder down so it wasn’t leaning against the tree anymore. When he saw it and saw that he couldn’t get up, he cried for like twenty minutes straight!” The entire table burst out laughing, and I looked over to Colin only to find that he was turning bright red. “Anyway, finally, the crying stops, and we think that maybe he’s finally giving up. We peek out and find that he’s gone, and we finally relax. Five minutes later, we hear the back door slam, and Colin’s running out, dragging this giant guitar that’s almost as big as he is, and Keaton leaps out of the tree house faster than anything. Colin turns bright red, and he’s standing in Keaton’s face, holding the guitar out to him and screaming ‘BREAK IT!’” She turned to look at Colin, tears in her eyes. “That’s the kind of kid Colin was, and that’s the man he still is today. He’ll do anything to keep the people that he loves from hurting, no matter if it means hurting himself in the process.”

Jamie was next, and I knew that his story was going to be a great one, given the fact that he knew Colin about as long as his family had, what with practically growing up beside him all his life.

Jamie was the funniest of all of Colin’s family and friends—and that was saying something, because up until I met him, I thought that it was me. I sat up straighter and leaned forward when Jamie stood, anticipating his story.

“I don’t really have a memory as
priceless
as Haven’s. I mean, she’s practically his big sister, and I’m just the best friend. But what I can say is that I’ve known this kid all his life, and I’ve never seen him
this
happy. I’m pretty sure that has a lot to do with Nickayla—and just as much to do with me. When we were kids, Colin and I
hated
each other. We may be all chummy now, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, he was jealous of me because I wasn’t related to him, but Gramps loved me. In turn, I was jealous of him because his parents were still together and he had the seemingly perfect life. While we all know that that isn’t true, Colin is my favorite person because he never let his home life read on his face. Every time I saw him, even if he was pissed or upset at something that’d gone down at home, he had a smile on his face. So, here’s to you, man,” Jamie said, raising a glass of soda to Colin. “Keep on smilin’, and showin’ the rest of us how to
really
live.”

A small round of applause erupted from around the table, and I took my turn to stand up. It’d taken me a long time to decide on the memory that I wanted to share of Colin. Though they were few, the ones that I
did
have were kept close to my heart and meant the world to me.

“So,” I said, looking around the table, “I haven’t known Colin as long as most of you, or as well as some of you, but I do know some of his best qualities.” I grinned at Colin waving lightly at him. “My favorite memory of Colin would have to be from around March of this year, right after he met my best friend Nickayla. I don’t know
where
the Hell he got my cell phone number, but he text me one night, completely desperate to learn everything there was to know about her. He didn’t want me to tell her because he didn’t want to scare her off, but he told me that he was in love with her. He told me he was planning a surprise for her, and he wanted to know if I thought she’d like it. So the next day, we met up at this pizza joint just outside of town, and he bought me lunch. He started going into details about how his Grandpa had built him this small wooden place he called his music cave, and he wanted to show it to Nickayla and play a song for her. When I asked him why, he said it was because she had a really bad night recently, and he wanted to give her something extremely personal, just like she’d done for him.” I paused, looking around the table. “To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when Nickayla introduced him to me. She’d been burned
horribly
by one guy, and that made me distrust every guy who looked twice in her direction. But there was something about Colin…I don’t know. I’ll never forget what he said to me, though. He said, ‘Michele, I
love
Nickayla. All I want to do is make her happy. All I want to do is show her how she should have been treated all along, because she needs it. Because she deserves it. Because she deserves this and
so
much more.’ And I swear to God, I’ve been best friends with Colin ever since.” I faced him, and he raised a glass to me, a wide smile on his face. “So, here goes, Westwick. On today and always, I wish you nothing but happiness. And my only wish is that you do something for yourself once in a while, because you do more for the rest of us than we’ll ever deserve. Happy birthday, buddy.”

I walked over to Colin, giving him a big hug. Before pulling away, I whispered in his ear. “Thank you for this vacation. It’s the best gift you could have ever given me.” Pointing toward the door, I grinned. “The rest of us have chipped in for the best gift we could ever give to you.”

A few seconds after I pointed at the back door of the beach house, Colin’s little sister Susanna walked through it, followed by his older brother, Keaton, and his sister-in-law, Carly. Colin jumped to his feet, his mouth wide open.

He stumbled over a chair as he made his way over to his siblings. It was a tender moment watching Colin embrace his younger sister, and then turn to hug Keaton and Carly at the same time.

I watched as Hayden’s younger sister, who’d been in the corner taking photos and videos all afternoon, raised her camera to capture the sweet moment.

“What are you doing here?!” Colin asked, pulling away from his siblings, turning to look at all of the guests at his party. “How did you guys pull this off?”

It was finally Nickayla’s turn to pipe up. “We all pitched in for the plane tickets. They flew in yesterday, and they stayed up at Nana’s. I knew how badly you wanted them to be here, especially after all they’ve done for you, so we did what we had to do to get them here.” She got up from her own seat, heading over to hug Keaton, Carly, and Suze. “We really wanted it to be a surprise.”

Colin, his eyes full of wonderment and awe, turned to wrap his arms around Nickayla and lift her into the air as he kissed her tenderly in front of all of us. There was a low murmur around the table, but I could tell that no one was uncomfortable. They were just admiring the happy couple.

It was rare to find two people who loved each other the way that Colin and Nickayla did. It was even rarer to find two people who loved each other the way that they did at such a young age. I could only hope that with Hayden, I could find what Nic had found in Colin.