Eternal (Eternal series) (35 page)

Chapter 29: TRUTH

Emma stayed in the car.  She didn’t know what else to do.  She couldn’t go inside and do this in front of her mother and Cody.  But she knew that she couldn’t sit out here in the car all night either.  Luckily Destry made the decision for her.  The front door opened and he stepped into the beam of light for a moment and then shut the door behind him.  He walked down the sidewalk deliberately until he reached her car.

He stood outside her door looking at her.  Emma stared at his beautiful angel face for a long time and then suddenly felt overwhelmed and lowered her eyes, putting her face in her hands.  She heard the car door open and she looked up.

“Is there somewhere we can talk?” He said slowly, his hands in his pocket.

“
Um…yeah…sure,” Emma’s voice came out hoarse.

Destry waited for her to get out of the car.  “You lead the way,” he said evenly.

Emma walked down the sidewalk toward the back of the house.  She could hear him behind her, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t try to walk by her side, didn’t touch her. 
He does hate me,
she thought to herself.  Her gut tightened and she felt tears well up behind her eyes.

 
She kept walking until they reached the barn.  She opened the door and stepped inside.  Destry came in after her and shut the door behind him.  It was almost pitch black; there was no electricity out in the barn.  Fear rose up in Emma’s chest.  She wasn’t afraid of the darkness, she was afraid of what Destry was going to say, what he must be thinking.

Suddenly a light flared up and illuminated a tiny circle around them.  Destry had a flashlight in his hand.  He sat it on a small shelf sticking out of the wall and put his hands back in his pockets.  It seemed that he was deliberately trying not to touch her; refusing to let his hands even get near her.  This revelation hurt Emma; she wanted to touch him so bad.

He was quiet and just stared off into the darkness not looking at her.  Emma wanted to hear his voice, to be comforted by his words, so she decided to speak first.  “What are you doing here?” She asked quietly.

“
I came to see you.  I had something to tell you.  When you weren’t here, I waited.   Your mom came home and she invited me in.”  He said this without emotion.  He still wouldn’t look at her, his eyes stayed focused on the darkness.

“
What were you going to tell me?”  Emma already knew the answer.  He’d come to tell her that he was leaving.

“
I just wanted you to know that after graduation, I’m going back to Nebraska for the summer, maybe longer.  I didn’t know if I’d see you again so I came to tell you goodbye.”  His voice broke slightly on the last word and he looked down at the floor.

“
Please, Destry.  Wait….”

“
Wait for what Emma?  What do I have to wait for?  You’ve made it clear that you don’t want me…around.”  He stared at her intensely now, daring her to deny it.

“
That’s not what I meant…”  Emma tried to gather her thoughts.  She needed to tell him, but she was afraid that he didn’t want to hear it, not anymore.

“
Yeah, well apparently I don’t know what you mean most of the time.  I thought I had a good read on you.  I thought that you liked me the way I liked you, but apparently you like someone else.”

“
He’s not…”

“
I don’t care who he is Emma.  You should have told me sooner.”  He was staring at the blackness again.  Emma wrapped her arms around her stomach and trembled.  Destry looked up at her.  “I’m sorry; I’m not trying to hurt you.  Can’t you see, this is exactly why I’m leaving?  It’s not to be mean, it’s because I love you.”

“
I don’t want you to…”

“
I know you don’t want me to feel this, and I know you don’t feel the same way.  You’ve made that clear.  But I can’t help the way I felt—the way I feel” His eyes were searching her face.  Looking for something there that he had no hope of finding.  “Aren’t you going to say anything to that?” He finally huffed.

“
I keep trying to say something and you keep interrupting me.” Emma said in a rush.

Destry looked at her and furrowed his eyebrows together.  “You’re right, I’m sorry.  I’ll be quiet now.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible for you,” Emma said, hoping to lighten his mood.  He just rolled his eyes and kept his lips locked together.  She wasn’t sure how to start.

“
Now I know why you’re here, would you like to know why I’m here?”  She questioned him.  He nodded his head but said nothing.

“
While you were here waiting for me, I was out looking for you.  I’ve been through this town about a million times trying to find you.  I looked everywhere except for the one place that I was sure you wouldn’t be.  Here.”  Destry looked unsure.  “You don’t believe me?  Ask your buddy Chuck.”  Destry raised an eyebrow and smirked.  Emma took a step closer to Destry.

“
He told me you were going back to Nebraska; he made it sound like you had already left.  I thought you were gone, but I drove around for hours hoping I was wrong.”  Destry looked confused now and pursed his lips together.  “I bet you’re wondering why.  Why would I go looking for you when I’m the one that told you to go away?  Why did I care that you were gone, when I should have been relieved?”  Destry nodded his head.

“
It was because I had something to tell you too.  One more thing I needed to say before you left.”  Emma took another step towards Destry and reached out with her finger to stroke his cheek, but he pulled away from her.  It was like a crushing blow.  It didn’t matter what she had come here to tell him, he didn’t want to hear it.  It was too late. 

Emma’s arm dropped limply to her side. She backed away from him, out of the circle of light cast by the flashlight, into the darkness.  A tear streaked silently down her cheek.  He was her everything, he was her other half and she had lost him.  Lost was too nice of a word, she had driven him away.  Torn the light right out of him and stomped it into the ground.  She wanted to run.  She didn’t want to be here anymore.  She slipped further into the darkness.

“Emma, wait!” Destry said as he strode deliberately toward the place where she had disappeared into the darkness.  He reached out and grabbed her arm.  The electricity flowed wildly through his hand and into her body where their skin met.  He let out a sigh and let go of her arm but stepped around so she was facing him.  The light was very dim but she could see the light coming out of his eyes, she could see his soul, it glowed just as strongly as it always had when he looked at her.

“
I’m sorry I did that, it was mean, but…I didn’t want you to touch me.  I’ve avoided touching you since you got here.  I had decided that it was better that way.  The strange electrical current thing that passes between us, it just makes it harder for me to leave.  Do you understand that?”

“
I don’t want you to leave,” Emma demanded.  “Do
you
understand that?”

Destry’s face contorted.  He shook his head.  “I don’t want to leave Emma.  It’s not an easy thing for me.  But I can’t keep doing this, and you have to stop doing this to me.  If you love someone else, and you don’t see me that way, then you have to let me go.  I can’t stay here with you if I can’t have you.  It’s killing me!” Destry breath was heavy.  He was fighting to control his emotions.  He didn’t want Emma to see how much this was hurting him.  He didn’t want to hurt her with that knowledge.  He loved her too much.

Emma reached toward him slowly, waiting for him to pull away again.  When he didn’t move, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly and cried.  This is exactly what Destry had been trying to avoid.  He didn’t want to hurt her.  He pulled back a little, letting her arms stay on his shoulders.  He reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek.  “Please Emma,” he begged, “just let me go so that neither one of us has to feel this way anymore.”

“
I want to feel this way for the rest of eternity,” Emma whispered.

“
What?” Destry said perplexed, she couldn’t possibly be enjoying this pain.

“
I love you Destry, and I want to feel this way for the rest of eternity.”

Destry’s eyes got big and he looked as if he’d just woken up from having cold water dumped in his face.  “What?” He said again.

“Oh my heck Destry, have you gone deaf?  I said I love you and all you can say is ‘what’?”

Destry was more confused hearing it the second time than he had been the first but he didn’t want to say ‘what’ again and unleash Emma’s wrath.  So he just stood there looking dumbfounded.

“Do I have to do everything to make this relationship work?” Emma said teasingly.  She reached up on her tip toes and kissed Destry’s lips softly.  She leaned back and looked at his face.  He looked a little drunk and confused, but he was finally smiling.  “Oh come on, seriously?  You’re just gonna stand there like a brick wall after I told you I love you?”

Destry snapped out of his trance.  “What do you expect me to do?  I’m not sure if I’m awake or if I’m dreaming.”

“Trust me, we are both wide awake.  And as for what I expect you to do…well that’s pretty simple, I expect you to kiss me back Destry.”  Emma’s voice was thick.

Destry’s grinned, his smile so beautiful she thought her heart might stop, as he bent over and brushed his lips gently over hers, and then pressed them more fervently as they began to move together in a hypnotic rhythm. 

Emma responded with her own anxious fervor, and mirrored his movements flawlessly.  They were in perfect sync; an electrical current surged between them.  They were truly one—linked souls.

After a long moment Destry finally pulled back, his breathing was heavy, and he looked elated and a little dizzy.  Emma could relate.  His kiss had that effect on her too.
  She laid her head against his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her cheek. He suddenly grabbed her up in his arms and swung her around. When he finally set her down on the ground he still held her tightly and peered into her chocolate brown eyes with surprise, he seemed pleased with what he saw there.

“
I love you so much Destry!”

“
I love you too, Emma,” he said, with so much love in his voice that Emma knew beyond any doubt that this was right.  This was meant to be; it really was their destiny.

Emma hugged him tightly and looked up into his eyes, his deep blue sparkling eyes.  She could see forever in those familiar eyes.

“Do you think that you could give me another chance?” Emma asked hopefully.

“
I told you I wouldn’t give up on you, you’re worth the work, remember?”

“
That’s good, because I don’t ever want to be without you again.” Emma said seriously.

“
I don’t understand.  What’s happened to you all of a sudden?  What made you change your mind?”  He asked in awe.

“
It’s a long story,” Emma smiled up at him.

She could see him clearly now, like she'd cleaned the haze away from her eyes for the first time and really looked at him and he was the most perfect and beautiful thing she had ever seen.  The best part was, now she knew Destry was hers, and would be forever.

“Speaking of long stories,” he interjected. “What was that one you were trying to tell me last night…something about an angel?”

“
You
are my angel,” Emma squealed, perfectly content, “and I will always love you, I promise... forever and a day!”

As Emma said these words she heard an unfamiliar voice say
:

“
Not if I have anything to do with it!”

Here's a look at book two

in the Eternal Series

Enticed

For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things.

If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass,

neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad....

Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be

that he was enticed by the one or the other.

Chapter 1:  WARNING

A shower of caps rained down from the sky.  Graduation day at last.  A whole new life unfolding, full of endless possibilities.

The student body began dispersing slowly through the crowd of anxiously awaiting family members.  Emma searched the crowd for her mom and Cody and of course for Destry. 

As her eyes scanned the muddle of faces, she felt an odd feeling come over her.  A strange crawling feeling moved across her skin causing goose bumps as it washed over her entire body in a cold wave that made her shiver involuntarily.