Page 33 of One Impossible Moment
"Nolan," Finn said."Wade."
Both men looked up.
"You remember how you got here?"Finn asked.
Nolan scratched his jaw."Walked in, I guess."
Finn frowned."What were you doing before you came?"
Nolan closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, he whispered, "I was a priest."
"Jesus."Wade scoffed."A priest?"
"Everstill is my punishment."Nolan straightened his flannel shirt.
"What about you?"asked Finn."What were you doing before you came here?"
Wade shrugged."I was a police officer, but what does that matter?We're here now."
Finn's voice dropped."Do you remember the girl who came here?"
Wade blinked."What girl?"
Finn's hands curled into fists.He turned and walked away.The men weren't lying.They weren't hiding anything.They simply didn't care.
Everstill had drained them dry.Emptied them out of all emotions.Left them hollow enough that nothing touched them anymore.Not even a young girl.
Whatever happened, he couldn't allow himself to become numb to what happened around here.He needed to stay aware, in case the veil opened again.
He walked back through town, away from the road that never led anywhere.The wind brushed against him, cool and indifferent, almost mocking.Lately, his need to see Kallie had grown more intense.It was an ache he'd kept to himself, but he could no longer contain it.The others were unable to help him with the new awareness growing inside him.
Kallie was twenty now.Not a child.Not even the sixteen-year-old who had clung to him in the wind, but a woman.
A beautiful woman.
The realization hit him like a blow.He was plagued with desire.An unwelcome and undeniable craving.Not lust.It was deeper, and he could do nothing about those feelings in a town of men.
It left him breathless and hurting.The frustration was something he hadn't felt since before Everstill swallowed him whole.Hell, even longer.Before he'd gone to prison.
He closed his eyes.It scared him to think of Kallie like that.He had no right.No future.
But the thought of her older and even more beautiful lit something in him he thought had died long ago.
He opened his eyes and stared down the empty road, the silence stretching out in front of him like a wound he couldn't close.
She was gone.But the constant ache she left behind stayed lodged in his chest, refusing to fade with the morning light.
Finn had never been certain of much in his life, but he knew this with a clarity that bordered on pain—Everstill hadn't seen the last of her.And neither had he.
No matter how long it took, no matter what the town stole from him next, he would wait for her.
