With Trevor out of town,
Kemp had to put his job on hold, which did not make his boss happy. And Kemp
couldn’t even tell him the real reason why, blaming it instead on family
business he had to deal with. Leif was now back in Seattle, having promised to keep in touch, so
Kemp had Trevor’s house to himself. Not that he got much chance to use it other
than to sleep, but he’d become used to that. It was having no one to talk to
that was getting to him. Lonely nights patrolling the streets, always tense as
he looked for vampyres that needed his attention, gave him too much time think
The more he thought, the
more he realized that Seth had been correct. For the past three years almost
his sole focus had been on Owen; on him and then on feeling sorry for himself
for having lost him. How the hell has
anyone been able to put up with me? he wondered. And what chances have I missed, as Seth said, because I wouldn’t let go
of the past?
By the fourth night, finding
himself again avoiding the riverfront area where he and Owen had spent so much
time—instead of checking it out as he should have—he took himself in hand.
This had got to stop. Now, he scolded himself. I’m a grown man. I can’t let the past rule me the way it has been.
He forced himself to cross
the street. As he walked along the path by the river he began to realize that
the pain was gone, replaced by a sense of acceptance. He would never forget
Owen—he had been his first love—but
indeed it was now time to move on. “I’ll always miss you, and love you,” he
murmured under his breath. “But I need to begin living again.”
He waited, almost as if
expecting an answer, and then laughed to himself. This wasn’t some romance
novel where the ghost of a past love would come back to give the hero their
permission to get on with his life. This was reality and the choice was his
alone to make. He looked around, smiled softly, and whispered, “Good-bye.”
Then, feeling as if a great
weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he went in search of vampyres.
Yay! Moving on! Me Too!
ReplyDeleteMoving on can be a very good thing.
Delete