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“Did your girl know all this before she came the first time?” Da
“I don’t remember.”
Da
Troy sighed as he lifted his plate. “It is what it is, brother. You get over it.”
And with that, he walked out of the room.
Da
Da
Maybe Troy’s apathy was just a front, just something he used to keep his true feelings at bay.
Or maybe thirteen months of this shit had managed to turn the people in that photograph into fictional characters—individuals who existed on paper but nowhere else.
Is that how he and Leah were destined to end up? Da
But then again, every last one of his expectations had been refuted since he’d come here, so what the hell did he know anymore?
“The following people have been requested at the visitor’s center,” a voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “Charles Velasquez, Darrel Simpson, Daniel DeLuca, Ray Bre
Da
Some small, unquenchable piece of his heart desperately needed to see her. He could feel it trying to fight its way to the surface, like someone submerged under water for far too long, striving for a restorative breath. But the more tenable part of him was terrified beyond belief.
He had no idea what he was going to do once they were in the same room together. What he would say. How he would behave. There were rules now. People were watching. Who were they supposed to be under these new circumstances?
As he approached the door leading to the visitor’s center, he tried to convince himself that once he saw her, everything would make sense. He wouldn’t have to think. This was Leah. Everything with her had always been so effortless, even when he was trying to fight it in the begi
This day was going to change everything for him. He just needed to have faith and let it happen.
Da
He gave Da
On the other side of the door was a small room with an exit that led into the visiting area, and as Da
“Arms out,” he ordered.
Da
Contraband checks were so commonplace around here that Da
“Shoes off,” Layne said as he came to stand in front of Da
He dropped his arms to his sides. “You want my shoes off?”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it? Is English your second language?”
Da
He’d never had to remove his shoes during a contraband check before. It would be virtually impossible for him to retrieve something from his shoe during a visit without being caught by the guards, which meant Layne was just trying to make this difficult.
As soon as Da
And then he tossed them on the floor in front of Da
“Pick those up.”
Da
And then he saw her.
She was standing near the civilian entrance to the visitor’s center, looking beautiful and pristine and perfect, and all at once some dormant part of him resurfaced, making him want to rip the door off the hinges and run to her.
The sight of her did something strange to his body, like the shot of Demerol he’d gotten as a child just before the surgery on his broken leg. He could sense something warm rush through his veins, making him feel heavy and sedated, but oddly enough, it didn’t do a thing to ease his pain; the hurt was still there—he could feel it—but it had temporarily lost its power over him.
Da
He watched her chew on her lower lip as she glanced back and forth between them. He watched her run her hands down the sides of her jeans as she inhaled a deep breath. He watched her standing in a windowless room full of felons as two strangers searched through her things.
And he knew she didn’t belong there.
“You’re clear,” Layne said, his eyes on his clipboard as he wrote something. “Keep your hands to yourself or your ass will be thrown back through these doors so fast you won’t even get a chance to say, ‘I’m i
Da
“I said, is that clear?”
Da
Layne dismissed him with a flick of his head.
As Da
She was still standing by the entrance with the guards as they placed items back in her bag, and Da
Her eyes landed on him instantly, and her face broke into a wide grin as she took two quick steps in his direction before she stopped and composed herself. Da
She ran the last few steps to him and threw her arms around his neck, and Da
The smell of her hair enveloped him, making him feel like he was being ripped apart and reconstructed all at once.
She let go of him almost immediately, giving him a quick peck on the mouth before taking two steps backward.
“They told me the rules,” she said, taking another reluctant step away from him, and it felt like his insides were spilling out onto the floor.
He hated every eye in the room that watched them right now. Every guard who sat glued to their interactions like they were watching an episode of reality TV. He hated every motherfucker who refused to let him have this one moment with her.