“Callum!” she cried.

He shouted in pain as his body started to convulse. Peyton wasn’t strong enough to keep him on his feet, so they fell onto the pier, his body shaking violently in her arms.

“Callum! What do I do? Callum!” she screamed, her tears landing on his face.

She wrestled his weight to pull her phone out of her pocket, screaming his name as his body trembled.

“Stay with me, please,” she pleaded as she dialled triple zero.

Callum’s convulsion started to slow down until he breathed out, “Peyton.”

She held him tight. “Please don’t leave me. Please stay!”

“I—” he started to stay as his eyes slowly closed.

“No! No!” she shrieked as the operator answered.

“Peyton!” Graham’s voice screamed.

She raised her head to see Graham racing towards the pier as Peyton held Callum tightly, trying to stop his thrashing.

“Help me, Graham! Please help me!” she shouted from the top of her lungs. Then she looked back down at Callum as his hands trembled.

When Graham reached them, he took the phone from her and started talking into the speaker, Peyton unable to hear a word he said.

“Tell me you love me again,” she whispered as she stroked his face.

Callum’s shaky hand reached up and rested on top of hers. “I love you forever,” he said. Then his breathing became shallow.

“Just know you found redemption the moment you walked back into my life. I love you, Callum,” she sobbed.

“Peyton, the ambulance will be here in seconds,” Graham said.

Callum’s hand fell away from hers, landing against his body. His body relaxed in her arms, and she felt him inhale one last final breath before he breathed it out.

“No!” she cried and placed her hand over his chest.

No heartbeat.

“No!” she cried again. “Come back to me.”

She wailed harder than she had ever before as her grasp on him tightened. Then she whimpered into the top of his head, her tears wetting his hair.

“I love you. Come back,” she begged softly. “Come back to me, Callum.”

Tears dragged themselves across her face as she looked at his pale face. She felt it. Every last Callum Reid breath experienced, she felt.

I watched and felt the love of my life die.

Peyton stood by and watched his loved ones gather around his grave. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t convince herself to witness his wake. She had experienced his death in her hands. She had watched him die. No amount of happy pictures of Callum Reid could ever make her forget the last moments of his life.

The pain inside her was unbearable. She wasn’t sure how she had made it through the last three days, but she had. Her aunt and uncle had returned to Daylesford, having ignored Peyton’s objections. June’s album release had been cancelled and moved to the Docklands in the city. Life and the hotel had stalled.

She couldn’t will herself out of bed. Callum’s funeral was what had gotten her up. Jenny had driven her and attended the service while Peyton had stood outside, crying. Callum’s mother had been the one to contact Peyton to ask if she wanted to speak, but Peyton had refused. She couldn’t speak of their love. No one had understood when he was alive, so they wouldn’t now that he was dead.

Brain tumour.

That’s what Graham had told her moments after the ambulance had taken Callum to the hospital to await an autopsy. The first thing Peyton had done was slap Graham in the face for keeping it from her. Never had she believed that Callum was dying. If only she had seen the signs: his headaches, and his recent dizziness, and tiredness. She could have done something. After some struggle, Graham had held her and told her the truth. Peyton had cried and called her best friend a liar. It had taken Madilynne and Jenny talking to her before Peyton settled down.

The front door was always knocked on. But Aunt Brenda would answer and ask them to give Peyton some time. Jay had knocked on the door, too, but he was the last person she wanted to see. Callum dying had made Peyton hate Jay with more ferociousness than necessary.

Now, three days after his death, Peyton stood at a distance. Those who grieved him stood in her way of saying goodbye. She didn’t want to say goodbye. She still held hope that he’d be outside her window or at the pier or at their spot in the forest, but he wasn’t. Not a day went by where she didn’t cry.

“Cherry blossoms,” Graham said as he stood next to her.

She noticed the flowers in his hand and laughed. She actually laughed. “Lavender?” she asked.

He shrugged with a grin. “There’s that smile. He always did call me lavender boy. Why not get the last laugh?”

That smile he’d noticed faded as she looked down at the cherry blossoms in her hands. “I miss him. I can feel him with me, but I turn around and I’m alone.”

“I’m sorry he didn’t get the chance to tell you, Peyton.”

She picked up a loose cherry blossom and threw it with the wind, watching it fly. “He tried to tell me,” she said. “He also left me, thinking it was going to be better.”

“I know it sounds kind of cliché to say this, but I know he’ll always be with you, Peyton. He loved you more than you realise,” Graham said.

She only nodded in agreement.

Peyton gazed at the sight of people starting to make their way to the car park to head off to the lunch Mrs Reid had planned. Peyton wouldn’t attend, and the Reids knew that. She had seen them when she’d first arrived at the funeral house. The look on Mrs Reid’s face had broken Peyton’s heart. It hadn’t just been the look of a mother who had lost her only child. It had been the look of knowing that someone who had loved her son had lost him, too. His parents had arrived in Daylesford in a matter of hours the day he’d died, but they’d never crossed paths. They had been quick to take their son back home to the city.

“It’s time you left Daylesford, Graham,” Peyton finally said.

“What?”

“It’s time. One of us has to make it out of this town. Callum was right. There is something beautiful outside of our town, and for you, it’s Mads. You have to leave that farm and be with her. Your dad will be okay. I will visit him daily if I have to.”

This time, Peyton saw understanding flash in his eyes, and then he nodded.

“Give me some time to find someone who can mind the farm while I’m in the city. I can work from home, but I need someone to do the manual work. This goes two ways, Peyton. It’s time you left Daylesford, too,” Graham said.

It was her turn to nod. “Once the hotel is built and I get things on track, I’m going to see the world.”

A proud smile developed on her best friend’s face. “Where first?”

Peyton glanced at Callum’s grave before she looked back at Graham. “Austria. I’m going for the both of us.”

“That’s beautiful, Peyton.” Graham looped his arm around hers. “Ready to say goodbye?”

Peyton shook her head. “Never, but I’ll try.”

She took a shaky step towards the freshly covered grave. Then she swallowed hard at the sight of his headstone, his name carved into the stone.

When she reached Callum’s final resting place, Graham set the lavender on a clear spot, the countless flowers proving that he was a man loved by many.

“You loved her right, Callum. I’ll take care of her for you and I’ll keep her out of trouble. You’ll be missed, mate. Thank you for Madilynne. Thank you for making Peyton smile and laugh again. And thank you for coming back for her,” Graham said before he took a few steps back to give her some time with him.

Peyton set the bundle of cherry blossoms on top of his headstone and sat on the wet grass. As she stared at his name, her heart ached to see it mark his grave.