“I miss you. Words can’t express the pain and misery I feel. I love you, and saying it over and over again will never bring you back. I get why you didn’t tell me. I hated and loved that you didn’t. I get why you left the first time. Your mother said you wanted to leave once you found out about your tumour because you didn’t want me to see you suffer. And I also get why you left the second time. Graham’s right—you loved me right, Callum Reid. I promise to live a good and happy life for the both of us. Life is never fair, but you taught me it’s what you do with it because life is purely a cluster of sometimes moments. When they’re grouped together, they are the beautiful forever moments of your life.

“Thank you for our sometimes moments, Callum. They were beautiful and unforgettable. They are my forever moments. I like to believe that we were living the forever the universe was depriving us of. We made it to forever, Callum. And forever had never been so beautiful than when it was you.”

There were no tears. The reflection of their love and time together had her smiling lightly.

“I made it out of Daylesford. I didn’t get far, but I got past the signs thanks to Jenny. She misses you. So does Mads and Graham. But I miss you the most. I’m trying to live a happy life, but it’s been hard since you left. But you left behind reasons for me to keep going and find happiness in what I have. We had a love that most people will never experience. I’ll visit you in my dreams when I’m not in the city. I love you always. This isn’t me saying goodbye forever, not when I can see you and feel you in our sometimes moments,” Peyton said as she stood up.

She stared at the cherry blossoms her uncle had helped pick from her tree. They were beautiful and bright pink, a symbolism of him.

“Goodbye, Callum, my love.”

Peyton spun around to see Madilynne and Jenny talking to Graham. When they looked at her, Peyton smiled. They were her family. People who supported her through every loss and every pain she experienced. What she did from now on was for them and Callum.

“There’s somewhere I want to go before we head back to town if that’s okay?” Peyton asked once she walked to them.

“Wherever you want to go today and any day of your life, we’ll get you there,” Jenny said, a tear running down her cheek.

Looking down at her left hand and then her wrist, she nodded to herself. She glanced up at the clearing sky and breathed out.

God, if you’re listening, thank you for him. Thank you for Callum Reid.

“Six days, Callum. That’s how many days it’s been since I felt your last breath.”

Peyton sat at the end of her bed, holding the framed picture of his written love. Some days, she cried, and some days, she didn’t. On the rare occasion that she didn’t cry, she felt guilty that she wasn’t crying. People from the town still stopped by, but Peyton never answered the door. Her aunt still sent them away, asking for more time. Her uncle would stop by for a daily joke that would actually make her laugh, but then Peyton would stay in bed.

The feel of him was starting to disappear. He was becoming just a memory, and she hated it. She wanted to physically feel him breathe and move. She wished she had seen the signs of his failing health sooner; then she wouldn’t have had him work on the hotel. They’d have spent his last days together with no care. But Peyton knew Callum hadn’t wanted her to put her life on hold for him. She believed that was why he’d left town at seventeen, when he was first diagnosed.

Peyton placed the picture on her bed and turned her wrist over, following the letters she’d had tattooed on her skin.

Callum.

In her own handwriting, his name branded her skin just like her heart. The night after the funeral, she’d held her bandaged wrist to her chest, hoping somewhere he’d felt her love for him.

Suddenly, a knock on the front door had Peyton looking up. In the last two days, no one had knocked on the door, finally getting the hint that she wasn’t interested in talking to anyone. Peyton walked out of her room and towards the front door.

If it were Jay again, she’d do what she had done to Graham moments after Callum died and slap him. No amount of apologetic voicemails and text messages could persuade her to forgive him anytime soon. She just needed time.

She opened the front door and was surprised to see Callum’s best friend in a suit, holding a box.

“Hello, Peyton,” he said. The life and joy in his eyes had been replaced with a miserable cloud—one Peyton knew well.

“Oliver, this is a surprise. How are you?”

His mouth tugged into a frown. “Like shit. I miss him, but I know it’s nothing compared to what you’re going through.”

“I miss him, too. Would you like to come in for cuppa?” she asked, but Oliver shook his head.

“No. Unfortunately, I have to get back to the city. I drove to drop these off for you,” he said, holding the box out to her.

Confused, she took the small, pink box in her hand and looked up at him. “What is it?”

“Callum left it behind. The day before his… The day before he called me to say goodbye. Told me that he left a box in his parents’ house and, after the funeral, I had to come by and give it to you,” Oliver explained and quickly wiped his eyes. It was evident that he had never experienced losing someone who he loved.

Peyton took a step forward and hugged him tight. Then Oliver let out a mumbling sob over her shoulder. After a minute, she untangled her arms and stared at the box she held in her hands.

“Every birthday or anniversary, he’d say, ‘I’m going to see here today. Today is the day I win her forgiveness.’ But each time he left to see you, he’d call and say he couldn’t do it. The first year of chemo he was a mess. When your parents died, he cried, and I had never seen him cry. He just said to me that you would never want to see him after their funeral. You see, Peyton, his last hope of being with you died when your parents did. Your father informed him on how you were doing and kept telling him of when it was a good day to visit. Your dad was the link Callum needed, and it got him through chemo. When they died, he knew he’d never get you back, so he tried less and less. When he found out that the tumour had returned, the first thing he did was call me and tell me that, this time, he had to do it. That’s when I told him that Marissa and I would get married in Daylesford like he had suggested.”

For the first time today, tears welled and then fell. Hearing that her father had kept Callum informed of her made her heart ache. Hearing that he had gone through chemo alone hurt her more. She wished she had been there to support him. For four years, she’d believed he was living the city lifestyle, but in reality, he had been just as lonely as she had.

“He loved you, Peyton. He never wanted you to see the sick side of him. Knowing him, he’ll never stop loving you. I know you were angry with him for a long time, but I hope you can see that he did it all to save you from a life he believed you weren’t suited for. He believed his tumour would hold you back,” Oliver explained.

“I’m not angry, Oliver. I was lonely. I missed him and I will always miss him. He claimed and took my heart. I understand why he did it,” Peyton said, looking up to meet his eyes.

Oliver smiled and nodded. “We’ll keep in touch, Peyton. You deserved a life together. I’m sorry it was taken from you both.”

Me, too.

“I’ll see you around, Oliver.” Peyton bid farewell as she watched him walk down the steps.

Oliver stared at the Reid’s house before he got into his car and drove towards the town’s exit. She too gazed over it. It would no longer be the Reid’s as they had placed it on the market after Callum’s funeral. Peyton never found out why the Reid’s had kept it vacant for over four years but she believed it was so they had another reason to return to Daylesford.