Where are we going?” Parker asks after two hours of driving in almost complete silence.

“It’s a surprise.” He takes a shaky breath, and Parker can’t help but see he’s nervous.

“We’ve been driving forever,” she says, shifting in her seat.

“Crap, I didn’t even think about it. Do you need your pain meds? Or other meds? Damn, I’m screwing this up.”

“Relax. I’m just getting a little stiff.”

“It’s only about ten more minutes. Are you sure you don’t need anything?”

“I’m okay,” she says and eyes him suspiciously wondering what he has up his sleeve.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“You seem nervous. I’m just trying to figure out why.”

“I am.”

“Why? It’s just me.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you aren’t anyone special. You’re not just anyone. You’re everything.”

Parker looks out the window. “You’re wrong.”

“About?”

“You’re giving me too much credit.”

“No, I stopped giving you enough credit a long time ago. I need to change that.”

Parker says nothing and continues to look out the window until they pull up outside of a condo with yellow flowers out front. She recognizes it immediately. “Your mom’s place?”

“Yeah,” he says and hops out and moves around to her side. Opening the door, he holds out his hand to help her down, and she accepts it.

“What are we doing here?”

“I wanted to show you something.”

They walk up to the door, and he pulls out a key to unlock it. Taking a deep breath, he opens it and leads her inside.

“You’ve already cleaned it out.”

“Why do you sound confused?”

“I guess I assumed you’d want help with it.”

“I said I wanted to show you something, not put you to work,” he laughs.

“Let’s be honest here and admit I wouldn’t have actually been much help anyway. But I would’ve done what I could.”

“I know you would have,” he says sadly.

“Why does everything I say seem to have a bad effect on you?”

“Because I’ve just been realizing a lot of stuff lately.”

“Like?” Parker walks around the small condo.

“How I took you for granted. All the time. You would do anything for me, and I never seemed to appreciate it. And you have no idea how truly sorry I am.”

“I’ve forgiven you, Ryder. I don’t know how many times I can tell you that.” She moves into the kitchen were a single moving box sits.

“Don’t forgive me so easily. I need to earn it.”

“You don’t need to earn forgiveness. Not with me. What’s in the box?” she asks. She gets close, but doesn’t want to overstep any boundaries by looking inside without permission.

“That’s what I wanted to show you.”

Pulling the flap up, she looks inside and pulls out a card. “Is this a baseball card of you?”

“Yep, that’s me when I was five.”

“You were cute.”

“Were?”

“You really want to be considered as cute as a five year old when you’re almost thirty?”

“Valid,” he laughs. “This is my childhood in a box.”

“The childhood you never like to talk about?”

“Yeah. Notice how it fits inside one box? Compared to yours, which still fills an entire house, it’s not exactly something happy. There’s more bad than good.”

“That’s fair. But you can’t compare your childhood to mine.”

“Believe me, I know.” He looks at his watch. “You can go through it here if you want, or we can take it with us. I just need to give the keys to the landlord by three.”

“Are we heading back after this?”

“I have one more stop for you. If you’re up for it.”

“Let’s take it with us. I want to be able to fully appreciate the potentially embarrassing items in this box right here.”

Taking the box, Ryder lets her lead them out of the door. He turns and looks once more around the small place his mom lived, clean and sober and happy. He smiles a sad smile before shutting the door and locking it.

Soon after, they’ve stopped at the rental office to drop off the keys, and Ryder turns the pickup onto the highway. An air of melancholy fills the pickup, and Parker doesn’t know if she should say something about his shift in mood or not.

“How are you doing?” she decides to ask instead.

“What do you mean?”

“Cleaning out your mom’s house. That had to be difficult. Especially by yourself.”

“I didn’t hit the bottle.”

“I didn’t ask if you did.”

“I just wanted you to know. That part of my life is officially over.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” she says grimly and looks out the window. He always avoids answering the tough questions.

Ryder takes a deep breath and glances over at her. “It’s not that I’m trying to purposely not answer your questions. I just don’t know how to answer it. I don’t know how I feel, honestly. Or how I’m supposed to feel. For the most part, I’m okay. I’ve lived without her more than I lived with her in my life. I think the part I’m having the hardest time dealing with is realizing the relationship we were forming was the one I always wanted. And now it’s gone before it’s had a chance to fully develop.”

“I think that’s the most you’ve ever opened up about how you’re feeling.”

“I used to tell you how much I loved you all the time.”

“Not so much the last year we were together. You drank yourself into a numbness so you didn’t have to feel. Including the feelings pertaining to me.”

“I’m trying.”

“I can see.”

“For the record, I did say it back.”

“Say what back?” Parker looks at him.

“Our night together, when you said you loved me. I told you I loved you, too. After you fell asleep. I know it’s not the same, but I said it. And I mean it.”

Moments later, Ryder turns into a cemetery, and Parker doesn’t have a chance to respond to his confession. She knows exactly where they are, and she can’t help her racing heart. Navigating through to the far back, it’s apparent he’s spent a lot of time on this route. He stops and hops out to help her do the same.

“There’s someone I’d like to introduce you to,” he says. Parker looks at the headstone reading TARA EDWARDS.

“Your sister,” she whispers as tears fill her eyes.

“You’ve asked me to bring you out here with me before.”

“And you always had a reason not to.”

“I know.” He turns his attention toward the stone. “Hey, T. I know I just talked you the other day. I can hear you now telling me to get a life, but I wanted you to meet someone very special to me. I talk about her all the time, but I thought it was time to introduce you. This is Parker.”

“Hi, Tara,” Parker squeaks. Her tears have fallen from her eyes. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“And she’s heard all about you. I’m kind of glad Tara can’t talk right now because she’d have plenty to say. Mostly agreeing with how big of a dick I’ve been. And how stupid I am. And how often I talk about how much I still love you.”

“Ryder.”

“It’s true. I come talk to Tara at least once a week. She’s one of the only people I could never lie to. It’s the reality check I need. It’s kind of like she’s here telling me what to do. Guiding me in the right direction. Like she used to.”

“Did you come out here when you were drinking?”

“No. I knew if I did, I’d have to confront a few issues I was hiding from. But, I know I can’t do that anymore.”

“I appreciate you sharing this with me.” She wipes her tears from her face with her right hand.

“It’s not as scary letting you in like I thought it would be.”

“I’m glad I’m not scary.”

“Let’s get back. I have a couple of other surprises at home.” He feels a bit of hope spring up when she doesn’t try and correct his use of the word home.