Kate Avelynn

He stabs his fingers through his drying hair and resumes his pacing. __ou think I don__ know this went really fast? I didn__ plan for this to happen. Hell, I didn__ even know if you__ let me talk to you, much less be with you. But then you did and we did and_ He stops in the center of the room and stares at me, his shoulders sagging. __ figured out pretty quick that this is a forever thing for me. I think it has been from the very beginning.

This is my first real memory of James. In every memory before that, he__ just a flash of color, a warm body with a blurred face, a comforting voice begging me not to die. When he planted himself between our father and me that day, an eight-year-old with small fists clenched at his sides, I think I fell in love with my brother.

I feel his intense gaze skimming my face and force myself to look him in the eye. This time, when he leans closer, I know what he wants. He traces my jaw with his fingertips, then moves lower to my chin. My eyelids flutter closed when he tips my face up.Oh my God. Sam Donavon is going to kiss me. The forest holds its breath.I hold my breath.Our lips brush, light as eyelashes. His fingers trail back into my hair, tilting my head. Hot cinnamon dances across my mouth. I__ drowning.And then my name, roared at the top of familiar lungs, cracks the silent night.

Selfish as this sounds, I meant what I said earlier,_ he finally says.I try to remember what he said, but everything is kind of a blur. __hich part?_ __he ____ glad you came tonight_ part.__o I__ not imagining the nudging or the sparks or what I could have sworn was his thumb tracing circles on the back of my hand while we walked to his car. __mm. Well in that case, I meant what I said, too.__e kicks a rock I__ two steps from tripping over out of my path. __ou said the potholes in Leslie__ driveway suck.

James is why I never left. I should have left.

Two babies in little more than a year and a half. Knockout Jimmy was forced to give up boxing and take a job in the paper mill. It broke him, and in turn, he broke us all.

James __nockout Jimmy_ O__rien, Granite Fall__ very own boxing legend__ title he held until a young groupie poked holes in the condom she made him wear __or protection.__y brother was born nine months later, fists already swinging.