“Look at me,” she said.
I shook my head and buried my face in my pillow like some child. I guess I felt that, if I ignored the entire situation long enough, it would eventually just disappear.
“Please talk to me,” she pleaded. I buried my face even deeper into my pillow, continuing to hide with the hope that she would just give up.
Kori wasn’t that kind of girl, though, and I knew that. I just wished this time she would be. “You can ignore me all you want. You can push me away. Hell, you can even run from me,” she stated, pushing on my shoulder and causing me to finally face her. My lips trembled as her eyes bored into mine. “But I will follow you. I will stand by you and force you to face this. I love you, and I refuse to watch you suffer alone. I’m here for you.” She reached forward, gripping my face in her hands. “I am not going anywhere, no matter how hard you fall.
I will pick you up every god damn day if I have to.”
Tears ran down my cheeks, and I fought back the urge to let it all out. I sniffled and narrowed my eyes at her.
“Go ahead and get pissed. Yell at me. Scream.
When you’re all done and you’ve got all that anger out of you…” She paused, narrowing her eyes at me in return. “I will still be by your side, holding you up.”
The tears were impossible to hold back. My body shook, and I tried with everything I had to hold it all in. I fought until I no longer had the fight in me, and all at once…I broke.
I sobbed and she pulled me close. “Let it out, let it all go.” She soothed my cries by rubbing my back gently.
“He left,” I cried. “He just walked out and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. He was so angry about me not telling him. I think he hates me and that hurts so much.” I continued to cry. “I needed him and he left. I wanted him to hold me and tell me that we would get through it together, but he left.”
Kori pulled back and looked at me closely. “Gavin?” she questioned me, and I nodded my head in reply.
“Um, I’ve only seen him once, the day I got back into town. From the looks of it, though, he isn’t doing all that well, either.” She paused as if she were thinking something over, debating whether to continue with what she’d planned to say. “What?” I asked.
“He, uh, he was sporting a pretty good shiner on his left eye,” Kori whispered.
My stomach tensed and my chest burned. “What?”
Let me begin by saying that I did not read the first book in this series, Forgiving Reed. While I was lost a few times when many characters were in a scene, I did not know their relationship or why they were important to the main characters, I was still able to understand the story line.
Finding Gavin starts in the POV of one of the main characters, Maria. It shifts back and forth throughout the story. Set in a small town in Georgia, Maria is in love with Gavin, the other main character but he has left and she doesn’t understand why. He took her heart with her. What she doesn’t know, and it will eventually become clear is that Gavin has feelings for her too. But Gavin has a past he must deal with. And a wife. That “wife” complicates his life and pushes Maria away. Gavin is ready to shut his heart down for good. If Maria and Gavin are to be together they must overcome some rather large obstacles. Are “they” worth working through them?
This is a cute love story with many characters who are either family or like family. Throw in some side twists and turns with Maria’s immediate family that just complicate her life. The story begins with a serious situation for Maria and you really get to know her family but then they really aren’t mentioned again. For as tight a family as they appeared, you lose touch with them and never really hear form them again. I enjoy stories that incorporate family and show a respect for family values so I did enjoy this part of the story. I was pleased with how the author wrote the story line and how Maria and Gavin ended up. I really enjoyed the “Mickey” part of the story, it warmed my heart even more to Gavin. I kept waiting for the “bad news” and held my breath a few times. That addition was a nice touch. The story kept me interested and wanting to learn more about the characters.
Overall I give this book 4 stars. I would recommend this book. You could read it as a stand alone but it is suggested that you read the first one before.
