Falyn got to spend a day with Olive AND consumate her love with Taylor.
Beautiful Sacrifice Chapter 17:
Everything is just swell between Taylor and Falyn. We’ve skipped ahead a couple months, and they’ve settled into a (long distance) routine. Taylor is living and working a few hours away and visits Falyn on the weekends since he has a car and she doesn’t.
It was only seven weeks before Travis and Abby’s vow renewal in St. Thomas, and then Taylor would be back in Colorado Springs. I hoped. It wasn’t that I wished for wildfires, but that was the only thing that would bring Taylor to town.
So we’re totally supposed to wish for wildfires, but also don’t wish for wildfires everyone stop.
Falyn tells all of her friends how much she loves Taylor. They all wonder if soon she’s going to move to be closer to him. This marks the chapter’s descent into logistics-related discussions.
“Are you going to up and leave us for Estes Park?” I shrugged.
“He’s mentioned it. I said no.”
Uh oh. My “Maddox Bro Freakout” senses are tingling. When a Maddox Bro mentions his eternal love and starts rushing you into big decisions, it’s forever.
Taylor tried applying for jobs at one of the local stations near Falyn, but that hasn’t panned out yet. Are you still awake? No. I’m sorry.
Why doesn’t Taylor just come work at the cafe with everybody else? Then they can all live happily ever after. Taylor would even be fulfilling the wish of his dead mother that all of her children strive to get safe jobs (and yet they all wind up in the FBI or fighting fires).
Falyn points out it’s really too early for them to be worried about moving in together. Uh oh. By the end of this chapter, they are definitely going to agree to move in together, and it’s going to be after a Maddox Bro meltdown.
In the middle of the chapter we time skip ahead to after Valentines day (I think it was just January…so maybe we’ve skipped a month ahead now?), and Trabby’s ceremony is almost upon us all.
Taylor and Gunner show up to hang out with Kirby and Falyn. Gunner is notable for his time as a character in this book that is a character who existed. In this book.
They’re all chilling, and everything is cool, until Falyn and Taylor start discussing their long distance relationship.
I squirmed. “It’s just that… it feels wrong to leave Phaedra high and dry after all she’s done for me. And I’m not sure I’d like your brother as a roommate. I don’t really want to ask him to move out, and we have a perfectly good place here. I can save more if I stay here.”
“That’s not true. I told you I’d take care of rent.”
They go in circles about who’s going to get a job where, and to his credit, Gunnar seems really satisfied with his Netflix situation, and keeps trying to nope out of this conversation:
“Should we go?” Gunnar asked.
We both ignored him.
[…]
“We definitely need to go,” Gunnar said.
“What’s your rush?” Kirby asked.
Gunnar’s brows pulled together. “When you start agreeing with me the way Falyn just did, shit goes downhill real fast.”
Instead of leaving, as they really should, the whole gang…goes to stand outside together. In the snow. For some reason. They do discuss going to a bar, but Gunnar and Kirby are apparently under 21, so that’s a no go. Good thing they can just stand out in the snow while Taylor and Falyn try not to fight!
He sighed. “Okay. We’ll talk about it during the week. I don’t want to fight.”
Gunnar and Kirby’s conversation seemed forced, and they made sure not to look in our direction, probably in an effort not to eavesdrop.
Gunnar. Kirby. Go home.
Falyn insists Taylor is moving too fast. But there is no such thing for a Maddox bro in love.
“No, you’re right. I’m just a little more than irritated that you were all fate and meant-to-be in Eakins, and now, you’re acting like we’re moving too fast.”
Ooh good emotional manipulation. Well played.
A group of drunk teens shows up in the nick of time to hit on Falyn and direct Taylor’s rage upon them.
They chuckled among one another and began to move on, but the bearded one paused. “Don’t you work at the Bucksaw?” I wasn’t sure which of us he was addressing. None of us answered. “I’ll come see you,” he said, attempting to be flirtatious while struggling to keep his balance.
[…]
Taylor glared at his hand. “I don’t like you touching my truck. Think about it. What am I going to do to you if you touch my girlfriend?”
M U R D E R HIM PROBABLY!
“Kill me?” the guy said, trying to stand and back away.
Taylor smiled. “No. I’ll beat the hell out of you until you want to kill yourself.”
Or that!
Gunnar finally decides to go home, and Taylor and Falyn return to her apartment to watch Spaceballs together in true Beautiful Garbage tradition.
Before bed, they talk about the moving in situation again. Falyn wants to, but something feels off about the situation to her. Listen to that feeling, Falyn. This is all moving really quickly.
Taylor shifted, letting his hand rest on my stomach, and then the answer came. If he stayed with me, Taylor would have to make a sacrifice, one with which I was all too familiar. Family was important to him. He had said it before. He couldn’t do what I had done.
[…]
How can I really love him and allow him to make such a choice?
Oh…it’s because she can’t have kids and thinks she can speak for his feelings about the situation. Right.