Saving Rain

by Kelsey Kingsley

Harry became my inspiration to do even better. He’s a good guy—the best really. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” “How did you meet?” she asked. “Well, I mean, apart from me getting there and him being in charge of performing a very, very thorough search of my body?” I smirked and sniffed lightly at my own feeble attempt at making a joke, but she didn’t laugh, and I quickly cleared my throat and shifted in my chair. “Um … so, I had, of course, seen him around. I knew who he was, and he knew who I was … but we never really talked. I didn’t really talk much, you know? I was more focused on, like, keeping my head down and not pissing too many people off at first. “But after a while, it was my birthday. And it was also the anniversary of Billy’s death. And I, uh …” I diverted my gaze toward a mounted deer head on the wall and shrugged at its lifeless gaze. “I didn’t handle it well, I guess. It was like … I’d always known what I had been arrested for, what I was convicted of, but it never really hit me until that particular day.” It was an awkward moment for the waiter to step in and bring our drinks with a muttered apology. After assuring us the appetizers would be out soon and he’d take our dinner order, he scurried away again. I figured he just didn’t want to prolong his discomfort by hanging around longer, and I wondered if maybe this wasn’t the time to talk about this. Hell, maybe I shouldn’t ever talk about it at all. “So, what happened?” Ray asked, stirring the s...