Page 124 of Feels Like Home

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, Dad!Go!”

The wordgois barely out of their mouths before I’m sliding my arms into my jacket and running out thedoor.

It doesn’t take me long to get to her place from ours, but one thing that keeps rolling through my mind during the trip is her declaration of her love for me while we were in Mr. Moore’soffice.

I’m pulling into Christine’s driveway, honking the horn like a lunatic. But the thing is? When you finally figure something out, like how you love someone and can’t live without her, you don’t want to waste anotherminute.

Great.

I jumped from Good Will Hunting to When Harry Met Sally in a ten-minute span. That’s gotta be a record. Clearly, I’ve had too much extra time on my handslately.

I kick the car door open, falling halfway out the car before getting hung up on the seat belt I forgot to take off. I quickly hit the button and fall the rest of the way onto my back. I stand up, brush the dust off, throw my leather jacket back into the car, and startwalking.

The front door swings open, and an angry Christine appears in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. Still wearing my sweatshirt, and stupid or not, I take that as a goodsign.

She’s fired up, pissed off, andbeautiful.

Breathtakinglybeautiful.

But the look in her eyes stops me where I’mstanding.

I quite like my balls, and I have a feeling if I just take her in my arms and kiss the hell out of her right now that I will no longer be in possession ofthem.

“Hi.”

She raises one eyebrow at me, and I shift on my feet. She remains silent, her bright green eyes never leavingmine.

I clear my throat and take a step towardher.

When she doesn’t move away, I take that as anotherpositive.

“Thank you for being there for Aidantoday.”

“Of course. Just because his dad is an asshole doesn’t mean I’m going to take that out onhim.”

Okay. So her gloves are coming off, and she’s standing firm in heranger.

“It meant a lot to him. And…” I pause, struggling more than ever not to rush up the stairs and wrap her in myarms.

“And?”

“Me.” I point to myself like that will help drive the point home. I then spread my arms out to my sides, hoping she sees the transparency in my presence here. “It meant a lot to me. To see you standing in there, going mama bear on Preston’s mom when she tried dismissing everything hedid.”

“Well, someone had to do it.” She sniffs and rolls her eyes atme.

“Iagree.”

“What are you doing here, Andy? I think you’ve already said what you needed to say tome.”

I shake my head adamantly, my heart beating wildly in my chest. “No. I didn’t. I said a bunch of bullshit that I didn’t mean. I was angry. Hurt. I wasscared.”

“Scared?” She scrunches her eyebrowsadorably.

I take another step toward her when I see her body relax just slightly. She’s still on her porch; I’m on the walkwaybelow.

“Shitless, to behonest.”

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