Page 58 of Chasing Forever

It could have been an eternity or only a handful of seconds, but when I felt Tristan’s fingers skate over my jaw, I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was that beautiful sky blue.

Chapter Thirty

Merritt

Two months later

I pulledthe fruit tray out of the fridge and placed it on the island, pulling off the top and removing the lid from the container of dip in the middle.

Taking a step back, I surveyed everything. I had to make sure I didn’t miss a thing, I’d gotten everything right, down to the very last detail. This day had to be perfect.

Tristan moved into the kitchen just as I began reorganizing all the platters and trays taking up the island and counter top.

“Dandelion, it all looks great. Stop stressing.” He came up behind me and grabbed my hips, leaning in to press a kiss to the side of my neck.

I looked back at him over my shoulder. “Great’s not perfect, Tristan. I need this to beperfect.”

“It’s a birthday party for an eight-year-old,” he reminded me. “You’re putting too much pressure on yourself.”

Okay, yes. It was Levi’s birthday party, but given what Levi had gone through during his eighth year of life, I wanted to make sure this day went off without a hitch. He deserved nothing less.

After Warren had taken me, there was a spell where things became pretty rocky. There was no way to hide my battered body from him, and the first time Levi walked into my hospital room after the ordeal was finally over, he’d burst into tears. He’d been so scared of hurting me more that he’d refused to touch me for three whole days. And those days would go down in history as some of the worst of my life for that very reason.

Seeing his aunt like that had caused him to backslide a bit, and he started having nightmares where he lost me forever.

I hadn’t hesitated to find the best therapist in the area for kids his age, and within a week of that first nightmare, he’d had his first appointment. The road to healing wasn’t fast or straight, but he was getting back to where he’d been before Warren had abducted and tortured me.

Speaking of healing, the events of that day had left a mark on me as well, and I didn’t mean only physically. The fear I felt at never seeing Levi and Tristan again had refused to let me go for a long time. It helped I knew I would never have to fear Warren again. What I hadn’t been able to see as everything was happening was that Tristan hadn’t been standing outside that door by himself. They’d already been on their way to rescue me when I stabbed Warren and made a run for it. They’d heard the gunshots and Warren’s scream, so they knew which building around the abandoned mill I’d been trapped in. Turned out, it was an old dormitory for the people who worked nights, and that’s where he’d been keeping me.

As soon as Tristan got me clear and Warren had taken that first shot, Rhodes and Tristan’s partner, Harrison, had fired back, killing him instantly.

I found out later he would have died no matter what. I’d managed to nick his artery, and he’d been slowly bleeding out already. I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that I’d technically killed him before he was shot, and that, on top of seeing him lying on the ground dead, messed with my head in major ways.

Because of the post-traumatic stress both Tristan and I had suffered, we decided the smart thing would be for us to seek professional help as well. It was working wonders to get us back to our light, beautiful life we’d had before.

“Dandelion, stop that and look at me,” Tristan insisted gently, pulling my hands away when I started messing with the flower arrangement—because that was what every eight-year-old boy wanted for his birthday. A freaking flower arrangement. But I blamed it on not being in my right mind when I was putting all of this together.

I lifted my gaze to those blue eyes that saved me over and over again every time I looked into them, and a sense of calm washed over me. “You don’t need to wear yourself out like this. He’s going to love it.” He looked around the house, raising his brows and said, “It looks like theWWEthrew up all over the place.”

He had a point. I might have gone a little overboard with the decorations. But that was nothing compared to what I’d done outside. There was a wrestling themed bounce house, cotton candy, snow cone and popcorn machines, and under a large tent at the back of the yard were different stations where the kids could either get their faces painted, have a balloon animal made, or sit for a caricature portrait.

“I know. And I promise I’ll tone it down next year, but Ozzy never did anything for any of Levi’s birthdays.”

Tristan’s face fell and he let out a low growl. “You know, the more you tell me about him, the gladder I am that the stupid prick got his sentence extended.”

I was glad for that too, and I didn’t care if that made me a bad sister. Apparently Ozzy caused as much troubleinsideprison as he had outside of it. When he started a fight in the prison yard and ended up stabbing somebody, a sentence that had only been eighteen months had five years added to it.

That was all the judge needed to hear to strip his parental rights away and grant me full and permanent custody.

Hearing that had gone a long way in healing Levi.

Warren was gone and Ozzy was out of our lives forever. And I wanted today to reflect all that good. In my head, this was our first step into the future as a family.

The front door opened, and Nona’s voice called out, “We’re here.”

“In the kitchen,” I returned. Smiling brightly as she and Trick rounded the corner with Doc on their heels.

“I have the cake,” Nona told me, sliding the large bakery box she’d been holding onto the counter. “And I have to say, this might be my best one yet.”

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