Page 80 of The Fate Of Us

As I round the corner, my eyes dart to her, seeing how she’d slipped from the edge of the couchand onto the rug below it, her knees clutched to her chest, the phone still pressed to her ear.

“Bye,”

The pain that smothered those three little letters was enough for me to mimic her positionand sit beside her, my knees curling to my chest as I handed her a tissue. She dropped the phone from her ear and placed it beside her, her head sinking to her knees, and her shoulders starting to shake.

I curled my arm around her back in a heartbeat, tugging her towards me—a silent signalfor her to cry everything out, onto me.

“It’s okay, Addy,” I whispered to her ear, hoping my words would reach her heart andsettle her.

We spent a minute or two like that, holding her while she cried as quietly as she could, afew aching sobs echoing from her when she remembered to breathe, her hands resembling mine when I panicked. And I could have easily stayed that way all day. Holding her. Protecting her.

Pretending that we weren’t the people we were, just for a moment.

Eventually, she peeled herself off me. I brought the tissues to her face, carefully dryingher sodden cheeks, and peeling back the pieces of hair that had framed them.

The sun did that thing again, where it seemed like it was shining only for her, lighting upthe earth angel that didn’t deserve the hurt that wore her heart like its favourite outfit.

Her teary eyes found mine at last, that eternal blaze doused in water.I don’t know why I nodded at her, but I did, and after another breath, her cherry-red lipsparted. “They’re moving her. To London.”

I felt my soul slip to my toes. “They’re what?”

She shook her head like she was trapped in a nightmare. “Moving her halfway across theworld, for a job. She’s leaving in a few months.”

Speaking into the moment caused a fresh flood of tears to make its way down her face,her eyes scrunching and cheeks swelling. “They’re taking her away, Nate. Why the hell would they do that?”

I hadn’t even realised the sight of her distraught like this was causing me to mirror her, itwas only when her eyes made a beeline for the single tear that slipped down my cheek that I noticed it, too.

“I don’t know, Addy. I don’t,” I whispered, barely. Her lips pursed as she cried, harderand harder, until I felt my heart split right down the centre.

I wish I had the answers she wanted. I wish I had the power to stop any hurt thatsought her out from ever reaching her. I wish that I’d just spoken to her when I found her at the pier the day I promised to meet her. I wish I’d walked down the steps and ran across the sand to find her…

I wish she were mine, at this moment, so we could fight this battle together.

So I could hold her, love her, rock her, kiss her, wipe away her tears and curse anythingthat made them slip from fiery, golden planets that had spelt me from the day I looked into them.

Another sob broke through my thoughts, causing me to tug her closer. “Hey, hey, it’sokay. We’ll fix this.”

As she pulled her head back, she lifted those eyes to me, wet lashes shadowing herface. “Will we?”

The way her eyes held me, as tightly and gently as I was holding her, made me realise that she wasn’t talking about her sister.

In that moment, I felt all the love I’d ever had for her make itself known. It screamed atme. It crowded my thoughts. It overflowed and spilt into every corner of my heart.

I’d been a fool to let this girl go.

I’d been a traitor for abandoning her after making a promise to always be in her life.

I’d been a monster for treating her as though she were invisible.

I’d been a liar, trying to convince myself that I could survive in a world withouther, without her laugh, without her fire that burned through every negative feeling that coursed through me.

I wanted that fire to warm me again, and when I dipped my eyes to her parted mouth,crashing my lips on hers not a second later, I felt the blazing inferno I’d missed so much pour onto me like the sweetest of magma.

Burning me in a way I thought I’d never feel again.

I cupped her cheeks, warm and thankfully, rosy again, as I kissed her. And, to my surprise,she didn’t pull away. She kissed me back.

I was kissing Adaline Moore, in a way we never had before.

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