Page 37 of Say You'll Stay

“Will you take her a while? I’m gonna get started on one of these.” She unceremoniously hands over the baby, proving she still trusts him when he’s having a hard time trusting himself. “You hungry? We’ve got plenty of canned ravioli from the looks of it and…six cans of cat food.”

He sighs, sitting at the table while she searches for a can opener. “I could eat.”

“This is a nice place. Maybe we can rest here a while.”

“Mhmm. Couple days if we’re lucky.”

She expected more push back, but he’s as eager for some downtime as she is.

They make it through half their meal before he forgets to keep pressure off his back and leans against the chair, gasping in regret at his mistake. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

She hasn’t asked yet, but he’s already cutting off her concern. “You should let me take a look at it. If it needs stitches, I know how. We’ve got the supplies. Once it begins scabbing over, it’s too late.”

“How’d you get this skill? First aid classes?”

“YouTube. It’s the kinda thing you need to know when going to the ER too often makes people ask questions.”

She’s stitched herself up more than once. Jason even bought her the supplies, delivered directly to their door in a happy little box. A deep cut above her brow, a slice across her hip,and an open wound in the meat of her thigh all could have used a doctor’s skill. That luxury wasn’t worth the risk.

For a moment, she thinks Cole might agree and has to keep herself from leaning forward in anticipation, but that flicker of acceptance quickly fades.

“Don’t think it needs ‘em.” Is all he says, shoveling food into his mouth while she rocks Lucy.

“Okay.”

She’s walking a thin line already. Surprised he hasn’t bolted clear across the house the moment she brought it up. If she tries again, he might. It’s better to pick her battles than risk crumbling the tentative trust they’ve pieced together.

“Did you see what I found in the corner?” He points to a large bow propped against the wall, hefty enough to take down a deer and then some.

Her eyes light up and a smile blooms fast. “You can use that?”

“Hell yeah. We’ll be eating good soon. There are plenty of woods around here. Should be easy pickings.”

“This is a windfall,” she says, wistfully. “Maybe we were meant to find this place. Look at all it has to offer already.”

“Dunno if I believe in all that fate and‘meant to be’stuff, but I’ll take this bit of luck.”

He might not believe it, and she has her own moments of doubt, but the longer she spends with him, the more she thinks they were placed on this path together for a reason. That isn’t something she’ll voice, though. Not a chance.

They finish eating in comfortable silence and spend the afternoon in an arrow crafting lesson. Plenty of branches to pick from in the yard and he’s a good teacher. Her first arrow is a little lopsided but usable and he high-fives her asif she did something amazing. Olivia soaks up the positive reinforcement like a dry sponge. Having someone root for her success instead of cheering on her failure is a welcome contrast from what she’s used to. Tells herself she’s not trying to impress him, but that’s a lie, at least on some buried level she doesn’t want to acknowledge yet.

“I didn’t know the army taught DIY arrow crafting.” She smiles.

Cole shrugs. “They don’t. One of my foster sisters taught me back in the day. Her father taught her before he…”

She squints. “Before he what?”

“Depression made him eat a bullet, and he was the only family she had.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” He holds an arrow up to the sunlight, checking the smoothness of the point. “No shortage of horror stories back then. We all had one. I only spent one summer with her and then she was off to some other house.”

“Can I um, and you can ignore me, or refuse to answer, or anything else. No pressure, but—”

“You wanna know how I ended up in the system?” He finishes for her.

Olivia nods.

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