Page 14 of Salvation

We spent the next two hours going from ride to ride and playing a few games. I was getting exhausted and ready to head home.

“Please, Dad? I’ve been on it three times with you guys already.” Clover’s eyes, so like her mother’s, pleaded with me. We stood at the entrance to the Screamer, the roller coaster she’d been eyeing since we arrived. “I want to ride by myself this time. I’m not a baby.”

I crossed my arms, scanning the crowd around us -- an old habit that never died. “You’re sixteen.”

“Exactly!” She bounced on her toes. “Practically an adult.”

Yulia touched my arm lightly, her fingers warm through my T-shirt. “Let her go. We’ll wait right here.”

I frowned, caught between my instinct to protect and the knowledge that I needed to give Clover room to grow. “Fine. One ride. Then we find something to eat.”

Clover’s face split into a grin. She squeezed my arm, then darted toward the entrance, her dark hair streaming behind her. I watched until she disappeared into the line, unease settling in my gut like a stone.

“She’ll be fine,” Yulia said softly beside me. “The line wraps around. We can see her from that bench.”

She nodded toward an empty spot near a popcorn vendor. I grunted in agreement, and we made our way over.

We sat close together on the bench, my thigh brushing against hers. The roller coaster’s chain clanked as cars climbed the first hill, followed by screams as they plunged down the other side. I kept my gaze on the line, picking out Clover’s familiar figure as she inched closer to the front.

“Hungry?” Yulia asked, breaking the comfortable silence between us.

I realized I was starving. “Yeah. Popcorn?”

She nodded, and I stood, crossing to the nearby vendor. I returned a minute later with a large bag, settling back beside her -- closer than before, though neither of us acknowledged it.

I held the bag between us. Yulia reached in, her fingers brushing against mine as we both grabbed for popcorn at the same time. Unlike earlier, neither of us pulled away immediately. The contact lingered, deliberate now.

“Sorry,” she murmured, not sounding sorry at all.

“Don’t be.” I let my fingers slide against hers before withdrawing, heat crawling up my neck.

We ate in silence for a moment, both of us watching the roller coaster and pretending that’s all we were focused on. She laughed at something and the sound wrapped around me like a physical touch.

“Your accent,” I said without thinking. “It gets stronger when you’re happy and when you’re nervous.”

“You’d think after all this time it would be gone.”

“Not gone.” I shook my head. “Just… softer. Except when you’re emotional.”

“You’ve been paying attention.” Her voice was quiet, almost wondering.

I looked at her then, really looked at her. The woman beside me was so different from the broken girl I’d married to protect. Her eyes, once vacant with despair, now held a quiet confidence. The hesitant way she’d moved, always braced for pain, had given way to a grace that drew my eye whenever she entered a room.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I have.”

She ducked her head, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she reached for more popcorn.

“She’s growing up so fast,” Yulia said, nodding toward where Clover now stood near the front of the line. “Almost a woman.”

I grunted, not ready to acknowledge that reality. “Too fast.”

“You can’t keep her at the compound forever, you know.” Yulia’s voice was gentle but firm. “College is only two years away.”

The thought sat like lead in my stomach.

“Cyclops’ kids stayed close. Not all will.” She shifted beside me, her shoulder pressing against mine. “She has dreams. Big ones.”

“I know.” I did know. I’d heard Clover talking about universities on the east coast, about traveling abroad. Each conversation had felt like a knife twisting in my gut. “I just worry.”

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