Page 80 of Stay With Me
The look of pure joy on her face hits me square in the chest. It took some time for her to warm up to us, but more and more,she’s coming into her own, and I’m so proud of how brave she is with how much her life has changed.
Jess heads into the living room with Sam, and next to me, Carter?asks softly, “Has she told you guys or the therapist how she got away?”
I shake my head. “No. We want to ask, but the therapist said she wants to wait a couple of sessions to see if she’ll tell any of us naturally. My biggest fear is for her to shut down because we push her to answer all these questions. I mean, we pepper in questions here and there and will have her elaborate on things when she makes comments, but it hasn’t come up.”
“Are you going to have her talk to the FBI with Luna?” Luke asks.
“No, that was something Luna was adamant about. She'll talk to them, and depending on the questions they have for her, if we know the answer, we’ll answer, or we’ll write down a list and give Jess the choice to answer them herself before they leave town,” I tell them.
“I think that’s the best choice. Just let us know who you want to watch her that day, and we’ll make it work,” Carter tells me.
“We will. I don’t know how Luna will be after that. If she’s okay, I was going to have everyone over for a bonfire after to surround her with her support system.”
“She’s strong. She’ll be okay, but just let us know,” Luke says, and he’s right, so all I can do is nod.
She is the strongest person I know.
“Are you guys coming or what? We’re ready!” Jess yells from the couch.
“We’re coming, kiddo,” Carter yells back.
As they get started, I walk to the pantry to grab everything needed for s’mores. I can’t help but smirk as I recall the look on Luna’s beautiful face when she came apart for me and how embarrassed she was as we walked out and Abby walked in.
Just thinking about it has me half hard again, and while I’m glad she’s spending time with the girls, I’m ready to pick up where we left off when she gets home.
“Don’t burn it!” Jess yells at Carter.
He’s helping her roast a marshmallow as she paints Sam’s nails.
“I’m a professional, kid. I’m not going to burn it.” Carter scoffs.
“You burned the last two. I don’t think I like the burned ones after taking my no-thank-you bites.”
I just laugh. “Do you need help not burning them, Carter?”
“No, I got this. You just didn’t make a prime s’mores making fire,” he tells me.
“My fire is just fine. What are you talking about?” I throw my hands up.
“It’s a fine bonfire, but it isn’t the best for roasting the marshmallows.” He rotates the marshmallow like it’s on a rotisserie.
“Whatever you say, dude. I think you’re delusional.” But then my marshmallow catches on fire.
“See, you can’t even not burn one!” He points accusingly at my marshmallow engulfed in flames.
“I like mine burned!” I blow out the fire.
“Roasting is an art. Both of you suck at it,” Luke says as he gets his a perfect golden brown, makes a s’more, and hands it to Jess.
“Thanks! This looks perfect.” She beams at him.
“Ya hear that? Mine is perfect,” Luke says with a smirk.
I roll my eyes. “Hand me the Reese’s. I ran out over here.”
“I never thought about doing that, and I swear it’s better than se—sunshine,” Sam says, eyes flicking down to Jess to see if we’re going to have to come up with what he might have said.
“Yeah, I much prefer Reese’s to sunshine,” Luke says with a laugh.
