Page 106 of Silver Linings
“Try.” My voice cracks on the word, desperate for him to fight for me.
“I’m so sorry, Sunshine. I broke a promise to you when I wasn’t here for you yesterday, to see you get everything you’ve been working so hard towards. And I know you.” He risks a steptowards me. “I know your instincts are telling you to put up your walls again. I don’t have a right to ask, but if you need those walls to feel safer, I’m begging you to let me stand inside them with you.”
My breath hitches, and I stare up into the face of the man I’ve spent months slowly falling for.
“Why weren’t you here?” An errant tear charts a path down my face before Hendrix reaches his hand up to brush it away. I lean into his touch automatically, breathing him in, missing him even though he’s right in front of me.
His face falls slightly. “I was in Seattle.”
My head jerks out of his palm, and his hand lingers in the air, expecting me to fill it again before dropping down to his side. “What? Why?”
He wouldn’t go to Seattle out of nowhere, and he certainly wouldn’t go and not tell me about it. So why hadn’t he?
“My mom called me early yesterday morning. Laurel was in a car accident.”
A gasp falls from my lips, and on instinct, I’m reaching for him. “Is she okay? Are you okay?”
His breathing levels out a little when he looks down to where my hands grip his shirt. “She’s okay. Mom called me in a panic, and I didn’t think. Every fear I had from Maddox’s accident came flooding to the surface, so I ran to the airport and hopped on the first flight out. I lost my phone and couldn’t get a message to you. I came back last night and came straight here, but you had already gone home. So, I’m here,” he indicates to the staircase behind him, “grand gesturing.”
“We need to get you back to Seattle, then. You should be with Laurel, with your family.”
Hendrix’s face falls.
“Do you not—” His voice goes hoarse, and he looks down into my eyes, pleading with me. “Please forgive me. Don’t push meaway. I can’t…” A single tear drops from his eye. “I can’t do this without you. Everything has meaning again because of you.” His hands tentatively settle on my waist. “I don’t deserve it, but I want it,needit. I need you and your light every day. My world was gray before you came barreling into me, throwing it into technicolor.Please.”
I step toward him, and he holds his breath as I reach out a hand and cup his jaw, wiping the tear from his cheek. “I just meant you should be with them. I know what getting that call must have done to you. Being back home might bring you more comfort. I’ll be here when you get back. I promise.”
He turns his cheek, kissing my palm. “Laurel is fine; she practically shoved me out of the door with her crutches to come tell you what happened. I’m exactly where I am supposed to be.” He leans his head down so it’s resting against mine. “My place with you is where Ineedto be.” He breathes me in and I inch my body a little closer. “I told you once I would always come back for you. I’m sorry I was a little late.” He places a gentle kiss against my brow.
“It’s okay?—”
“No, I should have found a way to tell you what happened. I should have been here.” There’s desperation lining his handsome face. I feel a certainty burning in my chest that he never would have missed the re-opening for anything less than an absolute emergency. And it’s so easy to forgive him when he’s looking at me so earnestly, so easy to remember all we’ve gone through together that led us here. Everything has always felt easy with him—natural.
Something worth fighting for.
“You were.” He looks at me quizzically, not understanding. “Youwerehere, in every paint stroke, in every floorboard replaced, in every perfect shelf—you were here. You havebeenhere, every day for months. I felt you everywhere yesterday, I couldn’t escape it—couldn’t escapeyou. I don’t ever want to.”
“I don’t deserve you,” he says, looking at me like I’m some sort of miracle.
I smile at him, and I feel lighter than I ever have. “I think we deserve each other.”
We both stand there, breathing each other in, content in the quiet.
“Tell me about how the day went?”
I start with Carol James showing up.
Hendrix jerks back. “Your mom was here?”
I quickly tell him everything that happened yesterday morning, his face morphing from shock to outrage to sadness on my behalf.
“How do you feel about it all?”
“Upset…but also proud? For standing up for myself.” The pride in his eyes warms me from my head down to my toes. “She left some sort of note, though. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it.”
“Do you want to do it now?”
I shake my head. Whatever she had to say, she waited years to do it. A little more time in blissful ignorance wouldn’t hurt.
