Page 149 of Missed Sunrise
“There,” he said, his gaze entirely focused on mine. “Do you think you could eat something?”
“Not right now.”
“Okay,” he responded, taking my hand. “Later, then.”
The movement, the water, the kiss…. They seemed to revive me enough to process some things.
“Oh,”I said, tugging Cody’s hand. “Your meeting. You missed your meeting. And your notebook. We didn’t get it from the restaurant.”
Those things were days ago. I’d been living in one of my out-of-body-and-mind creations for days.
When Cody had come in here with Ari after the funeral service, it’d been the first time he’d left my side since the bungalow. I knew that much.
But any details of what we’d done were hazy at best.
He tilted his head at me, his eyes narrowing. “There’s nowhere more important than being here with you, LL. That’s a forever truth.” His hazel eyes kept mine as he spoke, and I noticed the faint purple smudges underneath them that probably matched my own. I let myself get lost in them, in the sincerity in them. The love.
Whatever I’d gone through, he’d been there with me.
“Boys,” Mom said, and I had to blink to bring her into focus. She stood with perfect posture in front of us, sophisticated and lovely in her modest dark-blue dress. “We can handle things from here. You’ve both gone above and beyond. Please go get some rest.”
I glanced over at Ari and frowned, but before I could voice my concerns, Mom waved her hand between us.
“I mean it, son. We’ve got her. I promise.”
I saw the truth there in her eyes, and she smiled at me before giving me a brief, tight hug. Then she turned to Cody and grasped his free hand, sandwiching it between hers. “I am glad you are here,” she said simply, and then she was off, overseeing the potluck and keeping things in order.
Cody watched her go with a contemplative look on his face before he pulled me toward the crowd, easily cutting a line through them. The softness he had for my family, for me, hardened into the prickly edge he presented to the world as we weaved through more people.
My stomach tightened as we reached the rest of my family to say our goodbyes. Even in her grief, Ari was loving and gentle as she embraced me.
“My Liem. Thank you,” she said so quietly that I almost didn’t hear her. “I’ll see you later. My brother has promised me a board game tonight.”
I raised my eyebrows at Dad, who had finally relented in using his wheelchair after the service.
“Don’t ask me, son,” he griped. “This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
Cody’s hand was a welcome weight against my lower back as I found my first real breath in days.
Mom and Dad would take care of Ari.
I caught Bree’s eye from across the way where she was tucked under Vinh’s arm. She smiled softly at me. Standing beside them were Jeanne and Cody’s dad —with baby Maggie strapped to his chest. Bree and Mr. Desmond resumed their conversation as Jeanne turned and began one with Mom.
The more my lungs filled and released, the clearer the world became, for better and for worse.
I saw everyone now, those I held closest to my heart rendered with the most detail, and the ones I did not were abstract and purely background.
But the man beside me, the one who’d been matching me breath for breath for longer than I could remember…
He was the clearest of all.
There was onlyone bar of soap in the small stall this time, alongside a miniature shampoo and conditioner bottle with the Fortuna logo on them, and I used them both as I washed away the funeral at the houseboat. Showering here was a much different experience from the last time I’d done so, months back when I spent a few days hanging out with Bree when Vinh was out of town.
After I’d scoured and scrubbed every inch of my body, I secured a towel around my waist. I felt more human than I had in days. When I opened the door, Cody’s head popped up from where he’d been lounging on his bed, typing away on his laptop.
“Better?” he asked as he shut it, giving me his full attention.
I held up the bottles and raised a brow at him.
