Page 59 of Secrets That Bind Us
Heartbeats tick by, and I see her visibly shaking. “Goddammit, Dean, I’mscared.” She whispers hoarsely.
“And I’mnot, Verity. The only thing I'm scared of, I waseverscared of, was losing you. It happened once. I’ll never let it happen again. And the universe is making sure of it. You’re here, now, and I’m ready for you. You gave me all of you once, and I’ll do everything I can to earn every piece you want to give me.”
“I don’t want just pieces of you, again.”
I shake my head and tug her to my chest. “You don’t get it, Verity. You have always owned every piece of me. There were just some that were stupid and not fully developed.”
A huff of a laugh escapes her. “Goddamnit, Dean, you make it so hard to be mad at you.”
A corner of my lips lift in a smirk, and I hold in the chuckle that wants to escape me. “See? I already got to fix it.”
She looks up at me, and I push her glasses up her nose in that Verity way, by the bottom rim of her frames, and my heart falters when she scrunches her nose. Goddamn this woman. The only one that could bring me to my knees with a twitch of her nose. “Dean,” she shakes her head as though she’s trying to break the spell between us, and I don’t like it.
“Yeah?”
“There’s just one problem.”
“What?”
“We aren’t staying here. I’m putting the house up for sale in the spring. We’re going back North. I meant it when I said I’d die before I’d ever call Adelaide home again. That hasn’t changed.”
My stomach drops to the floor. I already knew this, I just hate hearing it from her mouth. “Then it sounds like I’m going North.” The words fly outta my mouth, but they don’t feel wrong. They feel honest. Because Verity wasalways bigger than this town. She never belonged here. I belonged wherever she was.
She scoffs. “You can’t uproot your entire life for me. For us.”
I brush a strand of her damp waves behind her ear. “You let me worry about what I can and can’t do, Verity. I already let you go once; I’m not doing it again. If you go North, I go North. If you wanna go to Paris, we’ll go to Paris. But you and me? We’re not splitting up again. Ever.”
She groans, but it sounds more painful than it does unhappy, and pulls away from me, covering her mouth. “Oh no, I think it’s my turn.”
I barely get a chance to get the Halloween puke bucket before she doubles over and heaves into it. I rub tiny circles on her back, feeling her muscles tense and relax with every regurgitation. “What the fuck.” She whines. “My poor kids. This is terrible.” She spits.
“Mommy!” I hear from her bedroom and hand her the bucket.
“I got him. You-“ I don’t even finish when she’s at it again. “Do that.” I laugh, and she flips me the bird as she groans.
I leave only to pick up Bear and bring him with me then stay for a few more days, through the weekend. I help wash dirty laundry and do everything I told Verity I was going to without her asking. Noah finds me in the kitchen Sunday morning, making his mom a cup of Texas Praline coffee.
“What’s that?” He asks, big brown eyes watching me stir the spoon in the purple mug.
“Coffee for your Mama. Whip cream. No sugar.”
“She says the whip cream is sweet enough.”
I nod. “I reckon she’s right.”
“Can I have some?”
I laugh and shake my head. “How ‘bout you take this to your Mama, I’ll make you a glass of chocolate milk, and you meet me out on the back porch?”
He grins a dashing grin that’s all Verity, except a dimple in his right cheek. In the future, I’ll tell everyone he gets it from me. Besides, no one will know he isn’t my son if we go elsewhere. “I can do that.”
I get some Nesquik from the pantry, and when I close the door and turn around, Savannah is eyeing me.
“You didn’t leave.”
“No, Sunshine, I didn’t leave.” She strides past me, opening the door to the pantry back up and pulls out some stuff with little anime characters.Bear has been by her side since he’s been here. He currently pants beside her, his entire body shaking with the wags of his tail. “What’s that?”
“Seaweed chips from this Japanese store in New York. Uncle Jake sends them ‘cause he did the art for them, and he knows how much I like this stuff.”
