Page 120 of Take This Heart
I nod.
“It’sbeautiful.”
“And…is that…” She giggles and turns to look up at me, her eyes twinkling. “Did you create aCherrybridge and Spoon?”
“I did. And I think I might even prefer it to the original. What do you think?”
“Well, of course you do. Your ego knows no bounds.”
I laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
She leans in and whispers, “But I have to agree. This is superior. Very clever.”
The cherry is huge with the stem angled as the bridge and the little spoon is nestled on top of the cherry, the opposite of the real thing.
We’re under no pretense that my mini sculpture is truly better than Claes Oldenburg’s work, but it makes Goldie smile and that is worth everything.
“And this…I love this.” She leans closer to look at the golden metal sun. She flips it over and the other side is the moon. “I like their faces, especially the moon’s. He reminds me of you.”
I flip it back to the sun. “And this reminds me of you.”
“It’s perfect, Milo. I love it, everything about it. And I loveyou.” She takes a deep breath. “I’ve had some time to think. I’m so sorry I went quiet on you this week. I’ve been trying to make peace with the fact that my mom had a daughter I never knew about and it happens to be Ava Piper…your cousin. Doubting whether I should believe you didn’t know or not. I’ve been in a bad cycle for a long time, not letting these walls down. But we’d moved past that. I shouldn’t have shut you out again. I’m sorry that I did. We should’ve worked through this together. I won’t keep letting my distrust get in the way of us. I want to do better—Iwilldo better, I promise. I…I know that you weren’t keeping it a secret from me.”
“You love me?” I turn her to face me and she puts her hands on my chest and then winds them around the back of my head.
She rubs my head and I turn into it, groaning. “That’s what you heard out of all I said?”
I smile. “I heard it all and I’m happy about all of it…but especially that you love me.”
She laughs. “I love you so much. You have no idea.”
“You really do?”
“I really do.”
“I have some idea then.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
RELIEF
GOLDIE
I float out of the Walker, still flying high. The city’s colors seem brighter, the sounds crisper, yet the atmosphere is a bit overwhelming after the quiet of Windy Harbor.
“Do we get to take that model with us?” I ask, stopping at my car.
Milo looms over me. I love how tall he is.
“Yeah.” He grins. “I’ll be back to pick it up before heading back to Windy Harbor. I wasn’t sure you’d come tonight, so I arranged for it to be here through Sunday.” He runs his hand over his head sheepishly.
“I’m really sorry I disappeared on you.” The evening air is cool, but I’m still warm all over.
Milo Lombardi loves me.
He leans down, his lips close to mine. “You can make it up to me.”
My breath hitches at the look he gives me. “Oh? How?”
