Page 92 of Sing Me Home
“Mom, I’m fine,” Charlie said, smoothing my hair off my face.
Ashton knelt down slowly, looking completely shook. But then he noticed me. “Cash, are you all right?”
I nodded.
“He had a panic attack,” Charlie said.
I tried to sit up. “I’m okay.”
“No. You stay right here,” Charlie soothed, pulling me against her.
Tally sobbed against Charlie’s shoulder. Ashton was on our other side, eyes welling.
“I’m okay, guys,” she said. “I know it feels fresh to you but it was over a year ago.”
That made Tally cry harder. “I should’ve been there. Why didn’t you have someone call me?”
“Well,” Charlie said with a gentle laugh. “I was kind of in a medically induced coma.”
But we all knew that’s not what Tally was asking. Why, when she woke up, didn’t she tell us? Let us be there for her? Help her heal?
Ashton tried to stifle a sob unsuccessfully, his shoulders shaking with the effort.
“Dad,” Charlie said gently. “I’m okay.” She pressed a hand against his beard. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve called. I should have. But I really am okay.”
Here we were, falling apart all around her, and she was the strong one, buoying us all up. But Charlie always had been stronger than she knew.
Just then, Uncle Silas’s truck came screeching to a stop in front of the house, followed by Mom and Dad from the opposite direction. Anna and Blue were right behind them, with Granny and Gramps bringing up the rear.
“Oh my gosh.” Charlie laughed, but the sound cracked halfway out of her throat.
“And you thought we might not want you after we found out,” I chuckled.
She let out a massive exhale as she shook her head. “Yeah, I was pretty stupid.”
Lemon and Silas jogged up to the house. Lemon dropped to her knees next to Tally. “Oh, you sweet girl.” She cupped Charlie’s cheek. “How could someone do that to you?”
Silas strode up the steps, his posture relaxed but his eyes burning. He looked at Charlie with a longing that said he’d fight the world for her. We’d add him to the army.
The screen door groaned open. I glanced up to see Bowen stepping out—but he was looking backward over his shoulder. “Cash, the guys wanna know if we’re flying or driving to Florida to find Lorne.”
He was trying to be funny. Maybe.
But then his head turned forward and he saw his parents. A startled cuss word shot out of his mouth when Silas’s gaze locked on him.
Silas’s expression darkened. “Bowen!” he barked. “What the hell did you do to your eyebrow?”
thirty
Charlie
If you’d have told me the day I walked across the makeshift stage at the Seddledowne High football field to receive my diploma, that five years later, I’d be on a similar stage, on that same field, singing a duet at Cash’s first ever album release party…I might’ve believed it. There’d never been any doubt Cash would end up here. And I wouldn’t have put it past him to wrangle me onto the stage with him, even back then.
But if you’d told me all of that and then tacked the word girlfriend to the end, I would’ve sweetly said, ‘bless your heart,’ and sent you on your way. Maybe Cash had always known we’d end up together, but for me, he’d been nothing more than a silly girl’s pipe dream. Yet, here I was, perched next to him on matching barstools, singing my heart out for a sold out crowd.
For the last two weeks, we’d spent every evening on his deck, the last fireflies of summer dancing in the grass, writing a mashup of ‘Hard to Love You’ and my reply song, ‘Hard to Leave You.’ Ford had liked it so much, we’d laid it down at the last minute and included it as a bonus cut. Which meant that as of midnight, Cash and I would have our first collab on Apple Music and Spotify.
Mind. Blown.
