Page 56 of Your Soul to Keep

“Shh,” he hushed, his hands running up and down my back.

I pressed my forehead against his chest as the old pain ripped through me anew.

Not a sound escaped my lips, though my mouth opened in a silent scream. Anguish tore me in half. If not for Gabe’s strong arms around me, I would have crumpled.

I fisted my hands in the front of his shirt and hung on valiantly, my broken heart bleeding out over his chest.

He cupped his hand around the back of my head and held me close while his other hand splayed across my back.

“Shae,” he whispered brokenly, pressing his lips to the crown of my head over and over.

My name on his sweet lips.

His strong arms around me while I cried.

A sweet anchor in the storm.

A chill swept through me. How long would it last?

My grip tightened.

What about the next time this happened? At what point would he have enough? Lose his patience and ask me if it wasn’t past time for me to move on?

I snaked my arms around his torso, fighting to calm the firestorm inside me.

He rocked me back and forth. “Did you lose a baby?” he asked softly, his hands tightening even more.

I dug my fingers into his back and nodded, clinging to the rope of his compassion like a drowning woman.

Only this time I was drowning in empathy.

Tenderness.

The sweetest of balms on my broken heart.

“Of every woman I know, you deserve to be a mother.”

I released a shuddering breath. “Thank you,” I stuttered.

He swayed with me in his arms for a moment, then walked me backwards to the couch and tugged me into his lap where he cradled me like a baby.

He dipped his face down, nuzzling my cheek with his nose as my body calmed.

“It hurts.” My voice cracked in an effort to explain.

“I can see that,” he murmured. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

I shook my head and dragged my palms over my cheeks.

I felt strangely lighter as I blinked away the last of my tears. Inhaling him, I pushed off his chest. Sitting on his knee with my hand braced on his shoulder, I searched his eyes, traced the lines of tension in his face, sorry to be feeling so much better when I’d made him feel so much worse.

“I’m sorry. And thank you,” I rasped. “I feel lighter than I have in a long, long, while.”

Somber blue eyes stared back at me steadily. “I’d carry it for you if I could.”

I pressed my lips together. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

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