Page 85 of The Life We Left Behind

“Chelsea hasn’t been okay for a very long time, baby,” he said sadly.

Just one more person dragged into this mess by the adults who thought they knew better.

One more life destroyed.

Only this one didn’t seem to have anyone to help her piece it back together again.

CHAPTER THIRTY

TRACE

Dinner had been one of the best of my life. You couldn’t go wrong with pizza, but it was the people that made it. Even the news about Chelsea couldn’t ruin my mood. I should have expected something like this. She never did take any responsibility for the things she did.

“I brought you something,” I said nervously to Cade, standing up and quickly retrieving the bag I’d left in the hallway. “It was just an idea, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Why was I so nervous about this?

I glanced at Delaney, and she nodded in encouragement as I pulled out the baseball glove from the bag. “You’ve probably got your own, but I didn’t know if you’d have it with you.”

“Oh, cool!” Cade jumped up from the table to peer inside the bag as I passed him the glove.

“This one was mine when I was your age.”

“You played baseball too?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t all that good at it, though,” I joked. “I brought Booker’s old glove too. If you want?—”

“You wanna play catch?” Cade asked excitedly before I could even get the words out.

“Yeah, I’d really like that.”

Cade looked at the kitchen window and frowned. “It’s dark though. Why does it get so dark here?”

I could hear the hint of annoyance in his voice, but the question confused me.

Delaney jumped in, thankfully knowing what he was talking about. “It gets this dark everywhere,” Delaney said. “You’ve just never noticed it because of all the light pollution in the city.”

Cade nodded, heading to the window and peering outside.

The city. I’d never really taken the chance to think about their life away from Willowbrook. The life they probably had to get back to at some point. I didn’t even know about Delaney’s job or Cade’s friends. There was so much I wanted to know and so little time to…

“Can I decorate my bedroom now that we’re moving here?” Cade asked, and my heart stopped beating as I looked at Delaney hopefully.

Her eyes locked with mine as she answered his question. “Yeah, of course you can.”

“You’re…you’re staying?” I knew it was what they’d just said, but part of me didn’t even dare to hope.

“Well, I dunno. I’m kind of in the middle of a deal to sell the farm, and this guy was all like, ‘If you pull out, I’m going to sue you,’” Delaney said with a mock grumpy face.

“I’m sure he can be persuaded to pass on the land,” I told her as the smile slowly spread across my lips. “I’ve heard he can be very reasonable normally.”

“I’m going to go and measure.” Cade darted out of the kitchen like a kid on a mission while Delaney and I sat at the table, staring at each other.

“You’re really staying?” I asked again.

She shrugged. “I told Cade we’d give it six months. See how he feels. I don’t see him changing his mind, though.”

“And you?”

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