Page 66 of Charming But Reckless

It had been his mother's. The same one that we used to sit on together when she would clean my wounds. The same one that he learned how to clean my wounds from when she was working. We played video games on it and wrestled over food too.

It held more memories than it was worth, but to us, it was priceless.

He stepped around the couch towards a dresser. His mom's old dresser actually. The engravings on it had been done by some old man in the town. After he passed, it was given to Orion's mother.

That was one of the few ways the town had actually helped out. Any time something like that happened, they were one of the first families to receive donations.

My father, the prideful man that he was, refused to take anything from anyone. So we were left with whatever he could scrape together himself.

“Is it all here?” He asked in a rough whisper.

I nodded and pointed to the wall where boxes lined from floor to ceiling. There was a small path that you could weave through everything, but overall, it was stuffed to the brim.

“I made sure to put it all in here before I started my search for Sol. Some of it I had used in my own home, but a lot of it had just been sitting around in storage in my garage. I didn't want anything to happen to it, so I setup autopayments for this place and hit the road.”

Orion wiped away the tears that poured down his face. His eyes bounced around from item to item, never settling on one particular thing.

He went over to one of the shorter stacks of boxes and opened the lid.

A whine slipped from his lips as his hands reached inside. When he pulled them up, he held a bundle of oven mitts.

I chuckled at the sight. “I remember those.” I moved around the furniture to get to him.

We had learned how to crochet together and made these god-awful creations.

Orion sniffed. “Mom thought they were amazing, even though they barely did the job. I can't believe she kept them all.”

I reached out to cover his hands. “Baby, she kept everything. Your entire life is in these boxes from your childhood up until the minute you were taken. Even after, she has clippings of newspapers from big trafficking busts and articles about information on how to reach out to law enforcement. She researched and planned and hunted for you, not once giving up, not even at the end.”

He dropped the oven mitts back into the box, then wrapped himself around me. His sobs tore at my soul. I cried too, for the woman who didn't get to see the man he had become, for the boywho lost out on a chance for a normal childhood, for the man I loved who was hurting.

When he pulled back a few minutes later, I brushed away the last of his tears.

“What would you like to do with it all? We can take it back with us. We can go through it here. Though it might take a while.”

His grin was small, but there. “I would like to take it with us. I know it probably won't fit on the plane, but can we drive it or hire someone? What do you think I should do?”

He was flustered, I realized. The man who had kept his cool and planned things out was reverting to the young boy I knew who would fly by the seat of his pants any time a problem arose.

For him to defer to me for help felt like the greatest gift he could give me. I rubbed his back as I responded.

“Since Tank was so eager to help us get here, I'm sure he wouldn't mind us coordinating someone to load this all up carefully and bring it home.”

“You think?”

“Maybe we could take a day to stay here and look at some things ourselves before we head back.”

He smiled wider. “I think that's a brilliant plan.”

I kissed him then. It was a slow kiss filled with love and memories and a hope for the future.

I knew that no matter what, I had given him a part of his past that he thought was long lost. I had brought him closure on something he didn't think even existed. It was a relief.

“Thank you for this,” he said.

I didn't even realize how much I wanted it until it was in front of me.

“Which box should we go to next?” I suggested when we both got too quiet. I didn't know how to accept his thanks because to me, it was the right thing to do.

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