Page 123 of True Honey
“Arlo said something to me last weekend and it’s been rattling around like a loose screw.” I shook my hand beside my head and closed my eyes. “I was looking at my problems like a list. Like I needed to check everything off to get what Iwanted. But the list is broken and it was keeping me from seeing what was right in front of me.”
She sat so still, listening so carefully that if it weren’t for her tiny, shallow breathing I’d be concerned her heart wasn’t beating.
“You and August,” I whispered, wetting my bottom lip. “You were the missing piece in our family. I just couldn’t see it through the fog.”
She inhaled sharply at the word and her lip trembled.
I pressed my forehead to hers, “You have a home here,” I said to her, digging out my keys from my jacket gently I held them up, the ring carrying all the weight.
Drew’s eyes flickered to it and back to mine.It was now or never, baby. Don’t say no.I pleaded quietly, hoping by some grace of god that I had gotten through to her. That maybe she’d trust me enough to take care of her that she was able to set aside all her thoughts just for a second.It’s just me and you, Drew.
“Make it mean something.” The words came out more clear than anything and hit me dead center in the chest with such force I started to laugh, a smile spreading across my face faster than the heat across my body.
“Yeah?” I blinked, almost not believing that the speech had worked but she nodded.
I pulled the ring off the loop, “I’m never putting it back on there,” I said to her, chucking my keys to the ground. I was sick of seeing them. “Do you understand me?”
“I promise to take care of it,” she said, lifting her hand. I took it in mine to quell the shake there and slipped the ring back where it belonged. “To take care of you, to remind you to be selfish.”
“I promise to take care ofyou,to take care of Auggie,” I said. I didn’t need to ask her anything else. The ring implied it all and we both knew it. “To remind you to be kind to yourself.”
I kissed her then, taking her beautiful face in my hands and crashing against her like a wave against a rock. I needed it, and she sank into my arms chasing the same relief I was as her arms wrapped around my neck. I tugged her into my lap, kissing her until I couldn’t breathe and as I pulled back gasping for air I peppered more to her damp face.
“I love you, Drew Courtney.” I said, kissing her some more. “Do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” she laughed softly, her tears still drying. “I love you, too.”
“One more thing…" I said, turning my head away from her, "Auggie!” I yelled and Drew flinched.
“Silas!” She groaned burying her face in my neck as the footsteps came down the hallway.
“Can we stay—” he started and stopped. “Ew you guys!”
“Grow up,” I teased, “you wanted to stay, this is how that happens,” I laughed, digging my fingers into Drew’s side playfully. She wriggled in my arms and fought back with laughter.
He wandered into the closet and sat down on the floor with us as Drew slid back onto her knees away from me. “I’m sorry you had to do that,” she whispered to him, reaching out to touch his face.
August nodded, “it was nothing, and Arlo drives really fast so… it was kinda fun.”
Drew looked at me in shock, her terrified mom expression making me laugh. “Alright, no more rides in the fastback for a while.”
“Thank you,” she sighed. “I promise that I’m going to work harder, Auggie. For you. For us.”
“I love you, Mom.” August said, collapsing into her for a hug. The two of them sat there for a while, Drew’s face pressed against his head as her hand raked over his hair. “I’m never calling you dad.” He looked at me when he pulled back, a serious look on his face.
“Auggie!” Drew gasped with a laugh.
“Silas is good,” I said, pressing my lips together in a tight line and giving him an approving nod. It made me think of Ryan and a very important conversation the two of us needed to havevery soon.
“We good now?” Arlo’s voice was a shock and the three of us turned to see him standing in the doorway with Red in his arms, his fingers pressed into the cat's ugly fur.
“What the—” I almost swore and curbed myself. “You didn’t leave?”
“I wasn’t gonna leave the kid to sit upstairs alone,” Arlo said it like that was the most obvious answer. “Besides it was good I didn’t, he came down here the second Drew barreled up the driveway.”
Drew looked over at August.
“I had to make sure you were listening to him!” August raised his shoulders in a shrug. I shifted on the carpet to toss Arlo a look and Red hissed at me.
