Page 246 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
I’d been so close in that moment—so close to giving it all to him.
“It’s terrifying,” I forced around the lump in my throat. “What they do. But I…understand it.”
Accepted it.
“They’d give it all for these women and children…and I think you know how much more that extends to us.” Charleigh’s words sounded almost prodding.
The gaze that she set on me was knowing.
As if she saw the fear that had been my master for so long.
“I believe this town draws those who belong here to it,” she continued, a glance flickering to Emery for a beat before it returned to me. “It draws you to the people you’re supposed tobe with. I told Emery that same thing when I met her, and I think that applies to you. It certainly did to me.”
“I needed him.” It was the gush of an admission that I expelled.
“You’ve been…afraid?” I could tell with the way that Raven phrased it that she didn’t want to freak me out, but it was also clear they were sure something was going on with me.
The same as Theo had known from the start.
A heavy strain of air filtered from my nose. “I’ve been running from my ex for a long, long time.”
It felt so strange to say it. To just…lay it out when it’d been the most horrible secret I’d ever carried.
Compassion leaked from all of them.
“He’ll hold it, Piper,” Emery said. “I promise you. You can trust him with it. Whatever you’re going through. Nothing is too big for him.”
The scarce remnants of reservations and questions that remained whipped around inside me.
“All of us, Piper.” Raven’s expression morphed into the starkest sincerity. “All of us are here for you and your son. You’re our family now.”
“And that Nelly I haven’t met yet,” she added, her voice going light. Like she knew I needed a breather from the tension that suddenly bound the air. “That is a travesty that we must rectify. You make sure you bring her to our family gathering on Sunday.”
Then her voice went pointed. A soft, poignant prodding. “Afteryou confide in Theo about everything that’s going on with you.”
My mind traveled to the pain he held close to the vest. “He already carries so much. Has lost so much.”
Raven must have known what I was referring to because she sat back in her chair. Searching me as she seemed to waver with what to say. “Did he tell you?”
I barely shook my head. “Only that he failed someone he was supposed to love. That he doesn’t believe hecanreally love.”
My spirit thrashed. I didn’t believe it for a second.
I’d felt that love.
Experienced it.
I just prayed in time, Theo would recognize it, too.
Sadness weaved through Raven’s features. “It’s not my place to tell you what he went through, Piper, but what I can say is he’s carried it like a scourge for so many years. And when I told you I never imagined he would fall for someone, I meant it and not in a teasing way. I truly believed he would never love after what he suffered. But then I saw him dancing with you and your son in my living room, and I knew there was a piece of that broken man that’d been healed. Freed. And it’s free in you.”
She reached over the table and squeezed my hand.
“You two can find that freedom together. In truth and honesty. You don’t have to hide. I promise, just like I would promise Theo that he doesn’t have to hide from you. Don’t let walls ruin what you two have. Otto and I wasted so much time hiding behind them, and I don’t want that for you. Offer yourself to him, Piper. Wholly. Then ask him to do the same for you.”
Tears streamed down my face, and I sniffled as I processed through what she was saying. Then I was nodding frantically as I came to swift awareness.
Slammed with a determination unlike anything I’d felt before.
