Page 103 of Other Side Of Never
But no light, no air could reach the darkest corners of my mind.
“Aw, fuck, baby, baby, baby,” he chanted, pulling the covers up around us both as I shook in his arms.“I’m so fucking sorry.You didn’t deserve this.You never deserved this.”
“I should have stayed.Should I have stayed?”My body quaked as if I stood outside naked in the dead of winter.
“I won’t lie to you, I don’t know.It’s a fucked-up situation.Staying could have made everything worse for him.”
I nodded, my teeth chattering.“Gary said he’d send Jakey away to school if I contacted him.”
He cupped my jaw, massaging the joint with his thumb.“I love you, Bridget.I love you so fucking much.”
“That was Jakey.Jake,” I huffed out with a soft laugh.“Did you see him?He’s all grown up.”
“It looked like you had a sweet reunion,” he ventured, fingers massaging my scalp.
“He’s not happy,” I gasped.“They’re not good to him.”
Kian’s chest reverberated with a low, angry hum.“It’s unacceptable.”
“I think he wants to come again.”
“Let him,” he responded immediately.
I nodded.“He called me mom.”
It rose with a strength and fierceness I didn’t expect.
My muscles tensed, my body going rigid as I tried to lock it back down.
But this time the grief was unstoppable and erupted in ugly, wretched sobs, the kind with serrated edges, the ones that ripped through your defenses and left you empty, aching, and somehow whole-hearted.
I released all of it, spilled it over Kian’s wide chest while his strong arms held me together.
I cried until my tears ran dry, sniffing and inhaling shakily as the storm passed.Heavy-lidded and swollen, I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
And with Kian wrapped around me, it was safe to close them.
“If that man shows his face here, I’m going to plow my fist straight through it.”He paused, breathing heavily.“He’s not getting anywhere near you, you hear me?Never.”
I stroked his chest.“Why were you even here?”
He exhaled roughly.“You forgot your purse.”
I huffed out a laugh.“Lucky you.”
“Yes,” he agreed firmly.“Lucky me.Because I would have died one thousand deaths to know you’d suffered through this alone.”
I tipped my chin up to look at him, offering him a tremulous smile.“One thousand?”
He studied me, the lines of his face harsh, then hugged me closer, tucked my head under his chin, and rocked me against his chest.
“At least.”
25
I’ll Drive
“I’mapotato.”Withher blood pressure climbing, the doctor confined Harley to her pretty little house.Utterly morose, she lifted her teacup to her signature red-painted lips.
