“I didn’t know this was back here,” he says.

“Gabby did. She mentioned it to me when I saw her on the beach the other day. A light is on in there.”

I hear him swear under his breath as I open the door and step inside and find Gabby lying on the small bed inside, hugging my old floppy-eared bunny.

“Hi, Gabby.”

She sits up in surprise. “Am I in trouble?”

“Well—” I begin, but Finn cuts me off.

“Hell yes, you’re in trouble. You can’t just run off on me like that, and you can’t break and enter into someone else’s property, Gabby. What in the hell are you thinking?”

“I’m mad and I want to be alone,” she shouts back at him. “You don’t understand me at all!”

And with that, she dramatically throws the bunny on the bed and runs out, toward Finn’s place.

He sighs and rubs his hand down his face. “This is a lot of fun.”

“Why don’t I go back with you and I’ll try to talk to her?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

But he’s looking at me with so much hope I know that I can’t do anything else.

“I’m happy to. Sometimes a girl has to talk to another girl.”

His lips twitch before he leads me out of the playhouse and toward his home. I have to take it slow, limping a bit behind him. He turns back and sees me struggling, so he just picks me up, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, and carries me.

“Hi there, He-Man.”

He laughs. “I don’t like watching you struggle.”

“It seems to be a part of life these days.”

I lean my head on his shoulder as the water falls on us, soaking us both. When we reach his house, he opens the door and sets me inside.

“Where’s her bedroom?”

“Top of the stairs,” he says, pointing up. I cringe inwardly, but I refuse to let him see me struggle any more. Once at the top of the stairs, I take a deep breath and knock on Gabby’s door.

“Go away!”

“Gabby, it’s me.” I crack the door and peek inside. The room is so pretty, with white furniture and pink frilly linens. “Can I come in?”

“Fine,” she says, and sniffles.

I walk in and sit at the edge of her bed as she sits up. I pass her a tissue from her bedside table and wait patiently as she wipes her tears and blows her nose.

“I know you feel grown up, but, Gabby, you can’t run away like that. Something horrible could happen to you, and that would devastate everyone who loves you.”

“I just didn’t want to be here anymore, and the man who usually stays out in the playhouse hasn’t been there in a while, so I decided to go chill out there.”

I still and feel my heart drop into my stomach.

“What man?”

She frowns. “The man that stays in the playhouse,” she repeats. “He’s there all the time.”

I don’t want to freak out in front of her. Actually, I do want to freak out, but I take a deep breath to stay calm. I’ll handle one thing at a time.

“Why didn’t you want to be here anymore?”

She shrugs her slender shoulders and buries her face in her knees.

“I miss my mom,” she says quietly.

Oh, sweet girl, so do I. I know that I haven’t let myself grieve as much as I need to. There are moments when I think that if I give in to the grief, it’ll suck me into the deepest, blackest hole and I’ll never climb my way out.

I blink my own tears away and reach out to smooth her dark curls from her damp face.

“I recently lost both of my parents,” I say, and swallow hard. “So believe me when I say, I sure miss my mom too.”

Her head comes up quickly. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I’m not very nice sometimes.” She sniffs again. “I don’t know why I act like that. London?”

“Yes?”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

She swallows hard. “I started bleeding yesterday, and I don’t know what to do. Uncle Finn doesn’t have anything here for me, so I’ve just been throwing my underwear away.”

“Oh, my goodness, Gabby.” I pull her into my arms and hug her close. “Do you know about your period?”

“Yeah, we had a class about it.”

“Do you have questions?”

She shakes her head no, and I don’t press her.

“Well, you and I need to go get you some things.”

I stand up and hold my hand out for her, which she takes, and she follows me down the stairs, patiently walking next to me when I have to move slowly.

Finn is waiting in the living room and looks genuinely surprised to see Gabby holding my hand.

“Finn, Gabby and I need to run an errand.”

He frowns. “What kind of errand?”

“I’ll explain later—”

“No—” Gabby begins, but I cut her off.

Tags: Kristen Proby Romancing Manhattan Romance
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