Hold on to Hope

I moved over for the bed and sat Everett down on it. On his hands and knees, he bounced around like a frog.

Frankie looked at him. There was so much affection coming from her it nearly dropped me to my knees.

“Our worlds might have spun off course, Frankie, but you and I are still here. You and I are still the same.”

Shadows played across her face, across her body, and fuck, I knew she was asking for time, but I didn’t know how to stand there and not claim this girl as mine.

Not when she’d always been.

Frankie sank down on the edge of the bed. She pulled one knee up so she could face me where I remained standing at the end of it.

I’M SCARED, EVAN.

Hatred pulsed. I was going to put an end to whoever this bastard was who was causing a threat. But if it was that prick, Jack? Thought of it made me see red.

I WON’T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU. NOT TO YOU OR EVERETT.

She dropped her eyes, contemplating before she looked back up. “And what if what I’m really scared of is you leaving me again?”

I moved over to the opposite side of the bed and sat down, blocking Everett in between us. Like instinct, Frankie laid her head down on the pillow like she’d been doing it forever, the way we used to do when she’d sneak into my room and we’d stare at the constellations on the ceiling and dream and laugh and pretend.

Except this?

Nothing had ever felt so real.

“And even after everything? I don’t think I know how to stay away from you.” She said it like it was the confession of a sin. Like she was the one to blame.

Following her lead, I laid my head on the pillow and slipped my hand across the mattress. Grabbing onto a piece of her hair, I twirled it round and round my finger.

“I don’t even know why you would try,” I told her, our words vibrations that melded in the space between. “We get lost, and we’ll always find our way back to each other.”

“Evan.” Sadness poured from her, all mixed up with the fierceness of the love that flooded the room.

A blanket wrapping us in security.

A shroud of sanctity.

The truth of who we were even if we weren’t quite back there yet.

Everett sat up on his bottom, pointed toward the ceiling, his mouth making a little ‘o’, showing off what he had seen.

Frankie tipped her gaze up toward the stars. She shifted up onto her elbow so she could focus on him. “Do you like those, Everett? Aren’t they amazing? Your daddy loves the stars. I think it only makes sense that you do, too.”

“I showed him yours,” I told her.

Wistfulness washed through her expression, and she turned to look at Pegasus.

Shit. Had the unbearable need to hear her voice in that moment. Wanted to experience it all. The sound and the taste and the brush of it across my skin.

“I always thought I could soar so high I could touch the stars.”

“You did . . . and I was always right there, trying to keep up with you.”

“I think I was always beggin’ for your attention so you’d follow.”

A somber smile played around that sexy mouth.

I was having a hard time keeping myself in check.

Could see Everett was finally fading, so I grabbed the stuffed animal he’d dropped on the floor.

The green frog I’d carried around my whole life like it was a lifeline. Guess I wanted to offer that to him, the same comfort it’d always given me, this girl always within reach. “You want this, Chunky Monk?”

His eyes lit up. “Ehvie, dis?”

Adoration and disbelief sparked in Frankie’s expression. She looked over at me as Everett threw his arms around it. Hugging it to his chest, he buried his face in the dingy, worn fabric.

“You still have it?” she whispered in surprise.

“Of course, I still have it. You gave it to me. Day you told me you were giving me your heart, remember? You think I ever would have thrown that away?” Tried to tease, but the words reverberated with old misery.

Three years lost.

Three years wandering.

Three years of wishing I could be someone different.

Someone better. Someone right. Someone healthy who could offer this woman a good life.

She stretched her hand out across the bed, her fingertips fluttering over the thunder of my heart. “It’s always been yours.”

“Frankie.” It was a plea.

Everett suddenly toppled himself forward like he was as desperate as me to get into her hold, kid spreading out on his stomach while pressing his face into the crook of her elbow. Wasn’t sure if he was mumbling a bunch of words against her skin or giving her kisses, but I could see his mouth moving.

He was so tired that I was thinking he was probably getting delusional.