I nodded and tried to brush them off, but City seemed to lead the concern.
She leaned up and kissed my cheek. “Don’t lie. Are you really okay?”
The worry in her gaze had me immediately nodding, though fuck no, I wasn’t okay. I’d just found out my brother murder
ed half my family right before he tried to murder me too. Glancing to where Pick and Asher were keeping watch over him so he wouldn’t get away, I drew in a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.” Because I knew with my City around, I couldn’t help but eventually get over whatever life threw at me.
“Looks like my sessions are actually paying off.” She rested her cheek on my shoulder as she hooked her arm through mine. “You got your control back and pulled away before really hurting him. I’m so proud of you.”
I glanced at her, loving her with everything I had. “I think you’re the one who pulled me away. You drew me out of my black pit with all that brightness inside you.”
She shook her head. “No. I didn’t do any such thing. I think I was more like an annoying cattle prod with electrical ends poking at you, constantly badgering you until you remembered you already had your own brightness inside yourself.”
“I have no idea why you tried so hard to save me,” I murmured into her hair. “But I’ll be forever grateful you did.”
Smiling at me, she just said, “It’s because you’re worth it.”
The cold October ground was mushy, and my feet felt as if they wanted to sink through the earth as I trudged across the cemetery, hand-in-hand with City. I’d never liked these places, but I’d wanted to pay my respects, and my woman was eager to show me Bentley’s resting place.
“I keep the grass around it weeded whenever I come, which is about twice a year, once on her birthday, once on her...death date.”
I nodded and squeezed my fingers around hers. “Thank you.”
“Well...she was my niece too.”
“Our niece,” I revised with a fond smile lingering around my lips as I remembered those few times I’d taken Bentley out to meet her in the woods.
When we stopped in front of a small, neat plot, I looked down and swallowed, mourning the child who’d helped bring City into my life. “I always pictured her whenever I dreamed of what a baby between us would look like, since she had both of our blood in her.”
“Yeah.” City rested her head on my shoulder. “So did I.”
I glanced down at our interlaced fingers and murmured, “Maybe one day, some baby still will.”
She glanced up at me, and happy tears glistened in her eyes. “Maybe. I hope so.”
We hadn’t discussed particulars, like our future, but it seemed obvious we were going to stay together. One day, I was sure we’d marry and start our family. We’d get our happily ever after.
But for now, I was content with what we had, living in our two-bedroom apartment and working at Forbidden while we filled the rest of our days with each other. And she seemed just as pleased.
It’d been a few weeks since Rock had attacked me at the club and been arrested, and one week since Reese’s mother’s lawyer had contacted me and coaxed me into suing Statesburg. Life was good, so of course I worried something bad had to happen next.
But City did a damn fine job of easing my worries. She made me see how we were making it, how we were thriving. So each morning that I woke with her in my arms, I worried a little less and lived a little more.
“Let’s go to the trouble tree,” I said as an idea hit me.
City glanced up, surprise in her eyes. “God, I haven’t been there since...”
I nodded. “Yeah, me neither.” It wouldn’t have felt right to go without her.
So, after she placed a bundle of flowers on our niece’s grave, we returned to her car and drove to the convenience store that had once been my home-place. From there, we hiked on foot through the trees that seemed as familiar as they were different.
“Wow, everything’s sure grown up in six years,” City mused.
She was right. The brush was thicker and harder to navigate, but I still knew the way. “Looks like this tree fell at some point,” I added as we stepped over a fallen trunk. “Probably taken down during some storm.”
Her fingers tightened on mine. “I hope our tree’s okay.”
I cast her a glance, and simultaneously, we picked up our pace. I almost missed her impractical shoes as she was capable of keeping up with me, but then I realized we’d grown up just as much as our woods had...and it wasn’t a bad thing.