My fingers tightened around her, fearful that she might slip away if I didn’t hold onto her. I didn’t understand what she meant, but I tried to piece it together in my mind. “The day I left the house?”
“I saw you.” She turned her face away and shielded her eyes. “That night you watched the tape in the living room, I saw how horrified you were. And then you came back to bed, and you didn’t touch me. You left even though I begged you to stay.”
“No, Birdie.” I wrapped my arms around her and held her against my chest. “I left to find out who had sent that package. I was intent on destruction, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. But I was always coming back for you. That was never even a question.”
“But the tape,” she insisted.
“I don’t care what happened on that fucking tape, angel. You were a savage, and I’m goddamn proud of you for what you did to survive. You did the world a favor, and if you hadn’t, I would have.”
She broke down crying, and I turned her in my arms, cupping her head and using my body to shield the evidence of her emotion. Birdie didn’t like to be so exposed, but she could be vulnerable with me, and no matter what, I would protect her. Until my dying breath, I would protect her.
I let her cry it out, and then she wiped her tears and looked up at me. “I thought you were done with me. I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“I told you when I took you, Birdie, you belong to me.” I grabbed her hand and moved it over my heart on my chest. “Until this stops beating, you’ll always belong to me. Understand?”
When she nodded, I glanced back at the sea of onlookers. I’d planned to wait, but waiting wasn’t a luxury of the living. If there was anything I’d come to understand about life, it was that if something needed to be said or done, the time for it was now. I wouldn’t waste another second with her.
“I told myself a long time ago I would never kneel before anyone again.” My body dipped as I lowered one knee onto the pavement. “But for you, I’d do it every goddamned day for the rest of my life if it made you happy.”
A beautiful shade of pink crept over her cheeks as she watched me pull the ring from my leather vest. It wasn’t in a box. It wasn’t something commercialized or brand name like the reminders of her past. It was a handmade oxidized silver moonstone ring with a band wrapped in twigs and roses. The only jewelry that seemed fitting for my gypsy woman.
“Come home with me, Birdie,” I pleaded. “And stay because you want to. Stay with me for the rest of your life.”
Maybe it wasn’t the most romantic of proposals, but my head and my heart still roared when she nodded with glassy eyes. “Okay, Huck. Take us home. Claim us for real. And don’t ever fucking let me go again.”
My face was plastered to hers as I heard the celebratory chants of my brothers behind us. But it wasn’t long until Gypsy was at our side, anxious to begin the long-overdue conversation they needed to have. There could never be peace in our lives until Birdie was at peace with her past.
“Birdie.” Gypsy reached out to touch her, trembling with visible emotion. “Before you go, there’s something I need to say.”
Instinctively, I tucked Birdie against my side, prepared to weather whatever storm might come in the next few moments. But she surprised us both when she looked at her sister and shrugged.
“I get why you did it,” she said. “I’m not mad anymore.”
“You aren’t?” Gypsy looked skeptical and hopeful at the same time. All she’d ever wanted for her sister was a better life than they’d been given, and I respected her for that.
“No.” Birdie shook her head. “We’ve all had too many secrets. In trying to protect each other, we failed to do what was most important. We forgot that we’re all in this together, and our battles should be fought together. But at the end of the day, I can’t regret those choices because it led to the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
She looked up at me with misty eyes before Gypsy pulled her away for a hug. They held each other for a long time, both shaking with emotion, before they finally let go. Gypsy wiped her eyes and smiled. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown up. It’s hard for me to imagine you as a fully capable adult because it’s always been my job to protect you. But that’s exactly what you are, Birdie. You’re going to make a great mother.”