She fidgeted with her ring, and I came and sat down beside her again.
“Adam, my parents are rich. Like stupid rich.” She shook her head. “Don’t you see? They could fix the school! It’s the perfect solution.” She chewed her bottom lip. “Danny could stay with his class, people wouldn’t have to go without their incomes, businesses wouldn’t fail from Hillsdale dissolving.” She smiled for real now, even though tears shone in her eyes.
It was my Faith smile, the one that brightened whatever space she was in.
“Hillsdale could rebuild, like the Hallmark movie ending you were hoping for. I can fix this; I can save all of you.” A tear ran down her cheek.
My stomach sank. I gave her this idea? “So…you’re saying you will return to a life you hate, so this town in the middle of nowhere…that never even makes it on a map…can be okay?” My eyebrows dipped.
She nodded. “I’m still hoping to convince my parents without having to stay,” she lifted one shoulder, “but I don’t know if it will work. Mom has been begging me to come home for a while.”
Her cheerful expression faltered momentarily.
I picked up her hands in mine and stared down at them. Faith would throw away the life she loved and return to one she hated so that this town could rebuild. I sighed. There weren’t two Faiths. There was only one.
There was only my Faith.
I knew this woman. Just like the basketball team that changed its play name, it was still the same play. She was everything I had grown to love and want. And now she wanted to risk her happiness for everyone else.
I pulled her back into my arms, and her shoulders relaxed into me as she wiped a tear from her cheek. I stroked her back. “I’m not calling you Astrid. That name sounds like asteroids, and that’s weird.”
She laughed against my chest.
I leaned back and studied her blue eyes. “Faith.” I shook my head. “You can’t do this.”
She leaned back and looked at me. “What do you mean?” She flipped her hand over. “It’s the perfect solution.”
I placed my hands on either side of her face. “Faith, you can’t sacrifice yourself like this. Not for me or Rose and Marissa or Danny or anyone.” I wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
She looked down at her clasped hands in her lap.
“You can’t,” I whispered as I rested my forehead against hers. “I know what it is to give everything of yourself, hoping others will be happy.” I rubbed my fingers through her hair and brushed it back. “It doesn’t work that way.” He shrugged. “You don’t get to choose their emotions. You will end up so, so empty.” Her eyes met mine. “I would rather lose a million towns than see you lose that light in your eyes.” I rubbed my fingers across a tear. “Faith, it would kill me. Please don’t do this.”
A scoff from somewhere down the hall. “Oh sure, he says it and you listen,” Rose grumbled.
“Shh!” Marissa chided. “If you make it so I can’t hear this, I will never forgive you.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “Maybe for once my parents will listen to me and want to help?” she whispered, but I could tell she didn’t believe it.
“That’s not good enough.” I brought my lips a fraction away from hers, wanting to kiss her, but wanting her to know I meant it. “I need you to promise me you won’t go back to a life where you were so unhappy.” I kissed one cheek and then the other before I met her eyes again. “Not for anyone.”
Her shoulders sagged, and her head dipped. “How else am Isupposed to help?” The pain was clear in her voice. “What good is having secret access to a bunch of money if I can’t save the people I love?” Her eyes met mine. “All the people I love.”
Love. My heart soared.
I loved her more than I even thought was possible.
She healed my broken pieces in ways I could never repay. I leaned in, resting my forehead on hers. “I love you, Faith.”
“I love you too,” she whispered back.
I kissed her, and I hoped she could tell how much she meant to me with every second of that kiss.
I squeezed her hand in mine. “You can suck in your screams.” I sighed. “You can face your parents and ask to see if they can help save our town.” I dipped my chin so I could see her blue eyes. “But you cannot offer yourself as a sacrificial lamb to do so. And I will hope and pray that regardless of what your parents agree to, you will come back to Hillsdale.” I died a little as I thought of what life would be like without her. “Faith, I don’t know that I could go back to living without you. Not now that I know how beautiful and whole life can be.”
She raised her shoulder. “Hillsdale is my home.” She gazed at me. “You’re my home.”
Somehow, in the course of a few minutes, my heart had broken and healed. The person who held it together was Faith.
