“No, Gram, Rhys isn’t dead.”
He’s alive—if having consciousness in that…place…is living.
She presses a hand to her breast, huffing out a breath of relief. “Oh, thank God. Charly! The way you said that. You had me worried there for a minute.”
“But he’s still gone, Gram, and where he went…” I let my sentence trail off, a lump leaping into my throat. “And I don’t think he can ever come back.”
“Where’d the boy go, fucking Mars?”
Leave it to Gram to make me laugh, but it’s momentary. “He might as well be, and it’s my fault. I could have kept him here, but I was too afraid to admit I love him because of what Jason did to me. I let all that bullshit ruin what I had with Rhys, and now he’s gone, and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to?—”
“Charlotte Allison Mallory.” Gram throws down her fork and lifts her chin defiantly. “I didn’t raise you to be a quitter.” She bangs her weathered hand on the table. “After I put your parents in the ground—God rest their souls—everyone told me to keep you out of school. Give you time to heal. Hell no. I gotyou dressed and sent you right back. You must have thought I was cruel, but I couldn’t have you sitting around here all day and night, consumed by grief. I wanted you out there living. Don’t you think I wanted to keep you with me? Safe? Right here where I could see you? But I knew I’d be cutting you off at the knees. Killing you but leaving you alive. Understand?” At my numb nod, Gram goes on, saying, “Oh, how you cried, Muffin, and I let you. Sure I did. I let you get out all those big emotions every time you needed that good cry. As soon as you were fine, though, I made you wash your face and made you get right back to living. Because I didn’t want you to become me. I see what I did to myself. I gave up, Muffin, and I’ll be damned if you’re going to quit on life, too. If that man is gone, for whatever reason, and you want him back, you go find him, and if you can’t, then you move on and get back to living.”
I grip the edge of the table, whispering, “Gram…”
“No,” she snaps. “Don’t youGramme. Tell me you understand, Muffin.”
I nod, so sad for her. Sorry for the life she lost to grief. Furious at the driver who killed my parents. And I’m angry at myself for hurting Rhys because of my stubbornness to see what was right in front of my eyes since the moment he slid into the booth opposite me at Molly D’s. “Okay.”
“Okay,what?”
“Okay, I promise that if I can’t bring Rhys back to Harley Cove, I won’t give up on myself.”
“That’s my girl.” Then Gram pushes away her plate, her food barely touched. “I don’t have a lot of time left, and that’s the truth. Don’t let me leave here with a conflict weighing on me.”
Miserable, scared of losing her, I shoot off the chair, and when I wrap my arms around her frail body, I hate, hate, hate how fragile she feels. “There’s no conflict, Gram. I love you. Thank you for always knowing exactly what I need to hear.”
She gives me a weak, reassuring pat. “That’s what I’m here for, Muffin. And one day, you’ll be the one knowing what to say to your kids to get them through a tough spot.”
The idea of children is a punch to the gut, and one more reason I need to rescue Rhys from the void. Because when I envision a future, I only see him—us as a family. My antihero. If that meddling cherub really is the God of Love, then maybe… He’ll take pity on us. Give us one more chance. One more shot at our happily ever after.
I kiss Gram on the cheek. “I have to go. Need anything before I leave?”
“For you to be happy.”
I give her my best fake smile. “I will be, Gram. One way or the other, I will be, promise.”
“That’s all I want for you, Muffin.” She cups my cheeks, her watery eyes searching mine. “Now, get your boy back, even if you have to go to Mars to do it.”
Hell, I’ll dive into the darkness and go find him, if that’s what it’ll take. Anything to bring him home to me…
Where he belongs.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Four days.
Four days’ worth of research has yielded nothing.
Damnit.
Four days wasted.
Four days of Rhys still lost in darkness while I’ve been scouring the internet for something. Anything. Just to be right where I was four fucking days ago. No new information gained on The Book Boyfriends or how it can manifest people.
Weird.
A person can find literally anything about anything on the internet. It’s actually shocking what I came across online. Some shit that made me want to pop out my eyeballs and wash themwith bleach. But you know what I didn’t find? A damn thing about Cupid’s app.
