"This little brat was sitting there all alone, freezing her ass off, so I went up to her and asked if everything was okay. But instead of being thankful, she gave me hell and told me to piss off."
I laugh briefly because I hear her words as if it were yesterday, but spare Sophie the insults that Jules had hurled at me.
"She didn’t even want my damn jacket, so I moved on. I didn’t make it twenty yards before she followed me. And that was it. She's been with me ever since."
Sophie is silent for a while. She has her legs tucked under her body and is staring down at her hands while she looks so dejected that I want to slap myself for telling her all this. "How did you… I mean… What did you eat? How did you…"
"Survive?" I finish the question for her because she can’t seem to think of the right word.
Lifting her head, she nods.
"Most of the time, we stole what we needed. Well…Idid. I never let Jules do it. She got super mad about it, but those were the rules. I take care of the food and a place to sleep, and she doesn’t run away. Later, I… did other things."
Curiosity flickers in Sophie’s eyes. "What kind of things?"
"Doesn’t matter," I reply in a flat voice because I don’t want to talk about the shit I’ve done.
She lowers her eyes while the silence between us extends. When she begins to speak again, she sounds almost cautious. "So that’s why you were so angry when I ran away?"
Sighing loudly, I take another sip before answering. "I wasn’tangry. I was worried about you. Anything could have happened to you, and I would never have forgiven myself if…"
The sentence remains unfinished because I don’t even manage to say it out loud. But it’s the truth, although I didn’t realize it right away that night two days ago. But if something had happened to Sophie, I would have blamed myself. And God knows I already have more than enough on my plate.
The silence that follows my words is heavy, but not uncomfortable. Sophie, too, seems to be lost in her thoughts until her voice pulls me back to the present.
"If Jules does not have parents, how come her mother called her?"
I light a cigarette before answering her question. "She never knew who her parents were. All she was told was that she was taken away from her mother as a baby. But even though we didn’t talk about it often, it was obvious how much she would have liked to meet her mom. Unlike me, she missed her. After all, she was taken away from her, not given away by her like I was, you know?"
Sophie nods again.
"Apparently, her mom was looking for her. Or had someone look for her… Who knows?"
Jules instantly agreed to meet her mother, but because a car ride to Chicago takes ages, I booked her a flight without further ado. Because as much as I care about Jules and hate to let her out of my sight, I couldneverdeny her what she might find there. She deserves to meet her family. Even if that means I have to let her go for good.
She will always be my little Jules, but I can’t always be the one protecting her and the one she turns to whenever she’s in trouble.
I pour myself a second glass of Jack Daniel’s and empty it in one go.
"She’ll come back, won’t she?"
I don’t even want to think the words, but I say them anyway. "I don’t know."
"Are you going to miss her if she doesn’t?" Sophie asks softly after I’ve been staring at the empty tumbler in my hand for a few minutes.
"Fuck, yeah," I say with a tight throat. "I’m going to miss her like crazy."
Maybe that’s why fate let Sophie get into your truck, says a quiet voice in the back of my head, but I immediately curse it. I shouldn’t be entrusted with anyone by fate. Hell… I don’t even know how I’ve managed to keep Jules safe all these years.
"Cole?" Sophie’s voice snaps me out of my dark thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"May I?—"
When she falters, I lift my head to look at her.
Sophie returns my gaze and chews on her lower lip before she straightens her shoulders and starts again. "Can I give you a hug? You look like you could really use one."
