Dad retrieves the two suitcases from the trunk and sets them down as we round the vehicle. I grab my phone to text Bear to let him know we made it to the facility, but a soft gasp gives me pause.
“Collins?” I hear Dad say. When I look up, I see Riley wrapping his arms around Collins and my dad bending down to try to look into her eyes, but she’s not seeing him. “Sunshine, can you hear me?”
“Dad, back up,” I warn him softly when I see her nostrils flaring in anger with whatever she’s seeing in her mind’s eye.
He does so instantly as I take his place, but I don’t touch her.
“I think it’s the trunk,” Riley whispers his hands tightening around her shoulders. “She was fine until she saw the empty trunk.”
I nod, understanding and filing away the fact that trunks are a trigger for her. “I think this is where I…” His voice breaks over the last words. “I was dying in there, and she was left to process it alone and in the dark.”
“Fuck, Ri?—“
“It’s okay, Creed, it’s okay,” Riley hushes softly before I can even start to spiral down a dark mental path. “Her breathing has slowed down, so try pulling her back.”
My dad watches in the background in awe as Riley and I slowly coax Collins back to reality with us, using our new mantra mixed with other encouraging words of praise.
He swipes a hand over his mouth and steps away, heading toward the doors of the facility.
“I’m so sorry,” Collins whispers, but Riley and I are already shaking our heads vehemently.
“You didn’t get lost, Stardust.We found you. You’re here, that’s all that matters.” My words are mumbled into her hair as I pull them both into my arms. I hold them tightly until I feel them relax before slowly pulling back to see their faces.
“Of all the fucking places.” Collins flushes, pinching the space between her brows. “I couldn’t keep my shit together long enough to even get you through the door.”
“Hey, it’s alright, baby,” Riley coos, then places a soft kiss to her temple. “There’s no timeline for healing, and there’s no controlling when our thoughts decide to run from us. But we’ll always be here to tug you back when you start to feel adrift. Okay?”
She looks between the two of us and sighs.
“I don’t deserv–”
“I’m not even going to let you finish that sentence, Stardust.”
She purses her lips, and I can see an ember of that fire I love so much sparking deep within her eyes, wanting to argue and fight with me on this. But today, my fight is stronger than hers.For none other than the fact that the statement ‘I don’t deserve you’makes her the fucking silliest of gooses.Geese?
I’ve got my work cut out for me with convincing these two that not only are they worthy of love, but that they’ll never have to live a day where they doubt it either. I’ll spend every damn day reminding them if I have to, and I’ll do it with a smile on my face.
Why?Because they’re worth it.
We all stand in a tension-filled silence, knowing we have moments before we’re going to be pulled apart again. I’ve offered a thousand different ways for Riley to stay with us, but he’s insistent on this route. I want to shake the shit out of him—lovingly, of course—but I have to pause and understandwhyhe wants and needs this. I may have lost my mind while they were taken from me, but they lived in a fucking traumatizing, hellish nightmare for two weeks straight.
Riley feels that he needs this time to heal not only physically, but mentally. He told me about what psych had said about him trauma bonding to Collins. While that may be true, he was already in love with her before all of this happened.
So there’s no path that ends in any other way than the three of us together again.
Dad reemerges from the building with a tall wall of muscle trailing behind him. I meet my father’s eyes and give him a small, reluctant nod, telling him we’re about as alright and ready as we can be.
“This is Wilder, he’ll be the physical therapist working with Riley.”
My eyes widen at Dad’s words at the same time Collins seems to choke on air. Riley’s brows furrow in confusion.
“No Pippa?” Collins chirps, her voice a little clearer today as she continues to heal, her arms tightening around me and Riley because yeah, we’re all totally still cuddle puddling in the parking lot.
Dad gives her a knowing smirk and shakes his head. “No Pippa.”
This is why I love my father. He knew our dislike for her behavior towards Riley, and he proactively removed her from the situation for us. I don’t know how, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Wilder holds out his hand to Riley, his dark, warm brown skin covered from shoulder to wrist in blackwork portrait-style tattoos.
