Offering him a small smile, I nod. “I miss her too.”
Resting my head on her warm hand, I find a small bit of comfort knowing she’s still here.
A new voice at the door breaks my train of thought. “Hey, little man!” Kash grins at Noah as he walks in.
“Kash!” Noah runs over and hugs him.
He leans down and picks Noah up. It’s a ridiculous vision. His blond hair is tied back as usual, shaved at the sides, tattoos on full display. Black jeans and a hoodie are all he wears. I swear, Kash doesn’t own an actual coat. It’s a stark contrast to the innocent kid he holds in his hands.
“I want to take you for a snack. Someone else is here to visit,” he says, nodding behind him to Seth. We haven’t really talked since everything went down, and it feels like there’s an elephant in the room between us now.
“Atlas, can I go with Kash?”
“Yeah, Atlas, can he go with me?” Kash asks, giving me a pouty face.
I nod. “Fine, but not a whole bunch of sugar this time.”
“I hear nothing!” Kash says, setting Noah on the ground. “Let’s go, little man.”
As soon as they leave, I turn to Seth. “Thank you.”
He looks at me in confusion. “What are you thanking me for? This shit is my fault.”
Shaking my head, I gesture toward the chair Noah was occupying at the foot of Cora’s bed. Seth sits down and looks from me to Cora.
“She looks so fucking small. I hate this.”
“I fucking loathe it. I need her back.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Seth admits quietly. “I was only worried about you, but I can see it was misplaced.” He sighs. “I’m so fucking sorry, Atlas.”
“I’m not Noah’s father. I’m letting him decide what he wants me to be. One day I will be Cora’s husband, and we’ll have kids of our own.”
“I hope they look like her,” Seth cuts in, huffing a laugh.
“Oh, they will.” I laugh in agreement. “They’ll be magnificent. I just need her to come back to me.”
“When you landed with us and Emma, I never thought you’d stay,” he confesses after a beat.
Giving Seth my full attention, I notice he looks nervous.
“I told Emma she should send you back.”
“You did what?”
“I did. I was a shithead kid, and I knew you had this darkness to you. You were always angry, and you never talked to any of us. That night you stole Emma’s car, God, I wanted to throttle you.”
“She should have left me where she found me”
“Probably.” He laughs. “But she didn’t. She saw something in all of us that no one else ever cared to look for. She saved each of us. I forgot somewhere along the way that family isn’t just your blood, it’s who you choose. You chose Cora, and I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t think you were either.”
“I have been waiting for her my entire life; I just didn’t know it. I never believed I would deserve someone to love me, let alone someone with as much light in their soul as she has.” I close my eyes, resting my head on Cora’s arm.
“And Noah?”
“He’s a bonus. She’s the other half of my miserable soul. She doesn’t know it, but she saved me; they both did. I’ve killed to keep her safe, and I’ll do it as many times as I have to.”
“Good thing I made friends with the farmer then, huh?” he jokes.
