“Hey, sweet boy,” Riddick whispered as my eyes fluttered open. It was dark now, and I wassorelieved he’d stayed with me. “How are you feeling?”
I swallowed thickly and sighed.
“Really sad,” I answered honestly, and the look he was giving me wasn’t one of pity but of understanding. I realized that he’d suffered a loss recently too, and he was clearly just as fucked up over the death of his friend as I was overlosing my mom.
The realization came as a surprise. I’d never met anyone who’d had a death in their family like I had.
Turtle even still had all his grandparents.
To have someone to talk to about my grief that didn’t just listen butunderstoodwas a gift. One I didn’t even realize had been sitting right in front of me.
“Does it ever stop hurting?” I asked, my voice so quiet it was almost a whisper.
He reached out and brushed his thumb over my cheek, and I closed my eyes, leaning into his comforting touch.
“No, baby. It’ll always hurt. But it will hurt less as time goes on.” He answered honestly.
If I asked that question to anyone else, they probably would have lied to me. This was what I loved about Riddick. I could always trust him to be real with me. He never lied, even if I didn’t want to hear the truth.
“As you get older, you’ll find things that make you happy, and they’ll be beacons of light that you can cling to when the times of sadness get too hard.”
“What do you cling to?” I asked him, and he laced his fingers in my hair while continuing to stroke my temple with his thumb.
He gave me a sad smile and pressed a gentle kiss against my lips.
“Lately, it’s been you.”
I frowned, and he leaned forward to kiss away the crease in my brow.
“Me?” I whispered.
“Yeah, Finn. You.”
“What do you mean?”
For a second, he hesitated, and I could see the conflict in his eyes. Whatever secret he was keeping… whatever had kept him from admitting his feelings for me for so long was holding him back again. I pressed myself flush against his chest and left delicate kisses up his throat, enjoying the rough feeling of his stubble rubbing against my lips.
“Please, tell me,” I begged, my voice cracking.
“After the accident… I… I was lost, Finn. I was floating alone in a sea of darkness. There was no one… no one who saw me. No one who…”
It was his turn for his voice to crack, and I pulled back to look at him and found that he had tears in his eyes, too.
“Until you.” He let out a strangled chuckle, and the sight of his smile made me feel lighter.
“You barreled right up to me and gave me shit for trying to surf on your beach, and you were just so… so full oflifeand fire. You made me feel when I thought I would never feel again. Yousawme when I thought no one would ever see me again, and I just… I’m so grateful for you, Finn. You’ve given me something that’s worth looking forward to when, for a long time, all that stood before me were endless, empty days filled with nothing but bad memories and regrets.”
“Riddick…” I whispered, reaching out and brushing one of his tears away as he did the same for me.
He was staring at me like I was this precious thing that he couldn’t live without, and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.
I was always so excited to see him. Every time I opened my eyes in the morning to find him lying there, next to me… my heart would flutter, and my pulse would quicken.
He was always thinking of me, doing things for me, and he wasalwaysworried about me. Even now, he’d spent the entire day in bed with me because he knew I needed him.
Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes, and I suddenly needed to feel him. I leaned in and kissed his lips, shuddering as his warm mouth moved against mine, gently coaxing the tension out of my body.
He made me feel safe.
