“Adam’s here.” She tips her chin toward the bedroom door. “He’s barely left your side since we arrived, except to pace through the living room. And let me tell you, the man looks like he’s about to punch something. I tried talking to him, but ... he’s not much of a talker, is he?” I swallow back a laugh, and I hate that my body vibrates with the deep-rooted need to see him. I don’t want to want him after what he did to me. “He’s kinda scary, actually. But, like, in a highly fuckable way.” She grins.
After a few seconds of silence, though, reality creeps back in and our faces go somber again.
“So,” I whisper, “what are you gonna do now?”
“Me?” She rolls onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I found a new appreciation for home. I’ll probably stay for a little while, make Mama suffer before I head back to New York.”
“You’re leaving again?” As I say the words I’ve said so many times before, they sound different to my ears. There’s nothing hollow in my chest. No desperation. No fear of being alone.
It’s just a question. A question whose answer no longer has the power to hurt me.
I glance away, letting the unfamiliar sensation soak in. My time at the Matthews House was many things. I’d never truly been on my own before, and the broken pieces of my soul ache to be mended. Still, all I can feel is stronger.
“Yeah, I think so.” Frankie’s lips tip up. “I made some great friends before signing up with the Matthews, and I think I can really get far there. But maybe I’ll let Mama take me to church a few times first—after having Priest Henry cleanse her of her demons.” She winks, and we both chuckle. When she turns back to me, she whispers, “What about you?”
I let out a long sigh. “I’m not going home.” My brows furrow. “I don’t think I really have a home. But I think ... maybe that’s okay. Maybe home isn’t a place anyway.”
I hold a hand over my chest and take a breath, absorbing the strange feeling of my broken pieces trying to sew themselves back together.
“Yeah.” Frankie’s hand squeezes mine, and she nods. “It’s so much more.”
