"Brave?" Dad scoffs. "She's naive--"
"She's not naive." His voice is stronger with every word he defends me with. "She walked away from everything she knew. Moved to a new town where she knew no one. Bought a house. Started her life.Alone.She didn't want your help. She didn'tneed your help. She wanted to do it herself, and she has. You're so busy trying to protect her, you don't see how much she's done. Or maybe you don't want to see it."
Every word hits deeper, my heart, my chest, my lungs painfully tight with love for him. I blink back tears. Dad's face is flushed, a vein pulsing at his temple. He presses a hand to his chest briefly, then drops it. No one else seems to notice.
"But you--" Mom starts at Grey, crying again.
"I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about her." He turns to look at me, his eyes fierce, protective, proud. "She can do anything, and she will. Fearlessly. Brilliantly. Always with kindness, always with joy. She sees the best in everyone, gives them chances they don't deserve." He pauses, swallows hard. "She doesn't need to be rescued."
The room explodes the same moment my heart does.
My parents are yelling about how he doesn't even know me, he just met me, on and on. Grey defends me, his voice even but tight, just like every muscle in his body, telling them they're wrong again and again. The world devolves.
Chaos. The whirl of it is overwhelming, and in the eye of the storm is me.
And I realize.
The common denominator, the reason for the chaos, the fighting, the man he hit, Grey's pain, it's all because of me.
His job.
His reputation.
I'm ruining everything.
I'm ruining him.
All because he fell for me.
I can't breathe, my vision dimming. It's too loud, too much.
Dad yells, "You can't seriously expect us to--"
Grey shoots, "I expect you to respect your daughter--"
"After what we saw tonight--"
Grey's eyes narrow. "That was a mistake--"
Their voices rise, overlap, louder, angrier, about me, around me, over me.
A sound escapes my throat, somewhere between a sob and a scream.
"Stop!"
They stop. Look at me. The silence is so sudden, my ears ring.
I step into Grey, take his hand, searching his eyes as I do my best to hold back tears. "I…I understand now, why you tried to leave before. When you blamed yourself, when you thought that leaving would spare me, I couldn't understand how you could think it. But I do now. You've had to carry all the burden because of me. You're hurting because ofme."
"No, Molly," he says, cupping my face, peering down into it, begging me with his eyes to believe him. "Not because of you.Foryou. I'll do anything for you. You and me against the world, right?"
One little phrase, and the saddest smile brushes my lips. I nod, feeling the peace of it settle into me, rooting in my heart. "You and me." I press a kiss into his palm and turn to face my parents, hardening when I find them angry and incredulous.
"You should go." I say with finality.
They bluster, talking over each other.
"Stop!" I shout. Shocked, they do. "That's enough. You shouldn't evenbehere--you showed up on my doorstep without asking, without discussion, after convincing yourself that this was a surprise forme.If I'd wanted you to come, I would have agreed on a date for you to visit, but you know that. Deep down, I know you know that." I see it on their faces. "But I love you, so I let you stay, and in return, you've spent the last three days picking at my house and life and Grey, waiting for a reason to have this fight. I'm not leaving Roseville or Grey. The fact that you even think you can talk me out of it shows how little you'velistened, how little you know me. I'm not the same as I was when I moved away."
