“Thank you,” I choke out. “And I’m sorry that I scared you. That I scared everyone.”
“I knew you wouldn’t do it,” Boone smirks, and I furrow my brows at him. “You’d never abandon us like that even if you thought you wanted to. The Brighton I grew up with would put up a fight.”
My nose itches, and my hands get shaky again.
“This feels like I’m running,” I say to him.
“You’re not. This is fighting.” He taps the counter with his hand. “I’ll drive you. When do we leave?” Boone asks before I can argue that I can drive myself.
“Tomorrow.”
FIVE MONTHS LATER
“Yeah, that one,” I say as Kaia throws the dark purple blanket into the cart Boone’s pushing around the homeware store. Sunday sits inside it, and Cosy trails behind me, double-checking I’m not leaving anything good behind.
“So you can get back in on Monday to get more of your stuff?” Sunday asks.
“Yeah, and the apartment I'm subletting is nice. It’s only five minutes from the school; hopefully, with the insurance payout, I can start looking at houses next summer.” I chew my lip and feel through more of the blankets. Pretty much everything that was left at the condo succumbed to mold, and I was having to buy new…everything.
Staying with Boone isn’t ideal. Crosby is sweet, but the apartment is too small for two large humans and a large dog. I just need my own space again, and frankly, being around Boone just makes me miss Brighton.
The day after the drunk tank, Boone took Brighton to a facility in Pittsburgh. It specializes in Military PTSD, and everything Boone told me about it seems nice. Brighton has his own apartment there; it’s basically assisted living. He does therapy twice a day, calls Daisy with his one phone call, and keeps his head down.
But I miss him.
So much so that sometimes Boone catches my eye and I think it’s him. My brain ignores the different color in his eyes and the shift in thetattoos. It aches for what we lost, and it shows me what I want just to silence the screaming in the rest of my body.
I get excited, and I end up crying upstairs in the empty apartment for half my shift when my brain finally realizes that it’s not. Last time it happened, I left my key on the island and haven’t been back since.
I bring Daisy lunch from Boone every morning, and I can tell it’s taking a toll on her. She’s retreating into the shell she was in at the start of the year, and she’s becoming more secretive about her art again. It’s frustrating watching it happen without the ability to stop it.
“You alright?” Cosy asks as we round a corner into an aisle full of pillows.
“Yeah, just you know…” I shrug. “Missing Brighton.”
Kaia groans as loudly as she can. Between them and the girls, at least I’m not alone and sad. They take turns doing shit with me, and since Kaia started coming to family dinners, I started getting invited less, which is a blessing in disguise. But also, eating leftovers from the Hollow at the bar is getting old, especially when there’s no one around to tell Boone I don’t like tomatoes.
Rugby off-season will be the death of me; it’s all low-intensity workouts and strength training. I could really use an outlet that involves tossing people around, but there are another couple of months until we get back on the field.
“He’s home, Reaper,” Boone says off the cuff.
"Excuse me." Kaia puts both hands on the end of the cart, stopping Boone so sharply that he groans and Sunday slides forward. “Ow,” he hisses at her, and Sunday starts laughing.
“What do you mean he’s home?” I inhale sharply, and the air stings.
“He got home last week,” Boone looks between all of us, his green eyes searching for forgiveness. “I didn’t realize he hadn’t come to see you.”
He doesn’t want to.
You sent him away.
“He’s probably just respecting my space. You know, Brighton.” I press my lips together, trying not to chew the inside of my mouth raw.
“Yeah, but…” Cosy says quietly, “You’d think.”
They all stare at me, and the longer they do, the hotter I get and the more uncomfortable I feel. “Okay, stop,” I snap at them, and they jump.
They all fall quiet, and Boone is the first to man up. “What do you want to do?” he asks.
