“I had, but he’s all mouth.”
“Well, I don’t trust him,” she muttered, trailing a finger over the abstract ink on my bicep, her touch soothing. “I was thinking…” she said, stopping her tracing. “Before we go back to the beach house, why don’t we get flowers and visit your mom’s gravesite?”
My heart hurt. “I would have loved that, but there isn’t one. It seemed she wanted to be cremated, didn’t want me burdened. Her ashes were scattered in the sea.”
Her arms came around me, and she enfolded me in a tight hug.
Thiswas all I needed.
Heracceptance.
I never really belonged anywhere or had a family to call my own. But Charli had started to fill that hole. She might not have said the words yet, but she showed her love in everything she did. I could wait until she was ready.
