Asher chuckles, “I’d expect nothing less from you.”
“Okay, so I’ll get the address from Rox and we go tomorrow before the shop opens? If we leave by six in the morning, we should be able to get to the shop after two, if we’re able to get everything within half an hour.”
“Where are you going?” Roxie asks, rolling the mop bucket out and stopping in front of us.
“I’m going to get your stuff from Mickey.”
She pauses. “No, you’re not. Not without me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Ty,” she says strongly as if to tell me, ‘don’t start this shit right now.’
“Roxie, I’m serious. If he’s there… I can’t let him around you. Ever again.” I’m more serious about her being away from Mickey than I am about anything else. “Don’t you have things you want back?”
Her eyes close as her head tilts up towards the ceiling and I know right then that there is something sentimental she has there. Something she doesn’t want to lose.
“What is it?” I ask, softer this time.
“Ty.” Her voice breaks slightly, those dark eyes opening and showing me the sadness there.
“Please tell me, baby. Tell me so I can bring it home to you.”
Swallowing hard, she bites the inside of her lip and nods. “Remember that night in the clearing?”
I nod quickly, my breath catching in my throat. I remember every moment of that night.
“I found your drawings, the ones you left me. And those memories, the ones you must have spent all night on, they’re my most cherished possessions."
What?I think, utterly astonished, trying to keep the shock off my face and my heart from beating out of my chest.
“I…” Roxie shakes her head from side to side before wrapping her arms around her waist. “I always kept them close to me, and then on nights where it was particularly bad, I’d pull them out and just know that… at one time, someone cared for me.”
Just shove the knife into my heart and twist it. It feels like I’m dying. Like my entire being wants to desperately figure out how to go back in time and shield her from it all. I would’ve. I could’ve. But I was too young to fucking figure it out.
“I’ve always cared for you,” I whisper, stepping forward and holding her hand. I need to hold her in some way, give her some kind of comfort. If it’s for her, or for me, I’m not totally sure. But I know we both feel better immediately.
“Holding the picture you made me while you were letting me sleep on you, protecting me as I rested, it made me feel safe. That’s not something I’ve felt since that night.”
My eyes find hers, but if I’m honest, I never stopped looking at her. I don’t think I’ll be looking away any time soon. I don’t think I want to.
“I’ll get it back for you.”
“Ty,” she says again, trying to reason with me, but I cut her off.
“No, Roxie. Please, let me do this.”
“No, Ty! I will not let you go there,” she says louder, stronger. But I hear it. The tinge of fear.
“Roxie,” I start to say, my voice turning harder. Now that I know what she has there, what it means to her? There’s no fucking way I’m letting that drawing stay in that house. No. Hell-fucking-no.
“Yeah, no, Roxie. I’m with Ty on this one,” Asher chimes in, before going back to spraying down his station.
“No one asked you!” she spits at Asher and I take a deep breath because I know this is going to escalate.
“He did.” Asher shrugs, and effectively throws me under the bus. Roxie’s eyes burn into my skull as she gears up to ask me the question I know is coming.
“You what?”
