I smile, and before I can speak, she smashes her lips onto mine, not caring that both Chase and Rusty are standing to the side of us or that my face is now tinted red.
Her fingers push into my hair with urgency and mine slide beneath her black tank, caressing their way up her ribs, gripping her firmly as I feel the prickle of goosebumps dancing across her bare skin.
She bites into my bottom lip, pulling back slightly before releasing it with a pop. “Are they–” She clears her throat, her face turning serious before she continues, “Are they dead?”
I nod, but I don’t say anything.
“Good.”
My fingers dig into her ribs as I pull her closer, cupping her cheek. She grabs my wrist with both of her hands and leans into my touch, sighing gently. Her eyes close as I brush the tips of myfingers into the strands of her hair at the side. “Are you going to be okay, baby?” I ask, worry evident in my tone.
“Yes,” she breathes before popping her eyes open and locking her sweet blues onto mine. “Harlen.” She drifts her fingers up the outside of my arm, finding my hand at the side of her face and lacing her digits with my own.
A shiver curls around each vertebra as I hum. Her breath draws heavier.
“Thank you for not stopping me.” She exhales again. “You have no idea how badly I needed that.” She swallows, then asks quietly, “Are you going to be okay?”
I’m already nodding. “You don’t have to worry about me, baby. I’m good.”
She drops her chin to her chest, and then flicks her eyes back to mine. “She’d be proud of you, you know. You are a good man.”
I suck on my bottom lip, reining in the buried emotion that threatens to combust. I need to steer this back to her. I’m about to break. I drop my hand and wrap it around her chin, and she closes her eyes, angling her lips upward, grazing mine.
“You’re so fucking brave, Cherry,” I whisper.
She shakes her head. “Not as brave as your mother, or as Laney. They were forced to see the darkness before they could soar.”
I suppress a shudder. “And so were you.”
She’s still shaking her head. “It’s not the same.”
I grab both of her cheeks, my palms tinged with blood, though she doesn’t recoil. “Baby, you just walked right into the very fucking place where you were…” I pause for a moment, trying to find the right words. “Held.” I run my thumbs over her cheekbones when she shivers. “And you…” I think back to the first day Cherry danced for me, in her studio, in Shadow Heads, and I say the same words I said to her then, but this time with a little moreemphasisbecause, fuck, what she just did, not manypeople could do. Not many people could walk right back into their hell voluntarily and still be standing after it,but she is.“You just made your demons your bitch.”
She smiles, and then slams her lips to mine once more. I grab her by the ass and pull her off the truck to her feet, and when she stares up at me, I watch the shadow of Rusty move in behind her. He looks at me and tilts his eyebrows upward, asking me quietly if he can intercept, and I nod.
He wraps his arms around Cherry’s waist from behind and wrenches her off her feet as she squeals. When he places her back to the ground, she spins around to face him. He drops his arms around her and closes his eyes, pushing his lips to the top of her head.
“Proud of you, sweet girl.”
She angles her gaze up to him and whispers, “Hopefully, she can rest a little easier now.”
He drags her into him, and my eyes well with tears when my father’s latch onto mine. “I hope so too, baby girl.”
Cherry squeezes him, then let's go, looking over her shoulder at me and nodding. She ambles toward Chase, who’s sitting at the edge of the parking lot, lighting up what looks like another blunt.
Rusty takes two steps and wrenches me into him for a tight hug. He squeezes me, slapping hard against my back. “You got yourself a good girl, son.” Pulling back, he holds my shoulders at arm’s length.
He doesn’t say anything else, even though I can tell he wants to, and when his throat rolls, I know it’s because he physically can’t.
So, I reach out to him, gripping and digging my fingers into his shoulder the same way he is mine. “Mom was lucky to have you, Dad. You never stopped fighting for her,right until the end.”
He nods and drops his head to his chest before running a palm down his weathered face. “Thanks, son.” His words are whispered quietly in his throat, then he shoves my head away with a grin, making light of a hard situation, the same way I always do. It’s what we are good at.
My phone pings from my pocket, and I snap my head down, pulling it out.
Tyler
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