She nods against my forehead, then says quietly, “He’s right, I did that a lot.”
I swallow, then continue, “I waited as long as I could before I had to get back to LA, and Chase and I were waiting until those early morning hours so we could take the quiet road back. That’s why we were on the pier.” I shake my head, clenching my eyes closed when I hear the echoes of her violent scream. “It was your scream. I heard it so clearly, and then we just fucking ran.”
My body trembles as a bolt of thunder tries to crack through me, and I do everything in my power to suppress its wrath. “I got you out of the water, but shit, you were sinking fast, Cherry.”
“I know,” she says, clearing her throat before she breathes, “I saw my mom, Harlen, even my dad. They were with me, at my side. I wasn’t alone, I was drifting.”
Everything in me breaks.
A tear trails down my cheek, and I snort back the emotion, for her.I need to hold it together for her.“Fuck, baby.”
“It was finally peaceful,” she says, her voice so empty it feels like a dagger to the heart.
I push my forehead into hers. “That should make me feel better, but it doesn’t, because your peace through death was never meant to be your freedom.”
Shifting her over my lap, I pull her in closer. “I only want you to ever experience that in human form, do you understand?” My eyes flick between hers as tears roll down her cheeks.
“And that’s why I fell for you, Harlen. So unbelievably hard, and watching you walk–”
I cut her off when both of my hands latch onto her freckled, heated cheeks. “You have to understand that leaving you fucking killed me.”
“Would you take it back?” she asks, hope so evident in her tone it has my heart stuttering. She’s not going to like my response, until she truly knows why I did what I did.
“No.”
Her hands are against my chest, pushing me with rough shoves against the steel beam behind me, and I fucking take it, I take it all.
“Why, why the fuck wouldn’t you take it back!” Sobs rip from her chest as she hits me, falling apart, and I let her. She needs this, she needs to hurt me, needs to let all her pent-up anger for what she believes out on me.
When she exerts herself, I grab her wrists and pull her into me again. “Listen to me. Can you do that, baby? Can you hear me out?”
She swallows, and I watch the movement. The voice in her lungs is strained as she speaks. “You hurt me. You fucking killed me, Harlen.”
My hands are back on her cheeks, smoothing the salty liquid away from her skin. Her eyes angle down, but I need her to look at me when I tell her this. “Look at me, Blaine.”
Her palms wrap around my wrists, her glassy, bloodshot eyes slowly flicking up to mine, and when I have her,really have her,I speak.
“My career…” I pause when goosebumps ripple through me. I never resented my career until that very moment, the moment I realized I had to leave her. “Forced me away from you.”
A few moments pass before realization flickers in her eyes, then she whispers, “Harlen.”
“I left to protect you from what would happen if the media got a hold of me and Chase being there. It would have been everywhere, Blaine. You have to believe me. I wasn’t prepared to let your trauma enter a shark infestation. Rusty took care of the rest. That’s why what happened that night never became public knowledge, even in the town of Devil’s Peak and Shadow Heads.”
She whimpers, “Oh god, I had no-” Her tears are unrelenting, dripping from her face, and one falls from mine, mingling with hers.
“That was the hardest fucking decision I’ve ever had to–”
Cherry’s forehead drops to mine, her voice a whisper when she cuts me off, “Thank you.” Her fingers thread through the curls at the nape of my neck, digging into my skull as she starts to breathe heavily, her chest rising and falling with mine. “I had no idea, Harlen. I’m so-”
My index finger is at her lips, mouth so close to hers. “Don’t you dare fucking finish that sentence.”
She swallows roughly, shaking her head before she tilts it backward and squeezes her eyes closed. I watch her unspoken words slide back down her throat. Finding my gaze again, she says, “Thank you so fucking much.”
Her lips are on mine, smooth and soft, and I grip the nape of her neck, pulling her flush.
The swipe of her tongue is urgent and passionate before she pulls back and tries to speak again. “I’m so sor-”
“Cherry,” I growl against her lips. “Don’t you fucking dare apologize for a truth only you knew.”
