“Exactly.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make. Then or now.”
“Sam, you can’t keep running. Because you’ll run and run and run and yes, things were shit. But you can’t spend your life running away. I know this. I know how it can be exhausting.”
“I want to go home,” she said. Her tone stayed even.
“Denver. Okay. We’ll make it happen.” He’d make anything happen at this point.
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to go home. Home. There’s only one place that’s ever been, really.”
Now that? That fucking wrecked him.
“Are we done?” he asked, hoping like hell this was just one of those things they’d talk about someday and remember how it made them stronger.
“Do you want to be?” she asked.
Why was she so detached from him? From everything?
“I want to say no.” She pulled her lips between her teeth. “But I’m not sure that’s the right answer. So I want some time to think about it. Can I have that?”
He had little choice in it, now, didn’t he?
“I love you,” he said, hoping it would be enough.
“And I love you, too,” she said. “I do.”
But even with the words, he could tell she wasn’t certain love was enough. And he understood that. When you spend your life running? Love didn’t really factor.
Chapter Twenty-Four
SAMANTHA
A week later
Sam’s parentshadn’t changed her bedroom. It remained exactly as it had when she first moved away. Baby blue carpet, the Selena Gomez poster on the wall by the window, and the guitar stand in the corner all stayed just the same as they had back then.
Sitting cross-legged on her tie-dyed bedspread she now understood that while this room didn’t change, she’d changed tons.
Color Sam surprised when the majority of messages Sami Jo received said good things. Stories about how her song had made days better. How parents sang it with their kids, and the spouses, or their moms and dads. How it had mattered to them.
The influx of goodness pushed Sam to nudge Courtney about maybe giving this career a shot.
Of course, the trolls were out in full force, but so were the people who loved her song. She could see the balance now, even if it wasn’t always a comfortable equilibrium.
Tanner: ’morning
Sam: hi!
Tanner: Going back to Denver today
Sam: last night’s concert good?
Tanner: Bax crowd surfed
Court not amused
Mach still trying to figure out online dating
