She saw him squeeze his eyes shut.
So tight that she wondered if he’d be able to open them again.
She couldn’t imagine the world without her daughter.
She wouldn’t want to see it.
She didn’t know if she could.
There was a hard click of sound and she looked down to see the truck in park, the engine running, the cool evening air coming in through the vents.
She sat there in the near silence of the night at the side of a road all by themselves.
Noelle felt all of the anger and impotent rage that she might feel if it was her in the position of Aracely’s family.
Her mother.
She heard McCrae’s sharp inhale and then… she heard a heartbeat.
His?
Hers?
She didn’t know.
But it echoed in her head.
And left her feeling… disconnected.
Cast adrift.
Sinking in despair.
A moment later she heard two soft clicks.
She knew what one was.
The click of her seatbelt releasing.
She only knew he’d done the same when he pulled her across his lap.
The steering wheel dug into her ribs, making her grunt with the discomfort.
With one hand, he held the back of her head and laid her cheek against his shoulder. The other, she couldn't see, but she heard the deep, hollow clicks beneath them and the driver's seat slipped back, putting more room between the seat back and the steering wheel.
Then he wrapped both arms around her and held on tight.
She felt his hard thighs underneath her and she could only manage to lift her hand and find his side.
The muscles under his shirt, the bones beneath.
She moved her fingers across those ribs, those muscles.
She soothed him and took comfort from his as well.
The pain she felt inside seemed to ease and spill out from her heart as he held her. The hand at the back of her head moved over her hair, until she felt his fingers move through the curling waves.
"I... I've never felt like this."
