“Lock the door,” she stutters, shaking so badly.
I run back over to the door and shut and lock it.
“The desk too.” She points when I turn around. I don’t argue with her and push her desk in front of the door. We’ll deal with that repercussion if we have to.
When that’s all done. I grab Hannah’s fuzzy green blanket off the loveseat. I sit down against the wall next to her and then lift her onto my lap and wrap her in the blanket. “I’ve got you, Hanny. I’ve got you.”
“I’m sorry,” she sobs into my shoulder. Her body’s shaking so hard her teeth chatter.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. Tell me how to help you.” I push her curly hair off her forehead and behind her ears.
“Hold me like you’ll never let go.”
“I can do that.” I wrap my arms tight around her and press her into my body. I untuck her shirt and glide my hand up her back, wanting to feel her soft skin. I rub my hand on her back, making soft circles. I undo her bra instead of going under or around it. Slowly Hannah’s shaking stops, and her breathing even’s out.
She moves her hand under my shirt, sliding it along my stomach until she finds the dip between my ab muscles, and rubs her finger back and forth along the dip in a self-soothing motion.
“Are you feeling better?” I ask. I try to pull back to look at her, but she tightens her hold on the back of my shirt.
“Noy yet,” she sniffs, and I feel her tears on my neck and seeping into the fabric of my shirt at my shoulder.
“Never.” I put my hand under my shirt, brushing my fingers over the ring on her left middle finger. “I meant what I said Saturday night. I love you so much, Hannah Clark. I want to be with you forever. That wasn’t me being whimsical or romantic.”
Hannah lets out a small laugh.
“Okay, I was being a little romantic, but it doesn’t make what I said any less true. Do you remember what I said?”
I can’t see her face, but I feel her nod yes.
“I need you to tell me, sweetheart.”
Hannah shifts, resting her forehead against mine. “You told me that in a thousand worlds and a thousand lifetimes, you would find me because my soul sings to yours.”
“What else?”
“That your future is my future.”
“Do you still want that?”
“With all my heart. You have my heart, Crawford Cross. Your soul calls to my soul. I want everything you promised me. I want everything we promised each other.”
“We’ll have them.” There’s wetness on my face, and Hannah swipes her thumb across my cheek. “This is just an obstacle. Right now, it seems like an impossibly big mountain we must climb, but I promise you, once we’re past it, it will have seemed like a small hill. Whatever happens, you just have to meet me at our spot after graduation, and we’ll start our life together.”
“You promise?” Hannah asks, looking me in the eye.
“Yes. I promise.
When I walk into my house, my parents are sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me. I’m not sure if this is good or bad.
I walk up to the table and sit down across from my dad. It’s time we had that talk. I’ve been avoiding it for almost a year now. “I’m sorry about you and Hannah,” my mom says, rubbing a hand down my arm.
I glance at her and give a small smile and a nod.
I look at my dad, and he sighs. “You’re going to play for Sutherland?”
“Yes, I am.”
He nods. “It’s a full ride?”
