“What happened on the beach?” they all seemed to wonder at once.
“Literally, all of you just—please shut up,” I said before shutting the door on them.
When I returned to Ceci she was still leaking tears. I could tell she was trying to hold them back because they welled in her eyes and poured over in heavy streaks down her face. She didn’t look up at me.Wouldn’t. So, I eased down onto a knee in front of her.
In her lap, I noticed her hands. Her knuckles a mix of ugly bruised colors. When I touched them, running my fingers along the top of them, she winced. I cursed, an unexpected rush of emotion crashing into me and enveloping my heart like a punishment chamber.
I know she just said so, but for some reason seeing the evidence really drove it home for me.
She was hurt.
I wasn’t so conceited to think it was all my fault, but I knew I played a hand in it.
“Cee, I’m sorry—”
Small hands shot out to grab mine. “Please don’t apologize. Don’t let me off the hook like that, please?”
I grit my teeth, speaking through them. “But you’re crying.”
“I know,” she gave a watery laugh. “Dramatic right?”
Still crying, I noted. Sliding my hands up her arms to reach her shoulders I looked at her. “Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head.
“Tell mesomething.”
“I missed you.”
“That it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Mhmm.”
“I want to talk about it, but not like this.”
Looking her over I nodded. “I'm starting to think that’s a good idea.”
“Is there really still an us?”
I pressed my mouth together as I stared at the top of her head. I missed her eyes. So reaching forward, I grasped her shaky chin in my fingers and lifted them up to meet mine. “I’m here on my knees for you again, honey. How many times do I have to lay myself at your feet for you to understand me?”
“I understand.”
I searched her face for a lie or at least a misunderstanding in those words, but for the life of me I couldn’t find one. And I don’t know why, but that made me nervous.
“Okay.”
“But we can’t do anything about it until you understand me, too.”
“Okay.”
“And you can’t do that until my face stops leaking,” she huffed, her smile just a wobble at the corner of her mouth.
My sigh was deep as I groaned. “Any way you could speed that up? I’ve been waiting a real long time, you know.”
Another tear slipping out the side of her eye was my answer. I just caught it, wiping it away with my thumb.
