He blazed with fierce longing and then determination as his gaze volleyed between my mouth and my eyes. “I will make it okay, Liem,” he vowed.
I invited calm.
I invited patience.
And on my next breath, I moved to climb off his lap, but he clamped his hands on my hips and did the bulk of the work for me, lifting me easily. He looked so forlorn and so lost, and his body twitched almost violently when the next firework exploded across the sky. I moved to sit beside him on the step below and leaned against him, giving comfort as much as taking it.
He reached out and rested his hand on my thigh as he took a deep breath, squeezing tightly just above my knee. “Is this okay?”
“Always.”
He squeezed again as he watched the fireworks, and I watched his long, tanned fingers flex in time with each new color in the sky.
With my head resting against his bicep, I offered clarity of the next right thing to him. Something that Dad had preached tome and Vinh over the years of his sobriety. “The show still has a while to go, and the crowd will be less chaotic as they watch. Calmer. Let’s take a minute, and then we can make our way back to Bree and Vinh.”
He smoothed his hand up my thigh and whispered, “Okay.”
“Before you know it, you’ll be in bed, or on the couch, sound asleep. And then it’ll be tomorrow.”
His face was still tipped toward the sky as he asked, “What happens tomorrow?”
I turned my face into his shoulder and breathed him in, tucking his scent deep into my memory, and then I told him, “Another sunrise.”
He turned his gaze to me, a sad smile on his face as he touched his forehead to mine.
Four more explosions later, we parted. Cody gripped the iron rail as if he needed the support to rise and then gripped me above the elbow, hoisting me up along with him.
Cody’s scowl returned the moment we left the stairwell, and his body filled with tension as we picked our way through the crowd. When I made the slightest stumble over some abandoned beads, he glared at them and then wrapped his arm around me, pulling me flush to his side for the rest of the walk.
If only he could see the care he so easily gave.
The arm around me dropped right before Bree and Vinh came into view, snuggled up and leaned against the back of the RAV4, her back to his front and his arms encircling her.
She smiled when she saw us and elbowed Vinh, who had been watching her, the loving sight tightening my stomach even as my heart soared for them.
I’d all but forgotten my other pains until my brother’s keen gaze took me in and he visibly tensed as he demanded, “What happened?”
I glanced at Bree, who also looked concerned, then touched the bandages on my face and shrugged. “Just a little tumble.”
With a long-suffering sigh, he dropped his head to the top of Bree’s and murmured something to her, making her laugh, but then her gaze traveled to her best friend, and the sound died away. Cody walked over to his truck without a word and opened the driver’s side door, boldly ignoring her scrutinizing look.
She frowned at his back. “Cody?”
He turned his upper body toward her reluctantly. “Cher?”
Vinh released her, and she moved closer to Cody. “What happened?”
I walked over to Vinh, who quietly asked me the same question, but before I could voice my assurance, a breath between fireworks coincided with Cody’s deep rumble as he said, “I lost my fucking plate.”
15
Liem
The night came,and I bore witness to every refrain of it.
I harmonized with the scrapes of branches against my window each time the night’s breeze shifted and counted the beats, rests, and accents of the cottage’s sputtering HVAC as it kicked on and off.
But what I listenedforwas the creak of the cushions and groan of the couch frame each time Cody tossed and turned under his bundle of blankets.
