Like Molly said, it takes a village, and it’s time to call in ours.
I stand and walk to where Jeremy is still pacing. I stop him with a hand on his chest. His heart thunders against my palm.
“Tell me something true, Jeremy.”
Jeremy flinches a little at my words. He closes his eyes and shakes his head as if even the smallest truths are too heavy for him to bear.
“I just…I can’t. Not right now.”
I didn’t think he could, but if he can’t, I will. For him, but also for Maddy and me, and for the future I want us to have together. I slide my hand from Jeremy’s chest and take one of his hands in mine.
“Look at me.”
He opens his eyes slowly, and I start talking as soon as our gazes lock.
“If you can’t tell me one of your truths right now, I’ll tell you one of mine. If your father wasn’t already dead, I would kill him myself.”
I can see the surprise in Jeremy’s eyes, and I relish it.
“You think I wouldn’t battle for you? Slay your dragons? Go to war for you? I would do all that and more. I’m not going to stand here and explain to you all the different ways I love you and would never leave you because you wouldn’t believe me anyway. And that’s okay. You don’t have to believe me today. One day you will. You’re my person and my family and my whole goddamn world. You want to push me away because you think I won’t stay? Run away from me before I have a chance to leave you first? You go right ahead and try. I dare you to try. But know that there is nowhere on this earth where you could go that I wouldn’t find you and bring you home to me. You’re mine, Jeremy. And I fucking fight for what’s mine.”
Jeremy opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He tries again, but still nothing. Instead, he just stands there andstares at me, a little slack-jawed, eyes tired and confused, and I almost laugh at the expression on his face.
I reach up and cup his face, absolutely swamped by my love for this gorgeous, broken man and resolute in my determination to give him exactly what he needs. It’s not always going to be easy, this life of ours, but goddamn is it going to be beautiful.
“Here’s what’s going to happen right now. You are going to toss back that drink on the coffee table then go upstairs and take a shower. Put on some comfortable clothes. I’ll take care of the rest.”
I stand on my toes and kiss Jeremy softly. A reminder to him that I’m here and I’m his. I feel his breath hitch, his hands coming up to rest on my waist and then wrapping all the way around me in a tight hug.
“I don’t have anything to offer you, Ems,” he whispers. “I just…I have nothing.”
I smile at my nickname. The one only he uses. I pull back so I can see his face again.
“You are enough, just the way you are. Now go. Drink. Shower. Comfortable clothes.”
Jeremy doesn’t say anything else. He just follows my instructions and downs the drink in one swallow then heads to the shower. And when he disappears up the stairs, I pull out my phone and call in the troops.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Emma
My house is all lit up when I pull into the driveway. Walking up to the porch, I snicker at the big bowl of candy and the sign that saysTake As Many As You Want. It screams Molly. There’s an eighty percent chance she’s half drunk and got tired of getting off the couch to answer the door for trick-or-treaters.
I push open the door and walk inside, surveying the scene. A pile of Hallie’s beloved Reese’s Cups, one of Reese’s Pieces and, oddly, black licorice Molly loves, a pile of Snickers and Milky Ways because Julie settles when it’s not peppermint Hershey Kiss season and she doesn’t have access to the never-ending supply Asher mysteriously provides, and a pile of M&M’s in all different flavors litter the floor. Half-full glasses clutter the coffee table, accompanied by a pitcher of margaritas. My friends are sprawled everywhere, Hallie and Julie gawking at Molly like she has three heads and Molly looking like she wants to be anywhere but here.
“What’s going on?”
Three heads turn to me simultaneously.
“Oh, nothing. Just our very best friend, who we have known and loved for more than a decade, casually mentioning that sheused to be a dancer.” Julie sits up from where she was laying on the floor and narrows her gaze at Molly like she’s trying to see what else Molly might be hiding.
Molly’s discomfort is palpable. I keep my voice light, trying to brush it off because whatever this is, she hates it. “And? Didn’t we all dance at some point? I vaguely recall thinking the tutus were itchy.”
Molly gives me a grateful look like she sees what I’m trying to do, but Julie won’t be dissuaded.
“This isn’t that. This is like, majoring in dance at UC Berkeley, on her way to a professional contemporary dance company before she quit, but she won’t tell us why.”
“How did this even come up?”
