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I laid my hand across my stomach as I kept pace with her when she backed away from me. “I know who you are better than anyone, and I like everything about you. I have never asked you to be anything else, not once.”
She balled her fists and yelled at me like she’d been dying to spit it out the whole time we were talking. “We have to break up.”
Smacking her hands over her mouth to mask her whimpers, she backed into the ugly old tree she hated, and I snatched her cheeks up in my hands. “No. We’re absolutely not doing that.” If I had to handcuff myself to her, I would. I should have. “Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.” My forehead squished into hers and rocked us both. “You are not something I can do without. We’re a package deal. I can’t breathe without you.”
I woke up sweaty a hundred nights, the same dream of her leaving me replaying in my head. Like some premonition coming to life in front of me, I squeezed her tighter, locking my wrists so she couldn’t disappear. “None of those plans I made or that school I got into or this ring in my pocket mean anything if you aren’t with me.”
As soon as she opened her mouth, I stole whatever she planned on saying with my kisses. “I’ll die if you leave me. So if you want to stay here and live normal lives, we can do that. I don’t care. I like living here.” Simple and sweet, Faith never had a dream for herself, only agreeing to whatever kind of idea I spouted off because she figured I knew better. And I completely missed how I overlooked that until now. “The only reason I’ve been pushing so hard is because I thought you wanted all this.”
Contrary to what my parents saw for my future, I didn’t want to be anything but Faith’s. Honestly, spending the next seven or eight years getting a law degree to work myself to death in a job I hate like my dad seemed pointless. “But if you don’t, then I don’t either. I only want to give you whatever kind of life you want. So tell me what you want, Faith, and I’ll make it happen.”
I wrestled the box from my pocket and flipped it open with my thumb as I brought it between us. “Please trust me to take of you, whatever you decide for us.” A trail of endless tears fell from the outer corner of her eyes when I slid the gold band on her finger. “No is not one of the options, though.”
Whatever she was going through had her spent, and she had no energy left even to continue to fight with me.
Nearly a foot taller than when we started dating, I lifted her in the hug I already had her in and walked her to the truck. “You still love me? Don’t you, Faith?”
She nodded against my neck as I fought with the door handle. “More than anything.”
I set her on the seat and dug around for my keys. “I’m going to stay with you tonight, but I have to run out in the morning to help Jason pick up something he bought at that auction yesterday.”
The diamond I rubbed my fingers over was pathetic, really. But that speck of shiny rock was all I could swing without setting off the town’s busybody mom network.
I’d gotten every scholarship I was eligible for and had every living expense calculated down to the penny already. We didn’t need a thing from anyone anymore. I could have run off with her that night, and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop us. “Then we’re going to tell our parents what’s up. We don’t have to run around and keep secrets anymore.” I took her face in my hand and wiped the tears away with my thumb. “Look at what it’s doing to you.”
She was part of me and always would be. I could feel her pain like it was my own, and carrying it around all day was exhausting. “Let’s go home, baby. All I’ve been able to think about since I woke up is crawling back into bed next to you.”
I went to sleep one night and woke up the happiest man in the world the next day, thinking Faith was finally all mine. But she was right — it was only a dream.
13
Together Again
Dominic
There was only one traffic light in that town, and it wanted to stay red three times as long as usual to keep me from returning to Faith in time.
The eighteen-wheeler that delivered food to the little hospital every day made the turn for the interstate as slowly as possible, too. But when I leaned forward to peek at the light again, my t-shirt shifted in the back, sending tingles up my spine.
Something in Faith’s kiss goodbye that morning had me second-guessing every move I made from that point forward. “I’m coming, baby. Just hold on.”
I never should have left her side with her so upset like that. It remains the single biggest regret of my existence. She all but begged me to stay with those bloodshot, teary eyes and too-long kisses.
Her last words to me replayed in my head nonstop. Like a swarm of bees in my ear that haunted me no matter where I went or what I did, her voice smudged out the faces of every other woman for the rest of my life. Faith’s promise became my favorite method to torture myself with. ‘I’ll love you til I die.’
She’s my soul mate, and every cell understood we belonged together. So, when that spark inside me disappeared, my body just took over, desperate to find it again.
A rush of adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream, and the gas pedal smashed down under my sneaker, sending me through the red light. “What are you doing, Faith?” Throwing off my seatbelt like those few seconds it took to remove it when I got to her house would make a difference, I hovered over the steering wheel as an inkling of what she planned became a thought eating the back of my brain. “No, baby. Please wait for me.”
I tore through the tiny streets, ignoring all the yells for me to slow down and dodging around traffic like a racecar driver. But when I got to the top of her driveway and didn’t find her car, that’s when I died. I mean, my heart stopped completely, and when it started again, I was a whole different fucked up version of me.
I knew my girl’s every move for three years. She was a damn angel who never went anywhere or did anything without telling me first, so afraid of ever making me upset.
Nearly plowing into Otis’ old pickup when I whipped my truck around in front of the door, I shoved the shifter into park and jumped out.
Through the kitchen window, Otis sat facing the door, and he dropped the paper from his hand when I came in without knocking. “Where is she?”
Motioning toward the chair across from him without looking up, he lifted his trembling finger. “Sit down for a minute, Dom.”
