AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Family?” His tone is smooth as ice, but his eyes are hard and accusing.
“No … a purpose. I can help people here. I feel safe in here. Out there …” I shake my head, thinking about what’s waiting beyond those doors. “Out there, it’s nothing but Bonys and bad memories.”
Wes opens his mouth to reply as I yank on the next metal gate. I brace myself for the impact of his words, but instead, my ears are assaulted by the sound of squealing gears when the gate jerks to life in my hands.
The rusty metal squeaks and shimmies as it rolls up to the ceiling, revealing the hollowed-out interior of an old Barnes & Noble bookstore.
My mouth falls open as I step inside. “Oh my God. This used to be my favorite place in the whole mall.”
It’s dark inside, but there’s enough light from the skylights in the hallway to see my way around. The checkout stands are to the left of the entrance, right where I remember. The coffee shop, or what’s left of it, is to the right. There are rows and rows of empty shelves in the center of the store and dust-covered tables lining the main aisle.
“I remember Mama bringing me here for story time when I was a kid,” I continue, talking more to myself than to Wes. “They had a train set right back there, and these little stools that looked like tree trunks, and”—I gasp as my eyes climb up a wooden ladder in the far-left corner of the store, leading up the trunk of a cutout, cloud-shaped oak tree—“a tree house!”
I sprint down the main aisle, looking for signs of life between every row of shelves. When I don’t find anything except for trash, standing water, and the occasional forgotten book, I head over to the children’s area.
Please don’t let anyone be up there. Please, God. Please let me have this one thing …
I reach out with a hopeful hand to grasp the ladder, but Wes beats me to it. Taking the rungs two at a time, he climbs to the top and shines his pocket flashlight into the wooden shelter. Then, without a word, he clicks it off and hops back down, landing before me with a graceful thud.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” His face is unreadable, but the air around him is charged.
“Any runaways living up there?”
“Nope.” Wes props his elbow on the ladder and leans over me, causing me to tilt my head back to make eye contact. “It’s all yours.”
“You mean, ours,” I whisper, frozen to the spot by his icy stare.
Wes shakes his head. Slowly.
Panic shoots through my veins as I realize what he’s saying.
“Don’t go.” I shake my own head, much faster, as sudden, uncontrollable tears blur my vision. “Please. Please stay here with me. I can’t do this without you, Wes.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I don’t want to!”
I step up onto the bottom rung of the ladder and place my hands on Wes’s shoulders, so that we’re eye-to-eye. “Remember yesterday? We were just like this. I was on the ladder of my tree house, and you were on the ground, and the sun was setting over there”—I point one hand in the direction of the hazy, sunlit entrance—“and I told you I loved you, and you said you loved me too.”
“You thought the world was about to end.” Wes’s tone is condescending and doubtful, but his hands on my waist are begging me to make him believe.
“So did you.”
“I meant what I said.”
“So did I, Wes. I still do.”
Seconds go by as I let that sink in. Wes doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t move a muscle, but his heart is beating so hard that I can feel the air vibrating off his chest in sonic waves. His hands tighten around my middle, and his nostrils flare as he sucks in silent breaths.
I can almost hear the sound of cracking ice.
I force a smile even though I’m terrified and bring one hand up to stroke his rough cheek. “Hey … if I’m not allowed to freak out, then you’re not allowed to either.”
Wes nods his head maybe a fraction of an inch. It’s so subtle that I almost miss it, but in that whisper of movement, he lets me see the real him. The one who is panicking just as badly as I am.
“Look around, baby. It’s still just you and me … and a tree house.” I smile and gesture above my head. “Carter being here doesn’t change anything. I don’t want to stay because of him. I know that’s what you think, but you’re wrong. I want you. I love you. Don’t you see that?”
