Page 114 of Sweet Redemption

“Really?” I ask softly. I love my cousin, but I always thought Hendrix got him in the breakup. He may not have known everything, but I’m pretty sure he knew enough. Kind of like Liv.

She nods. “We’re moving later this week. Maybe you could come over for dinner.”

“I’d like that,” I tell her, wondering why I’m on the verge of tears again. “Thanks.”

“Anytime. Bye, Serena.”

“Bye.” I watch Delaney walk through the doors and wonder how much Ryker knows.

And more importantly, how much I care.

Maybe it’s time I stop worrying about everyone else and focus on the people who matter.

Isit at my kitchen table that night with my black and white polka-dot pen in hand and my softbound journal sitting in front of me, running the pad of my finger over another four-leaf clover. Hendrix gave me this one the summer after college graduation. But tonight, even the clover isn’t helping me journal. Nothing is. Maybe it’s because for the first time in a long time, thinking about what happened . . . about the baby we lost and everything that came after hasn’t caused me to spiral the way it would have even a month ago.

Instead, it’s like my mind is blank and yet somehow completely full all at once.

Like my past is colliding with my future and they’re playing in my mind like an old home movie. A documentary of my life. Of our lives together.

The look on his face after our first kiss.

The sound of his voice the very first time he told me he loved me. The last time too.

His hands on my body.

His lips brushing against my ear as he sang my favorite song under the starlight, dancing with me on the beach at midnight. Promising it was always going to be like this. Me promising it would too.

Fuck this.

I put down my pen and pick up my phone. They have an away game tomorrow, so he should be in a hotel tonight somewhere in Las Vegas.

Serena

Why is this so hard?

Without missing a single beat, the dots start moving.

Hendrix

Because nothing worth having is ever easy. You have to earn the good. If you didn’t, how would you know how sweet it is?

Serena

Wow. That’s a really good answer.

Hendrix

It’s my dad’s. He always said anything worth having was worth earning.

Serena

He’s a smart man.

Hendrix

He is. How are you?

Serena