Her glistening eyes snap to mine. “I know she can hear you.”
“Eve, there’s no way to know that. She’s no longer responding.”
“She responds to me.” Her words seem to reverberate through the room.
“What?”
“It’s true, Dad.” Ryder sounds off from his place on the bed. “We’ve been here for hours, and a couple times she responded to us. It’s subtle, but it’s something.”
“You’ve been here for hours?” I look between Ryder and Eve.
“We’ve been in here with her since before the sun came up.”
I look between Eve and Rosie. “Can you show me?”
Eve nods and walks around to the front of Rosie’s chair. She bends at the waist and brings Rosie’s hand to her cheek. “Hey, Rosie. Do you remember me?”
Rosie’s eyes stay fixed on nothing across the room.
“You know your dad here thinks you won’t respond. I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy proving him wrong. What do you say? Can you help a sister out?”
Still nothing.
Unease churns in my gut. “Eve, it’s okay—”
“No, we’re not giving up.” She cups my daughter’s jaw with one hand. “Are we Rosie? Come on. Look at me. I’m right here.”
Rosie’s eyes shift toward Eve ever so slightly.
“Yeah, there it is!” Eve’s high-pitched voice is filled with pride. “Hey, pretty girl.”
“Holy shit. You did it.” I stand and place a kiss on my daughter’s forehead.
“I told you.” The triumph in Eve’s voice is contagious and sends shock waves of excitement through my body.
“I’m proud of you, baby.” I smooth Rosie’s short blond hair. “You’re so smart.”
“She’s amazing, Cameron.” Eve leans into my side.
The door bursts open, and D’lilah comes rushing inside. “Is she okay? What happened, is she—oh!” Her eyes take in everyone in the room. “What’s everyone doing here?”
I catch Ryder trying to hide a grin behind the back of his hand.
“Yeah, she’s fine.” I nod to my son. “Ry, you mind filling your mom in before you give her a heart attack?”
“Don’t mind if I do, Dad.” He steps forward and clears his throat. “Rosie’s fine. I left the urgent messages with you guys.”
D’lilah’s hand on her heart, she blows out several breaths. “Ryder, you scared me to death.”
“Drastic times. Here’s the thing. I’ve been watching you all dance around each other for months. Been watching Mom slowly kill herself for years. Figured it was time we had a family meeting.”
“But—”
Ryder holds his hand up to D’lilah. “Before you say anything, Mom, let me say that Eve is going to be part of our family eventually”—he fixes his eyes on mine—“as soon as Dad pulls his head out of his ass.”
Eve snort-giggles at my side.
“Eve, you love my dad. Dad, you love Eve.” He looks at his mom. “Mom, you’ve been sober now for a little while, and I know you love me. I don’t need a mom, but Rosie does. She needs all the love she can get, and I’ll be busy with college. It’s time you guys stop living in your mistakes and start looking forward.”
“How’d he get so smart?” Eve grins up at me.
I shake my head. “No fucking idea.”
D’lilah slides her gaze from Ryder to Rosie. Her eyes fill up with tears. “She’s grown since the last time I saw her.” She wraps her arms around her stomach.
Eve holds her hand out to D’lilah. “Come look at her from over here. She looks so much like you.”
’Li looks at Eve’s hand and slowly takes hold of it. I step away from the women as they crouch down in front of Rosie, then move to my son who’s sporting a very proud grin while watching his mom with his sister.
“You did good, son.”
“Yeah, I know.”
And just like the night of The Fourth of July, Eve becomes the easy that our family needed—the light that we’ve been missing for years—the glue that somehow holds us together.
I was living behind a translucent wall of apathy, not allowing anything or anyone that might drop me to my knees get close enough. Love has brought me the worst kind of pain imaginable, and I was so afraid of feeling that again, of losing something so beautiful I’d never be able to recover. But the risk is half the beauty of living. I’m risking my sanity by loving Eve, but the alternative is far more painful than the fear of losing her.
She shattered me, broke down the old me, and freed the possibility of a new outcome. Rewriting my future to create one I never even knew I wanted.
And as I watch my ex-wife fawn over our disabled daughter, as Eve and Ryder look on with smiles so big they could light the dark, I let go.
For the second time in my life . . .
I fall.
This time, by choice.
Forty-Two
One month later . . .
Cameron
“You ready, old man?” Blake calls from his spot propped up behind me, elbows on the top of the octagon.
“You got this, Cam.” Jonah’s next to Blake, same position, and Caleb, Rex, Mason, and Wade are there too.