I closed my eyes and rested back in my seat as we took our first step toward forever.
It was our second week back in the States. Nothing was as I remembered it. We were literally home, in our hometown, and nothing about this place felt familiar. Everything had changed. Everything felt wrong. So when Twitch asked Ethan if he could watch A.J. for the afternoon, my curiosity was piqued.
When I asked where we were going, all Twitch said was, “For a drive.”
It was a long one. The entire way, Twitch silenced my thousand questions, but when we reached our old neighborhood, I found I had no further questions to ask. I watched on through the passenger window as familiarity started to show itself in this unfamiliar place. And when Twitch pulled up to the curb, the two houses in front of us stood there, an everlasting memory shot through my head, and suddenly, I was six again.
“What’s your name?” I asked in my sweet six-year-old voice.
I abruptly found it hard to breathe.
He kicked at a stone. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll forget it once I’m gone.”
Home.
We were home.
Twitch watched me a long while, as my eyes surveyed just how much the houses hadn’t changed. It was so strange. The entire neighborhood had altered, upgraded, except for these two houses. It was as though they were stuck in a time warp.
Stuck waiting for us.
“C’mon,” he uttered softly, and when he stepped out of the car, I leisurely undid my seatbelt and followed.
I swallowed hard as memory after memory assaulted me like bullets. Shot after shot, they penetrated my heart, my soul. And even after this short while, I found I didn’t want to be here anymore. It hurt too much.
“Why are we here?” I asked softly.
“Because,” he said, turning to face our memories. “These houses were cruel to us.”
Yes, they were, and thinking about it made my heart ache.
“These buildings were unkind,” he went on. “And I’m still not okay with what these houses did to a couple of innocent kids.”
Well, shit. My nose began to tingle. “Oh, honey.”
Tell me what to do, my love. Tell me how to make it better. Name it and it will be yours.
My beautiful man.
My survivor.
My knight in scuffed armor.
“These houses set in motion a chain of events that led to us finding each other over and over again, and I’m sorry for how we started out, but, fuck me, I’m grateful to these houses that you’re here with me. Right here. Right now. So...” He licked his lips, turning to face me, and when he cupped my cheeks and placed a gentle kiss to my forehead, I closed my eyes and listened to what he had to say. “What we’re gonna do is knock down these nasty houses. We’re going to watch them go down. Watch every brick and every fuckin’ splinter of these shitholes be knocked to the goddamn ground. See every cruel word and slamming door be blown away to nothing. And where our pasts lay in ruins, we’re going to build a wish.”
Oh, fuck.
My shoulders shook. I was already crying.
The gravity of our situation hit me hard, like a hammer to the heart.
We made it.
We made it.
We were here, together, working on our future. And with every ounce of my being, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d like to live than the bones of where it all began.
Truth was, it didn’t matter where we lived. A house was only a body. And we were the heart. For as long as we were together, nothing could take that away from us.
As he kissed my lips, I cried faintly then sniffled. “Yes.”
Twitch pulled back to look into my eyes. “Okay?
“Okay.” I laughed through my tears.
Moving to stand behind me, he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my head. I lifted a hand to his forearm and squeezed. That was when he uttered, “I’ve got plans for this place.”
Oh, Lord. I bet he did.
And just because I could, I threw a spanner in the works.
“I’m pregnant.”
Twitch stilled at my back and I smiled slowly, widely. And when he regained movement in his limbs, his arms tightened around me hard enough to make it hard to breathe. But I didn’t mind.
When he put his mouth to the shell of my ear, and whispered, “Love you,” my world was complete.
And in the midafternoon of a beautiful spring day, we stood at the bones of a memory and made plans for our future.
***
Twitch My head was a mess. I didn’t know what to do, how to feel. But in all the anarchy of my generally chaotic mind, one thought played on repeat.
What a wild credence that all I had been chasing had finally stopped running.
Epilogue
Lexi
I threw the door open and squealed happily when I saw them. The little redhead lunged at me, and when her body collided with mine, my breath left me with a whoosh. Struggling to breathe, I laughed through the discomfort as my unlikely best friend and I met for the first time.
“Lily,” the broody giant still waiting at the door with his offspring grumbled, “you’re choking the life out of her.”
But Lily just hugged me tighter. “I don’t care. I’ve got five months of hugs bursting out of me right now, and she’s going to get them or so help me.”
It all started a month after we arrived in the states. Twitch made a phone call to an old friend. That old friend was a man named Nox. During the phone call, Twitch explained to Nox that I was having a bit of a hard time dealing with the unfamiliarity of our living situation. At the end of the call, Twitch surprisingly handed me the phone, and the woman on the other line started talking.
I wasn’t expecting the hurricane that was Lily. And what a godsend she was.
One phone call was all it took and, just like that, we connected
Not a day went by that Lily and I didn’t speak. Whether via phone call or text, we were as familiar as two people living in different states could be. So when Lily called to say they were coming down to visit her sister, I was over the freaking moon.
To meet your unlikely soul mate was a special thing.
And now that she was here, I felt like I was already mourning the loss of her, for in a week, she’d be gone.
I held on tighter.
When she finally pulled back, I looked into her smiling eyes and stupidly said, “Hey.”
Lily tipped back her head and roared with laughter. I couldn’t help but join her. When the laughter started to hurt, I held onto my distended belly and groaned through my mirth. “Ow.”
“Aw.” Lily put her hands on my baby bump and gently rubbed it. “How is my little guy?”
I took in a deep breath and let out a slow exhale. “How would you feel having someone lug you around in your comfy water bed, never ending room service, sleeping all the time?”
“Pretty damn good.” Lily’s brows arched.
My smile widened as I peered down at my belly. “He’s great.”
From the door, Nox uttered an amused, “So, are we allowed in or what?”
My cheeks blazed. I rushed over and swept them in. “Oh my God, yes! Come in. Come in!”
As he passed me, Nox planted a kiss on my cheek. “How you doing, Lex?”
“Great, now that you guys are here,” I told him before looking at the handsome boy by his side. He had dark hair and blue eyes. “Oh, Lord. Is that Rocco?” I knew it was and turned to Lily. “He’s so tall. What are you feeding him?”
Rocco, who was ten going on eleven, looked embarrassed as his mother moved to stand behind him and explained, “It’s just those good Taylor genes, babe.”
The little princess holding Nox’s hand was something else in her tutu. It was a shock to see her wearing the tiniest pair of black combat boots I’d ever seen. She had Nox’s dark hair, but Lily’s green eyes. I smiled down at her. “Hello, sweetie. What’s your name?”
Of course I knew her name. I got pictures of these kids on the daily, but I felt it was important to include the children, let them know they had a voice in this house.
“I’m Angie. I’m four.” She held up four fingers and I loved her right then. She looked me dead in the eye and did not hesitate, when she stated, “You’re pretty.”