The Brightest Sunset (The Darkest Sunrise #2)

But Porter silently held me and allowed me the time to collect myself.

“I talked to him,” I confessed. Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to transport me back in time. “Little things, like, ‘Shh… It’s okay, baby. Mamma’s right here.’ I whispered them into the wind as if he could hear me. But, with a silent scream from yet another second passing me by, hope slipped further and further out of my reach. That night, I sat on the bench for hours, pretending the sun was still high in the sky, children running and laughing all around us, Lucas crying in his stroller.” I paused as my chin began to quiver and the traitorous tears once again hit my eyes. “But, most of all, I pretended I’d never let him out of my sight.”

“Sweetheart,” Porter soothed, gliding a hand up and down my back.

“I stayed there all night. My eyes aimed at the horizon. And, regardless of how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop the sun from rising that morning. It was the darkest sunrise of my entire life. For ten years, I lived and breathed that darkness every day until I found you.”

“Jesus, Charlotte.” He palmed each side of my face and kissed me. His lips were full of love and tasted of hope.

“It’s always darkest before dawn, Porter. We just have to wait a little while longer. The sun always rises, baby.”

“Dad?” Travis croaked, and we both exploded out of the chair.

“Yeah…I’m here, buddy. Charlotte too,” Porter said, smoothing our son’s dark hair down.

I flipped the nightlight by the sink on so we could see him.

He’d been asleep for hours. When they had returned him to his room from the OR, he had been awake but still groggy and out of it from the anesthesia. We didn’t even have a chance to talk to him before he fell back asleep.

“Is it over? Did I get a new heart?”

Porter took both of our hands in his. “No, buddy. There was something wrong with the donor heart. They didn’t even start the surgery.”

“Oh,” he groaned. “That kinda sucks.”

I laughed, a single tear escaping the corner of my eye.

Kinda sucks weren’t the words I’d wanted to use when I had seen his surgeon in that doorway.

It had been too soon.

I had known right then and there that there wasn’t going to be a transplant that day. Suddenly, I feared there wouldn’t ever be one. And, after the drug of hope had swirled so high inside me, the crash back down hit me with a devastating force.

We were right back to the agony of waiting and praying all over again.

It had taken me over thirty minutes of sobbing in Porter’s arms to realize that it wasn’t over.

There was only one choice.

And, through it all, we would be together.

As long as we held on to that, we couldn’t possibly lose.

“Yeah. It definitely sucks,” I said softly.

Porter gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “Hey, what do you say we FaceTime Nana and Hannah? They made me promise to call as soon as you woke up.”

“Okay,” he mumbled, shifting in the bed. “Since I didn’t have the surgery, does that mean I can eat? I’m starving.”

“Yeah.” I grinned. “I’ll make sure the nurse gives you the good red Jell-O.”

“Nah, make it green. Hannah loves that stuff.”

Smiling, I walked out of that room feeling lighter than I had felt in years.

And it wasn’t because everything was finally perfect.

Travis was still in desperate need of a heart.

Brady was still being an ass.

Porter was surely going to push the issue of us moving in together.

But, for me, another day brought another sunrise.

And, for the first time in nearly a decade, I was excited for life on the other side of that horizon.





* * *





One week later…



“Hey,” I said, stepping out in the walkway.

Brady froze, one hand on his phone, the other leisurely tucked into the pocket of his khaki slacks. “Hey,” he replied, suspiciously flashing his eyes around the area.

I’d been standing outside the hospital entrance for the last half hour, waiting for just that moment. Brady usually arrived at least twenty minutes early to see his son. I’d been trying to catch him alone for the last three days, but I’d missed him every time. Today, it was now or never.

“Can we talk for a minute?” I asked.

His body tightened as he leveled me with a glare. “I’m not sure we have anything to talk about. Save whatever you have to say for the judge.”

I stopped in front of him and tilted my head to the side. “See, that’s the thing. The judge and I don’t have any issues at the moment. Everything I have to say is for you.”

“Okay, let me rephrase. I’m not interested in anything you have to say. I’m just trying to see my son. So, if you’ll excuse me—”

I shifted my weight between my feet and crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m withdrawing my petition for partial custody.”

His eyebrows shot up, and his chin jerked to the side. “I’m sorry. Come again?”

Yeah. That was basically my family’s reaction when I’d told them earlier that morning. They’d all been certain I was losing my mind. Deep down, I knew I was doing the right thing.

“Travis was four when I first met him,” I announced. “I was on this new health kick and decided I was going to eat all organic and local produce.” I chuckled.

Brady glared at me impatiently.

“I’ll never forget. I was picking out tomatoes when I caught him staring at me. He had these big, brown eyes, but his face was completely blank.” I smiled and cut my gaze down to the ground. “Now, knowing Charlotte, it makes a lot more sense.”

“Can you get to the point?” he grumbled.

I took another step toward him. “The point is I had to build a relationship with him too. What Travis and I have was not a natural thing in the beginning. I had to work for it. Day in and day out, I put in the time to grow something with him. Yeah, he was younger then, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have to earn his trust. I started from scratch, Brady. Just like you. So I know it’s possible. But you’ve lost your fucking mind if you don’t think he feels the tension between us.”

His jaw ticked as he stared at me with an interesting mixture of frustration and rapt interest. “The tension between us wouldn’t exist if you weren’t always in the room…even when you’re not.”

“Yeah, Charlotte mentioned that he’s been throwing my name around with you a lot. And I’m going to talk to him about that. But, Brady, you have to recognize that’s his defense mechanism. He knows you and I don’t get along and he feels like he has to pick sides.”

“And that’s what pisses me off the most. I have to fucking compete with you for even the smallest morsel of his affection.” He pointed at the hospital entrance behind me. “That is my son.”

I threw my hands out to my sides and slapped them against my thighs as they fell. “Then don’t make it a competition.”

He scoffed. “Right. ’Cause it’s just that easy.”

“Yes,” I implored. “It is that easy.”

“Bullshit.”

“Charlotte’s moving in with me,” I announced.