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The song ends and quickly transitions to another, but we don’t stop moving.
“Effie?” I say after long, silent minutes.
“Yeah,” she whispers.
“You’re going to get through this. I know life will never be the same again, but you’ll find a new normal and things will get easier.”
Pulling her head away from my chest, she looks up at me with a sad smile.
“I know,” she breathes, although she doesn’t sound very confident. “Thank you for today. After what I did, I know I don’t deserve?—”
Releasing her, I press two fingers to her lips, stopping her from saying anything more.
I’ve already told her that I understand, and any hurt I felt after discovering her lie has now been overshadowed by something far more serious.
“Forget about it. Right now, we focus on Grams. Then we’ll deal with the fallout of that.”
“But…” She begins to argue, lifting her hand with her ring back in place.
“One day at a time,” I say, bringing her hand to my lips and kissing where her ring sits.
The move comes so naturally that I don’t even realize I’m doing it until my eyes meet hers.
I swear I stop breathing.
“Kieran,” she whispers before a loud bang echoes around us, forcing her to jump back. “What was that?” she asks in a rush, looking around as if someone is about to jump out with a gun and arrest us for breaking into the park.
I look up into the distance and wince when I see dark clouds engulfing the stars we were staring at not so long ago.
Thunder rumbles again, only louder this time.
“I think it’s time to go home,” I say, turning the music off and collecting the bag.
“Yeah,” Effie muses, following me as I descend the steps of the bandstand.
The wind blows cooler, and the rumbles get closer and faster.
The first crack of lightning illuminates the park just before we get to the gates.
“We’re going to get soaked,” Effie points out as the light from the almost full moon is engulfed by the storm clouds.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I point out, thinking of more than a few occasions when we’ve been caught out before, both here while visiting Grams and at school when we snuck out after curfew.
Effie was such a good student. I hate to admit it, but I think I was a bad influence on her.
The first raindrops hit the ground as we approach the fence.
“I can’t believe I’ve got to do this again,” Effie complains as she glares up at the top.
I guess it does look a hell of a lot more scary when you’re so small.
“Come on, we’ve got this,” I say, holding my arms out to help her up.
She huffs, but there’s a smile playing on her lips.
She loves it really, being wild and doing things that no one would expect from her.
With my hands around her waist, I lift her from the ground and sit her on my shoulder.