Page 86 of Easy Reunion

As I turn back, his whispered “Thank you” finishes the job of shattering my heart into a million pieces.

I wish Ry were around to hold me together, but I know later he’ll understand.

He always seems to.

* * *

Later that night,his body tenses next to mine when I explain what happened. “What did you do?” Ry’s arms are like steel bands around me. His voice is harsh next to my ear.

I twist around to face him. His grip is so tight it almost chafes my skin even to turn in his arms. “I made him promise to come to me if he needed medical help.”

If anything, Ry’s arms get tighter. “You don’t think bruises up and down the side of his face necessitated medical help?”

I manage to drag my arm from between us. Uncertainly, I touch his face. Caressing his clenched jaw, I whisper, “Ry, this isn’t a page from a story. I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admit. “He was already so anxious and so angry. What if I said the wrong thing? I don’t have any trust built with him other than those of my words. I told Morgan the minute I found her,” I continue when it looks like he’s about to protest. “She went in search of him, but he was already gone. Her only hope is he comes back in the next few days so she can begin to find out what happened.”

He goes to open his mouth but then snaps it shut. Letting out a shuddering breath, he loosens his arms before burying his head in the crook of my neck. “You’re right. You handled it perfectly. I’m…infuriated that in this day and age, a child can be harmed.”

Nuzzling my face against him, I whisper, “Not everyone has a person like you to save them, Ry, but maybe they learn the person strong enough to save them is looking at them in the mirror.”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I’m rolled over to my back. Something I can’t name crosses Ry’s face, but it causes my heart to lurch in my chest. It’s gone in between one heartbeat and the next, which is all the time it takes for him to press his lips gently to mine. Giving myself up to the pure pleasure of his kiss, I put his anger about Max down to a reminder about the disgusting things that marked us from Forsyth.

Things we’d both rather forget ever happened.