45. Shep
45
SHEP
Thea whirled around at my words, her hair flying in all directions. The look on her face cut me to the quick. Eyes red. Tear tracks staining her cheeks. Skin pale. And more than that was panic. Terror.
She shook her head, faster and faster, hands gripping a T-shirt. “I have to go.”
Pain, hot and brutal like a scalding poker, pierced my chest. “No.”
Thea’s gaze jumped around the room, looking for a way out. Like she was a wide receiver looking for a hole to run through. “I have to, Shep. He’s going to ruin everything.” The tears came faster then. “He’ll ruin Sutton’s business. Yours. He’ll destroy every single person who stands with me just because he can. He’ll put the pictures up again. He’ll make sure the whole town sees them.”
Fuck.
If I’d thought I wanted to kill Brendan before, it was nothing compared to what I felt now. When Sutton called, panicked that Thea was about to do something reckless, I’d dropped everything and bolted for home. I’d thought it hurt to find Thea packing, but that had nothing on seeing her brokenness now.
I crossed the room in three long strides.
“Don’t.” Thea’s voice cracked like a whip. “It’ll be so much harder if you touch me. I won’t be able to do it, what I need to, what’s right. I have to do what’s right, Shepard.”
“Thea.” My voice cracked on her name.
“If you wrap your arms around me and make me feel safe, leaving will be that much harder, and it’s already going to rip my heart out.”
“If you leave, I’m going with you.” The words were out before I could stop them. But the moment they were, I knew they were true.
“You can’t,” she whispered. “This is your home.”
“ You’re my home.” It was the simple truth. Thea had become the place I felt most myself, the place I felt seen and understood, where I could simply be without needing to prove myself.
A fresh wave of tears spilled down Thea’s cheeks. “I’m a mess. You don’t want your home to be with me.”
“Thea.” Her name was more rasp than word. “Then we’ll fix it. Together. Because whatever we build, it’s always better when both our hands are in it.”
She scrubbed at her face, brushing the tears away.
“I love you, Thorn. And there’s nothing anyone can ever do to change that. There are no lies that could be told to taint it. I don’t care what that bastard throws at us. I love you.”
Thea’s chest rose and fell in ragged pants as she struggled for composure.
“I’ll never see you as anything but perfect. Not because you don’t make mistakes but because of this .” I stepped into her space and placed my palm over the left side of her chest.
“Your heart is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced. Beautiful because it’s been broken. Those cracks let it become something else entirely. Stronger. Wiser. The fiercest defender of anyone who needs it. And the gentlest confidante for anyone who needs understanding. You see it all. And you don’t look away. You come alongside without judgment, and you simply love . You can’t ask me to walk away from that after I’ve experienced it. It would be like living in the sun, only to exist entirely in darkness.”
“Shepard.” Her voice cracked on my name.
“So, if you need to go, then I go, too. Wherever you need to be, that’s where I am.”
She didn’t move or speak for a long moment. We just stood there, my hand against her heart, feeling each rapid beat. Thea stared into my eyes, those pale green orbs searching. Then she moved.
So fast I didn’t have a chance to brace. She threw herself at me, her legs hooked around my waist, her arms linked around my neck as she shoved her face into it. And she let the tears flow. The sobs shook her body, and I took them all. Every ounce of pain and fear that she had to release.
I knew this was the last wall. The final barrier Thea had constructed to keep people out. She was letting me see it all. And there was no greater honor. So, I simply held on.
Slowly, the tears subsided, and the trembling lessened. When Thea pulled back, her eyes were swollen, but that terror was no longer there.
“I love you, too,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
I brushed the hair away from her face. “I know.”
Her mouth fell open in adorable shock. “You know?”
“I know.”
Thea scowled at me, her legs still locked around my waist. “That’s cocky.”
My thumb stroked across her cheek, clearing the remnants of her tears. “Not cocky. You just show me every day.”
Her expression softened at that. “You show me, too. I’ve never really known what it’s like to feel completely safe. Not until I met you. It’s more than the physical safety. It’s feeling safe to be who I truly am. No pretenses. No fear of judgment.”
I pressed my forehead to hers, soaking in that floral scent with hints of coconut. “You give me the exact same feeling.”
“I’m glad. ”
We stood there for a long time, and then I finally asked the question I needed to. “Are we staying or going?”
Because from now on, it would always be a we . Thea and I were a team. Stronger together for so many reasons.
Thea pulled back, studying my face. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to lose the things I’ve fought so hard to have.”
Cool relief washed through me. Both at not having to leave behind all I loved, but also that Thea was ready to fight. My thumb ghosted over her lower lip. “That’s my girl.”