Chapter 24
Easton
I was just at the door to the guest room, which was a bit of a stretch. Maggie was just being fancy when she said that. It was really Sage’s old bedroom that she used to keep her plants. That was when I heard the quiet sobs coming from behind the door, and I realized what an idiot I had been.
Of course, Lila had been holding back downstairs and keeping it together until she was alone. I knocked softly on the door. “Can I come in?”
There was a sniffle and some rustling before she appeared at the door, wiping her red-rimmed eyes. She looked so sad, I couldn’t stand it. “Aww, sugar.”
Her face tipped up to mine, those eyes filled with tears.
“I just can’t believe that someone set fire to Grams’ house.
A house shouldn’t matter to me so much.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if she might hold herself together.
“There were pictures in there of me growing up. Things she’d saved. It’s stupid.”
“Come here.” I stepped inside and pulled her into my arms. “It isn’t stupid to be sad about things that you could have lost. It’s going to be okay.” Drawing her against me, I held her as sobs wracked her body. “Just let it all out.”
“Will you lie down with me for a minute?” she asked, her voice muffled against my chest.
“If you thought I would be lying anywhere else tonight, you’re out of your mind.”
The bed was too small, but I was such a bastard that I liked it because it meant she was pressed tight against me, just like we’d been earlier.
I pulled her close and covered us with the blanket, enjoying the feeling of her beside me, her tears on my shirt.
“Tomorrow we’ll take care of the house, okay?
I’ll rebuild the whole thing if you want me to.
I know that doesn’t fix it or make it any better.
” I was rambling. “Of course, it doesn’t make anything better, I know that. It wouldn’t be the same, but maybe …”
A small snore escaped her as she snuggled against my chest. Looking down, I saw that she was literally passed out.
She’d been asleep at home when the fire started, but the stress and the crying probably took her over the edge.
Hauling her incrementally closer, I relaxed my head back onto the pillow.
She had angels watching over her, keeping her safe tonight from that fire, that was for sure.
There had been a time when I had lost all my faith in a higher power. A time when I’d been lost and alone in an apartment with my biological mother, who seemed more concerned with chasing her high than remembering that her kid needed her.
I’d prayed then, for someone to save me, but nobody had answered.
Then I was lost to the system. For a while, I couldn’t figure out which was worse.
If you’d asked me then whether there was a higher power, I would have laughed or spat in your face.
It had taken me years at the Holt’s to believe that maybe someone was looking out for me after all, to give me a second chance.
I still harbored doubts that I deserved it, but as I held Lila in my arms, I started to believe that maybe, for the first time, someone had answered my prayers after all. It could be that it just took a while.
I fell asleep trying to avoid the spider plant that Sage had dangling in the window.