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Blake snagged my hand and interlaced our fingers. I didn’t stop him; I didn’t even think about yanking my hand away. It felt right to feel his hand encase mine. It felt familiar and warm and safe. Like my body had avoided touch for so long because it was waiting for something.
Someone.
It had been waiting for Blake.
The sane, rational part of me knew I was more messed up than any doctor or shrink had ever determined, but at that moment, with Blake’s fingers entwined with my own, I couldn’t find it in me to care.
His touch didn’t repulse me or scare me.
It soothed me.
And as he led me into the woods, my heart wasn’t racing out of fear…
It was fluttering with anticipation.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Penny
“Blake,slow down. Where are we going?” I asked, stumbling behind him as he led us deeper into the woods.
“Shh, just a little farther,” he whispered.
Nervous energy tingled in my stomach, setting my whole body alive. I had spent so many nights sneaking out of the Freeman group home with him under the cover of darkness, secretly escaping to the one place where we could be free. The only place we could truly be ourselves.
This felt the same and yet, somehow different.
Something had changed.
“Here, see.” Blake pulled me through two big trees standing so close together they reminded me of the secret passage at the end of the Freemans’ yard.
We stepped into a circular clearing. The moonlight shone down, giving everything an ethereal hue.
It was breathtaking.
“Look up,” Blake said, watching for my reaction. I tilted my face toward the sky and my breath caught.
A glittering canvas of stars hung above us, and I felt sure if I reached out, I could touch them.
“I knew you’d like it.”
Like it?
It was everything.
Blake tugged me down next to him and, with his hand still wrapped firmly around mine, leaned back on the grass. I followed his lead until we were lying side by side, our hands still entwined between us.
“I couldn’t let you leave without seeing this.” He smiled and everything inside me tightened. “Do you remember?”
Of course, I remembered.
Over the years, the stars had been my reminder that Blake was real, that he had been the one person I could count on at a time in my life when I thought I wouldn’t survive.
Blake loved the stars. Lucas had tried to teach him the constellations, but by the time he aged out, Blake could only pick out Cassiopeia.
That didn’t stop us from naming them. We would spend hours pointing out funny patterns and giving them silly names and stories.
He even named a constellation after me—Lucky Penny.
