Of course she’s going to live with me. Who else would she live with?
“Let’s just go to the farm. We’ll talk about this there,” my son says with his hands on his hips.
He’s fed up with me today. First with the incident at the shed and now this.
“Okay,” I agree reluctantly, knowing this is going to give him the advantage. Once she sees the farm, she’ll never want to leave.
Jackson steps around me to press his hand against Rachel’s stone. “Love you, Mom.” He picks up the cat then walks away, not bothering to look back to see if we follow.
Jenny and I exchange a glance and then quietly fall in line behind him.
When we get to the bikes, again my son and I have the same idea. “You can ride with me,” we both say at the same time.
She laughs lightly and rubs her temple. “Um, if it’s not far, I’ll just walk. Which way?” She points a finger to the west and then the east.
“I’ll walk with you,” I say.
My son sighs. “Maybe that would be for the best. Grandma’s over at the house. I should probably give her heads up. I don’t want to give the old woman a heart attack by having her daughter roll in on the back of a Harley.”
Jenny and I both chuckle.
“Grandma used to let me ride with Raffe on his motorbike all the time. It was my dad who wasn’t too keen on it.”
My son smiles shyly. “Really?”
Jenny nods. “But I do want the next time I ride to be special,” she says, shocking the shit out of me with her honesty. “And I don’t mind walking. Willow said there is a pretty little path along the river to your home.”
Jackson sighs in relief. “There is. Dad knows the way.” He hands Garfield to me and then kicks his leg over his bike. “I’ll see you back at Dragonfly Farms,” he says to his mom, tossing her an ornery wink.
We watch as he drives away. “Will your bike be okay here?” she asks while her cat perches himself on my shoulder.
“It’s Brody’s, but yeah. Jackson will have him come get it.”
She nods shyly. “Good. Then lead the way.”
I hold my hand out to her. She stares at it for a long moment before raising her eyes, her hand following. Our gaze connects at the same time as our palms. I can’t explain it, but suddenly the universe feels aligned again.
We both look at our hands in disbelief and then at each other. Her bottom lip begins to tremble. “I’ve missed you,” she whispers.
I pull Jenny close, put my arm around her shoulders, and begin walking. “I’ve missed you too,” I tell her.
When we come to the river, she lets out a little sob, so I stop. I press a kiss on her forehead. “We can come out here every day, if you’d like.”
Tears stream down her face, and she grips my fingers tightly. “I’m so scared,” she admits. “I can’t see the road again, and I don’t like it.”
I wrap my arms around her, placing one hand on her back and the other against her head. “You are safe. You don’t have to travel this part of the road alone. Why don’t you let me take the wheel for a while? I won’t push you to do anything.”
When she doesn’t answer and begins to cry harder, I whisper over her, “You’re safe, Jenny. You’re safe.” I’ll say it until she believes it.
After a few minutes, she leans away from me. “I’m ready.”
Our feet slow when the buildings begin to peek out from between the trees. “I can’t stay with you, Raffe,” she says abruptly.
“What? Why?”
“It … it was Rachel’s home. I can’t do that to her,” she says as she begins to jog away.
My heart squeezes painfully as I watch her pull away from me.
