“I’m coming.” She demands.
“The fuck she is.”Comes in unison through my ear.
“Yeah, no shit.” I bite out again.
I hate this fucking thing, sometimes.
“Tell them…”
“Stop,” I lower my voice, almost demanding as I look at her.
“I’m not staying back.”
“I’d never ask you to stay back.” I pause.
“What the fuck, Eli?” Zeke starts.
“If you let her, I’m gonna beat the fu —”
Pulling the comms out of my ear, keeping out anything more than one voice.
“I’d never ask you to stay back; I know you can handle your own. But someone needs to stay back to watch them. To protect them. And I dunno about you, but Dan doesn’t really strike me as someone who’s competent with a gun.”
“Oh,” she whispers, sighing. Glancing over her shoulder and looking back at the bed. “But what if…”
“Nothing’s happening to me.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Reaching up, tapping the tattoo on my chest, and looking back at her.
Smirking, she nods again. She understands I’m not really saying that I’m positive nothing will happen, but that for this we’ve got to have faith it won’t.
That without that faith, there’s no way I’m going out there.
“Sketch…” I whisper, causing her to look back at me. “I love you.” Pulling her close, pressing my lips to hers.
Her hand grips my shirt, holding onto me as if she never wants to let me go, as if I’m the thing that’ll save her from the world.
And give me the chance, I’ll do just that.
Pulling away, pressing my lips to hers again, her eyes searing into my soul as I pull back.
“I love you, too.”
I can’t stop the smile from my face, leaning back and kissing her one more time. Just in case it’s only ever one more time.
“Even if something goes bad,” I whisper as I pull back, searching her face for my everything. “You’ve made everything…” I’m not even sure how to end it.
She’s made everything in the last few years.
She’s made everything better.
She’s made everything seem possible.
She’s made me want everything I never thought I would.
Shaking her head, she sighs, “Just come back to me.”
