Page 58 of The Road Back to Us

I blew out a heavy breath as I pulled her into my arms, holding her as she cried so hard her body shook with each sob. We stood there for a few minutes as I comforted her, feeling her relax in my arms as her crying came to a stop. She pulled away and wiped her tears from her cheeks, her face red and splotchy.

“My sweet girl,” I said softly, cupping her face in my hands. “None of this is your fault.”

“Yes, it is,” she mumbled, trying to pull away from me. “I was the reason you left the house.”

“True, but you didn’t know what would happen that day, Kara. None of us did. It’s not fair for you to hold onto this guilt because it’s not yours to carry. I don’t care what happens. If you need me, I will always be there. Nothing is ever going to stop me from trying to get to you. What happened that day was an accident. It was a combination of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think that fate put me there for a reason.”

She studied me cautiously as she waited for me to explain.

“I think that if that old man hadn’t hit my car, he would have hit something else and might not have survived. Maybe I was meant to be there to protect him.”

“But you almost died. How can you be so calm about that?”

I shrugged, not sure that I had an answer for that.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just looked a little deeper these past few days. Did it suck getting into a car accident? You bet. Was it scary not knowing if the babies would be okay? Definitely. But in the end, we all survived that accident, Kara. We’re all okay.”

She pressed her lips together to keep from crying again as I pulled her in for another hug.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” Kara said against my chest as she laid her head over my heart. “I was so terrified that it was all happening again.”

“I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t imagine the pain it caused you and Ben. But everything is okay. We’re all going to get through this and live a long, beautiful life.”

Her head bobbed up and down in agreement as I held onto her, my tears falling just as quickly as hers.

Fifty-Three

Cole

I looked at the cards in my hand and narrowed my eyes, loving the way Chloe’s little face was lit up as she watched me. We had somehow managed to spread out in the bedroom to play a game of Go Fish with Lyric for family game night. It was Chloe’s turn to pick the game, so we had been playing Go Fish for over an hour.

“Do you have any kings?” I asked, trying to keep the smile from my face. “I want my fish to be a little so-fish-ticated.”

Chloe frowned, not getting my joke, but it earned an eyeroll from Kara and Ben while Lyric laughed at it.

“At least someone thinks I’m funny,” I muttered as I drew a card from the pile.

“Yeah, the dad jokes are super funny,” Ben said dryly, but I noticed the way the corners of his lips curled up.

“What qualifies a joke to be a dad joke?” I asked, holding my cards to my chest so Kara and Chloe couldn’t see them. I couldn’t prove it, but I was pretty sure they’d been cheating the last half hour or so.

Ben let his head fall back and groaned while Lyric laughed harder.

“I don’t know. I guess when they’re as lame as the ones you’ve been telling?” he answered.

I shook my head and pretended to be disappointed.

“No, Ben. That’s not how it works. A joke becomes a dad joke when it becomes a parent. Duh.”

Lyric laughed harder, pure happiness highlighting her face as Kara laughed with her.

“Wow,” Ben said, pressing his lips together as he struggled more with not smiling. “Just when I thought they couldn’t get any worse.”

I shrugged and glanced at Chloe while she tried to figure out what she wanted to ask for now that it was her turn. It always took her forever and more often than not, she would ask for stuff she didn’t even need. Kara was helping her, which sped up the game a little.