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After all of it.

Milo doesn’t hesitate.

“I love you, Max. I always have. I always will.” His hand comes up to cradle my cheek. “Nothing and no one could ever change that.”

Emotion wells up inside of me for an entirely different reason now.

Milo doesn’t have it in him to lie. He never did.

“I love you too,” I whisper. “I never stopped.”

“I know.”

There’s no arrogance in his words. No smug little smile or teasing glint in his eyes.

If anything, he sounds sad.

And I think I know why.

Because loving each other was never the problem.

Everything else was.

Chapter 30

Fairhope, 23rd July 2015

After a solid week of rain, the sun finally decided to show its face again. Not a cloud in sight. Blue skies. Birds chirping. The whole nine yards. You’d almost think summer had remembered it was supposed to be summer.

Drip.

A fat drop of water lands on my duvet.

I stare at the wet spot, then slowly lift my gaze to the ceiling.

Drip.

Another one falls.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Apparently, seven straight days of rain were enough to expose yet another thing wrong with this house. A damp patch spreads across the ceiling directly above my bed, and judging by the steady dripping, ignoring the problem isn’t exactly an option.

Great. Just what I needed. If I don’t want to spend the winter sleeping under an umbrella, I guess it’s up to me to fix the roof. Not like Dad’s going to do it.

Sure, he’s been more on his game lately, but home repairs have never really been his thing. At least he’s back to trusting me enough to go on hauls that take him away from Fairhope. Granted, he never spends more than a night away, but it’s progress compared to the way he’d been constantly looking over my shoulder.

Since he’s out on one of those hauls right now, there’s no one around to tell me climbing onto the roof by myself is a terrible idea. Not that I’d listen anyway.

I drag the ladder out from the garage and prop it against the side of the house before making my way up. It takes all of thirty seconds on the roof to spot the problem.

A few shingles are loose. Another looks like it’s missing altogether.

How hard can it be?

I’m sure YouTube has a video for this.

Turns out, YouTube has about a thousand.