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He blinked a couple of times, perhaps not expecting her reply to be so certain, so direct.
“I believe you, Ren. And I’m going to stand by you. I’m going to give you the space you need, the support you need. There’s only one thing I ask of you.”
He swallowed hard, emotions showing in his dark eyes that she’d longed to see. “What do you need from me?”
“I need to know that you’re not going to leave me again, not like that. No ghosting, no running. Can you do that for me?”
“I promise.”
“That’s a big promise, Ren.”
“I shouldn’t have done that to you to begin with. You deserved better than that. Better than me.”
She stepped forward and took his hand in hers, her heart pounding. “I understand why.”
“I was hurt when you didn’t look for me.”
“I did look, so long ago.” She laced their fingers together and glanced up at him, holding his gaze. “I didn’t know where to look. You weren’t online. I tried the last neighborhood you’d been in, but no one seemed to recognize you.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Boys down there are tight. When they think you’re in trouble, they keep their mouths shut good.”
“Were you there?”
He shook his head. “I barely skimmed the surface of where I’d gone in my time in the system. I went looking for family, any family I could find, only to find I didn’t have any.”
“You have me and Justin. And Judith, I suppose I should include her.”
He chuckled softly. “I know that now. But I’m not a scared kid who doesn’t know his place in the world anymore. I have my job, I have the bar. I...do I have you?”
“Yes,” she breathed as he took a step closer, leaning down and resting his forehead on hers. She closed her eyes, relishing the contact, before she opened them again to his gaze.
“I have a fight ahead of me. The biggest fight of my life. This one is for my daughter. Are you sure you’re in this with me?”
When she hesitated for the slightest moment, he pulled back.
“It hurts,” she finally said, placing her hand over her heart. “It hurts because she should be mine. Ours. But yes, I stand with you on this.”
She watched as one lone tear dripped down his face. “She should have been, I know. I know.”
“But she’s not, and that’s something that I’m coming to terms with. I accept her fully because she’s a part of you, please understand that.”
“And when I get her...not if, when...what then?”
She tried to warm him with her smile. “Then I get to meet your daughter.”
He nodded once and turned from her, facing the overlook of the city they’d called home during their high school years. “I never thought I’d come back here, you know? I never thought you’d speak to me again, let alone...”
“Let alone what?” She moved to stand beside him and chanced a glance up at his features, unsurprised to see his steely gaze.
“I know I’m asking a lot of you...time, space, acceptance. I don’t have anything to give right now.”
“Are you kidding?” She nudged him. “I get time, I get to be in your space. I get to watch movies, ride on the back of your bike, watch your bar transform into something you’d dreamed of ever since we were kids.” She touched his arm and he looked down at her. “I’ve got my best friend back. Everything else, anything else, is a bonus.”
“She’s not a bonus, Trina. She’s my daughter.”
She understood what he was saying. Lorenzo wanted to know if she could love Miranda, not look at her and see her mother.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to.
