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The SUV they’d driven in was parked on the other side of the cabin. If he wanted to pretend he was alone out here, it would be easy.
But he wasn’t. He was surrounded by people who could get hurt in the crossfire. It wouldn’t even be crossfire since he didn’t own a gun.
It was all so fucked up, and no one would let him try to mitigate the damage.
Maybe it was time to simply walk away.
He would have to literally walk since he didn’t have a fucking car anymore.
Elisa moved in beside him, threading her arm through his and resting her head against his shoulder. “It’s a beautiful night out.”
“I didn’t notice. I was far too busy worrying about the guy who wants to kill me.” He could still remember the look of utter loathing in his eyes. Like Hale was beneath him and it was rankly offensive to be forced to even notice him. He’d had a lot of people look through him like he wasn’t there, but this was a completely different thing. This felt beyond personal, and he didn’t even understand what he’d done. That man could hurt him, could hurt the people he loved.
“Even in the midst of pain, you have to stop and find something beautiful about the world,” she said quietly. “I learned that during my cancer treatments. When you’re going through a hard time like that you have to find something worth fighting for. I think for most people it’s their spouses or their kids, their families. I didn’t have that. I had just gotten divorced and watched my mom die. It was far too easy for me to think about not fighting at all.”
Her quiet words brought him out of his sullen anger. They shocked him because she was so vibrant to him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I wasn’t sure life was worth the pain I had to take,” she explained. “I could have made the choice to have the surgery and forgo the rest of it. It was a huge risk that the cancer would come back, but that was an option I considered. I knew what Mom had gone through. I saw it happen to her, saw that it didn’t work for her. But my sister talked me into it. I was sick for so long. Every day was agony, and I looked in the mirror and I didn’t know who I was anymore. I looked back at my life and realized if that was all there was, why was I fighting at all?”
“Elisa,” he began but he wasn’t sure what to say. He could tell her how precious she was to him. He could explain how lonely he would be without her. But that wouldn’t help keep her alive.
“I did it because I couldn’t leave my sister alone in the world,” she revealed. “I fought for her. Not for me. I think if it happened again, it would be different.”
“The cancer isn’t going to come back.” He would will that truth into existence.
“It could. Or it could be an entirely different illness, but it would be different because this time I wouldn’t walk into that infusion room because my sister needed me to. I would walk in there because I’m worth it. I’m worth the fight. My life is worth the pain and suffering I have to endure to keep living it. It’s worth it because I get to stand on a porch in the middle of winter with two men I love and watch the stars.”
Tears pierced his eyes at the sweetness of her statement. He knew what she was trying to do, and he couldn’t let her. “I need you to be reasonable about this. Don’t make me push you away.”
He didn’t want to hurt her. It was everything he was trying to avoid. He wasn’t even sure he could force himself to say words that would cut through her.
“Let me make something clear, Hale. You can’t push me away,” Elisa countered. “You can walk away, but you can’t make me leave you. If you want to say some nasty stuff to rip my heart up, go ahead. I can take it because I won’t believe you. I’ll know exactly why you’re saying it, and I’ll still be by your side if he comes for you.”
“And I’ll have your back,” Van promised. He moved to Hale’s other side so he was surrounded by them. “Elisa is right. We’re worth fighting for. We can’t crumple and split up every time something dangerous happens. Not if we’re going to stay here in Bliss. Look, man, we are guaranteed nothing in life. Any one of us could die tomorrow. The truth is sometime in the future one of us will be the last one standing, but if it’s me, I’ll take the pain of losing you because I had the joy of loving you. There is no danger you can face that I wouldn’t walk into with you. I need you to understand something. You are worth fighting for, too. You, Hale Galloway, are worthy of love, and you have mine.”
