My Future Husband

Chapter 84

Ummmm... ow?

“Hope! What the fuck?!” Kage looks just as shell-shocked as Craig, the both of them staring at her in disbelief, but I don’t.

She may look like a raging psychopath to the rest of the world, but I’ve always been able to see straight through all her defences.

Hope was never good at understanding how to cope with fear, she’s had more than enough of it for one life time, now it just overwhelms her.

“Hope... It’s okay.” I don’t even rub where it hurts, instead reaching out and taking the hand she just used to hit me in mine. “I’m okay, I’m going to be fine.”

“No you’re not!” She’s trying to sound angry, but the tears fill her eyes, looking over all the cuts and bruises on my body before they finally tumble down her cheeks. “You could’ve died!”

“I know.”

“Y-You could have died... and then... and we’d... and I never got to say...”

I would’ve died thinking she still hated me. I would’ve died and we’d never have got to fix this.

“Come here, you fucking lunatic.” Kage and Craig still have no idea what’s happening, but this time it’s me that lifts up the blanket, opening my arms and waiting for her to make her choice.

Which she does, instantly.

She falls straight into my arms.

“I t-thought you were going to d-die.” She crumbles, whatever was left of the shield she had separating her from me vanishing, being drowned out by her tears as she grips my nightgown and cries into my chest. “I thought you were... You... You c-can’t die...”

“I know.” She can’t hear me, she can’t read my lips, too busy weeping, so I wrap my arms and legs around her tightly.

My precious little human Barbie doll, what am I going to do with you?

She was afraid; afraid I was going to die, afraid that we missed our chance, afraid to face the fact that she never forgave me and we would’ve parted this world as anything but the best friends we are always supposed to be.

I run my fingers through her hair, over her arms and between her own. She’s not wearing the black crop top and jeans she's been sporting since she got back, instead in a pastel shirt I’m pretty sure I picked out with her years ago.

She’s coming back. My Hope is coming back.

I wasn’t even sure if she was still in Westbrooke. She’s supposed to be in London already. I didn’t know if it would be okay to ask Craig when I saw him, and the fact he didn't bring her up made me feel like maybe after she got the termination she just disappeared back over the pond.

“I’ll take Craig with me to go get some food, okay? I think you two need a minute.” Kage kisses me gently, before sweeping Hope’s hair off her sobbing face and kissing her cheek too.

Craig, are you a fucking werewolf? Stop growling!

I thought I was gripping her tight, but I realise she’s holding me tighter. Her tiny frame shakes as she moves her hand under my body and presses it against my back, trying to make sure I never leave.

“Hope?” She can’t look at me, she just holds me.

“Y-You still feel like home.” Because I am your home. I will always be your home.

I smile, I cry, I let those beautiful words sink into my soul. We got close that day in the cafe, I could feel some of the distance between us close, but I never dared to let myself believe I’d ever see her like this again.