The next song, Rewrite The Stars by Zac Efron and Zendaya, makes my heartbeat speed up, and anticipation begins to hum between our bodies.
It feels like Fallon’s trying to tell me how she feels through the music.
Moving my hand from her hip and up her back, I pull her closer to me until our chests touch.
There’s always been a special friendship between us, but right now, it’s more – it’s filled with the possibility of so much more.
As the song grows with intensity, my lips part, and I watch as emotions play over Fallon’s beautiful face.
My heart slams hard against my ribs as Fallon’s lips move, and she whispers the final lyrics of the song, ‘You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide. But I can’t have you. We’re bound to break, and my hands are tied.’Chapter 12FALLONI’m sitting out back on the veranda, looking at the storm clouds drifting closer.
I hear the door open, and glancing over my shoulder, I watch as Dad comes to take a seat next to me.
We sit in silence for a while, then Dad says, “Before I met your mother, my world felt black and white.”
I turn my eyes to him, and when he takes hold of my hand, I struggle to smile.
“I don’t think I would’ve made it through my last year at Trinity without her.”
Shock ripples through me from hearing Dad’s confession. He’s always been the strongest man I know, and to hear that he went through a rough time, makes him look more human in my eyes.
“I wasn’t in a good place with your Uncle Julian and grandfather. I only had your Uncle Mason and Uncle Lake to lean on.”
I turn my body toward Dad and lean my head against the high back chair. Wrapping both my hands around his, I wait for him to continue.
“But then your Mom burst into my life like a kaleidoscope of color. She changed everything. My relationship with Julian and my father. She… made me stronger.”
“And that’s why you call her your rainbow,” I murmur.
“Yes.” Dad nods, then turns his gaze to mine. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that things will get better. They always do.”
I suck in a deep breath and lower my eyes to our joined hands. “It doesn’t feel like it will get better,” I admit. “Things between Kao and me will never be what they were before the accident happened. And the scars…”
I’ll never feel like a woman again.
Dad gets up from the chair and comes to crouch in front of me. There’s an earnest expression darkening his eyes. “In four weeks, you’ll go for the surgery, and Dr. Menard will remove all the scarring. I know it’s hard right now, but hold out for one month.”
It’s taking all my strength just to make it to tomorrow. A month feels like an eternity.
Dad must see the hopelessness on my face because he rises to his feet and pulls me up.
When he frames my face with both hands, the lump in my throat grows impossibly big. The stitches were removed two days ago, but it did nothing to improve the horrible swollen scars.
Dad leans closer, his eyes burning with certainty, and his mouth set in a determined line. “You are so beautiful, Fallon.” Then he leans down, and he presses his lips to my right cheek.
I fist my hands at my sides and squeeze my eyes shut as I say, “You’re my Dad. You’ll always think I’m beautiful.”
“You are,” I hear Uncle Mason.
Dad moves to the side, and as Uncle Mason and Uncle Lake join us outside, it’s so hard not to breakdown and cry.
Uncle Mason’s sharp gaze drifts over my face, and then he states with so much certainty I can feel it in my bones, “You are fucking breathtaking. No amount of scarring will ever change that.”
When I shake my head, Uncle Mason asks, “Does the scar on my arm make me look any different?”
I shake my head again. “You’re a man, Uncle Mace. It makes you look rugged.”
“In four weeks, you’ll look good as new,” Uncle Lake adds his opinion.
I know. But it doesn’t make me feel any better.
“What’s really the problem?” Uncle Lake asks. He’s always been so damn perceptive, just like Jase.
Kao.
With the business ties between our families, I don’t want to say something that will cause friction.
Instead of admitting the truth, I say, “I know a month from now everything will be different. It’s just hard right now.”
My uncles and Dad give me a hug, and then Uncle Lake says, “Come on, I brought food.”
His words make the corner of my mouth curve up as I follow them back inside the house.I’ve resumed my visits to my grandfather, and sitting on the couch next to him, I wait for him to start the movie we’ll be watching.