“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“I thought if I didn’t let anyone close, nobody could leave.”
“So technically I’d never be abandoned.”
He laughed bitterly.
“All I did was make sure the passenger seat stayed empty.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
Marcus looked toward the dark houses outside.
“Tonight, I was in there with Amara getting hotter.”
“I didn’t know what to do.”
“And you knew.”
“You were there.”
“You said car.”
“You moved.”
“You helped.”
He looked at her.
“For the first time since Renee died, something went wrong with my kid and I wasn’t the only adult carrying it.”
Caroline reached backward between the seats.
Marcus took her hand.
“I was so busy being afraid of what I could lose if I loved you that I never thought about what I could have.”
“What?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Somebody in the passenger seat.”
Caroline began crying.
Marcus squeezed her fingers.
“You said you love me.”
“I remember.”
“I love you too.”
She stared at him.
“Marcus.”
“I love you.”
His voice cracked.
“I’ve been fighting it for weeks.”
“I threw you out because loving you scared me more than losing you in that moment.”
“I was wrong.”
Caroline laughed through her tears.
“You picked an excellent setting.”
“It’s memorable.”
“Blackout.”
“Overheated child.”
“Car idling in a driveway.”
“I work with what I’ve got.”
She laughed harder.
Amara stirred.
Both adults went quiet.
The power returned at 12:41.
Streetlights blinked on.
Houses glowed.
AC units all around the neighborhood roared simultaneously.
Marcus carried Amara back to bed.
Her temperature had normalized.
She fell asleep before he finished tucking the sheet around her.
Caroline stood in the doorway.
Marcus joined her.
Neither spoke until they reached the kitchen.
Then he pulled her into his arms.
Not a kiss.
Not yet.
Just an embrace.
Long.
Still.
The kind people use when their bodies have finally accepted something their minds resisted.
“I don’t want you going home.”
Caroline whispered into his chest.
“I live forty feet away.”
“I know.”
“Marcus.”
“Take the couch.”
She laughed.
“Again?”
“Again.”
He looked at her.
“I’ve watched you walk away twice.”
“I’m done with that tonight.”
Caroline slept on the couch.
In the morning, Amara stood over her wearing dinosaur pajamas.
“You stayed.”
Caroline opened one eye.
“I stayed.”
“For breakfast?”
Caroline looked toward the kitchen.
Marcus was cracking eggs.
He glanced back.
There was something different in his face.
Less guarded.
“Yeah.”
Caroline smiled.
“For breakfast.”
Two nights later, she brought the business folder back.
This time she placed it closed on the kitchen table.
Marcus sat across from her.
“No surprises.”
“No decisions made for me.”
“No.”
“Just questions?”
“Just questions.”