Where Lightning Strikes (Bleeding Stars #3)(114)

I felt the grin pulling all over my face while my spirit flailed in every direction.

The breeze whipped through his hair.

Black.

Just like mine.

I stood.

Drawn.

Emotion gathered thick as Kenzie began to lead him across the street. Her husband hung back with his arms crossed over his chest. Stare wary and hard and full of warning.

Didn’t blame him a bit.

If I were him, I’d want to kick my ass too.

Didn’t matter anyway. Because this kid…this kid was all I could see. The way his mouth twisted up in welcome, eyes so dark they were almost black, sparking with mischief I knew all too well. It was like looking at all those pictures my mom kept plastered on her walls.

This boy was mine.

They stopped just a couple feet away from where I stood under a shade tree near the bench. He kept peering up at me with this unending smile that twisted through me like chains and ropes and indestructible ties.

An unbreakable bond.

Curiosity played in his dark, dark eyes, and his mom dropped to her knees in front of him, something shaky and frantic about her as she brushed the too-long bangs from his forehead. “Baby, I want you to meet someone really important, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed, grinning toward me.

“This is Lyrik.” She said it like a secret, and I was dropping to my knees, too, completely laid bare when he turned the full force of his attention on me.

His grin showcased a straight row of baby teeth. One missing on the bottom.

And I wanted to weep when I looked at him.

When I looked at all the years gone, and the wonder in his gaze and at what came spilling out of his arms when he suddenly dumped his stash of toys to the ground. He rummaged through his pile, snatching it upside down by a leg.

That f*cking bear that was supposed to be good luck.

Binding a family together.

The thing was a complete disaster and probably should have been tossed years ago, tattered and torn and frayed.

He held it up like a prize. “You made this!”

For a second, every part of me seized.

My eyes pinched at the sides, dents cutting into my forehead as I fought against the unbearable pain. I shifted my gaze to Kenzie for help because I didn’t quite know how to make sense of this.

Tears just kept sliding down her face. She remained silent. Like she trusted me to handle this right. For me to get the situation was fragile and I could either foster it or shatter it into a million unrecognizable pieces.

“Yeah, buddy, I did.”

He turned back to his pile and dug out a blue car. “Hey, do you like cars? This one’s my favorite.”

A low chuckle rumbled in my chest. “I like them a lot.”

His grin grew. “Me, too. My dad says this kind goes so fast.”

Did my damned best not to flinch, but I couldn’t help it, that slam of jealousy I knew I’d feel. But I’d accepted that was probably something I was gonna feel when I’d made another choice. When I’d switched paths and headed a different direction.

When I came here.

I forced some lightness into the gravel grinding up the words. “Your dad’s totally right. It is super-fast. Any faster and it’d be a race car.”

His eyes went wide. “Whoa, that’s way fast. Do you know what green means?”

A little bewildered, I lifted my shoulders. “Go?”

“Yep!”

He made a revving noise and pushed the car along the ground, totally unaware he was completely crumbling my world.

“Go!” he shouted, then asked, “How about yellow?”

“Um…slow down?”

He glanced at me with a smile. “Right again, ’cuz that’s what my teacher tells me when I have to flip my card from green to yellow. Slow down,” he acted out with a grin, those eyes glinting with mischief again. “Because when you get on red? That means stop and you don’t get to play at recess. No way is that gonna happen!”

Kenzie choked out a laugh below her breath.

Yeah.

I was right.

He was a total badass.

So f*cking cute.

I was betting he was a little handful and unruly and a whole lot perfect.

He started driving that car up my arm and over his song. A song I’d never sang for anyone. It was one reserved for the loneliest hours of the night. One I’d played what felt like a thousand times. One I played like some kind of f*cked-up tribute. When I’d pray more of those prayers I didn’t have the right to pray.

Begging for his joy.

“Hey, that’s my name,” he suddenly said, running the wheels back and forth over his name forever etched on my arm.

Affection gripped my throat.

“Yeah, it is, little man, it is.”

He grinned again, and it took about all I had not to scoop him up and steal him away.

Instead I sat there while he talked, showing me all his favorite toys that he obviously took with him everywhere, his chatter nonstop, animated, and unbridled. He talked to me like he’d known me forever.

Like I was his best friend.

My gaze drifted to Kenzie who had taken a seat on the small bench, elbows on her knees as she watched us. Her expression was soft and sad and knowing.

Silently I told her what an amazing job she’d done with this kid. Just like I’d known she would.