Always There

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine

I glance down at Blossom. All I can see is the back of her head. "Do you think I'll be able to get a smile out of you if we go somewhere else?"

Blossom shrugs her shoulders.

I sigh and meet Charlie's gaze. "We just flew all the way here so she could be with her family, and now you want us to leave?"

Kathleen cuts in to say, "She's crying out for help right now, and you're the only person she seems to feel safe around. The last time she was like this, she did . . . bad things to herself. I don't want to leave her alone, and the only person she's wants to be with is you."

Blossom finally pulls her face away from the crook of my neck. She meets my eyes, our faces only a few inches apart, and when I reach up to take her chin between my fingers, she doesn't flinch.

"Does someone need a date night to get her mind off things?" I whisper.

The smallest, slightest nod of Blossom's head.

I lean in to kiss her brow. "All right, then, my girl. Let's go on a date."

🌸🌸🌸

I hand Blossom my keys. "Go on inside, sweetheart. I'll carry our bags."

She frowns down at the small pink suitcase parked beside her. We took an Uber from the hospital to my parents' house, and now that we've unloaded our luggage from the trunk of the car, we're staring at the tall staircase leading to the front door and stalling.

I reach for Blossom and brush one of her cheekbones with the pad of my thumb. She looks up at me with those huge brown eyes of hers, and when her bottom lip sticks out into a pout, I can't help but to brush my thumb against it, too.

Blossom immediately parts her lips and sucks my thumb into her mouth. Her eyes are sparkling with innocence as she stares right up at me.

I chuckle and pull my finger out of her mouth. "Not right now, honey. The sooner you go inside and unlock the door for me so that I can bring our suitcases in, the sooner we can have some fun."

At this, Blossom's eyes widen.

It seems to be enough motivation for her because she immediately spins on her heel and bounds up the stairs. I snort as I watch her fumble to fit the key into the lock, but when she eventually gets the door open, I begin to carry our bags up the stairs.

Blossom has neatly lined her shoes up by the door when I reach the landing. I roll both of our suitcases into the foyer and leave them by the staircase to bring up to my bedroom later on, and when I glance over my shoulder to locate Blossom again, I find her halfway down the hallway and staring at the framed photos covering the wall leading to the kitchen.

Seeing her in my childhood home again after all this time is . . . overwhelming. She's standing in the hallway of the home she should be in all the time, the home that my dad promised could be hers and mine would day if we ever wanted to settle down and start a family here together. Seeing her stand here, thinking about the possibilities of our future, is . . .

It's too much.

I approach her slowly. "What are you looking at?"

She points with a small, slender hand towards a photo on the wall. It's a part of the cluster of photos from Dad and Elena's wedding, a large photo of the married couple in the centre with several smaller photos surrounding it.