Page 108 of Rucked Up Ruse
‘For breaking the cycle. For being brave enough to feel all this instead of running from it.’
‘I do enough running in my professional life, you know.’
She laughs.
I wrap my arms around her, burying my face in her hair. ‘You’re my family now.’
‘And you’re mine – and Elvis’.’
I’ve never belonged to anyone before. But Theo and her fluff demon? I’m theirs for good.
As we walk back to the car, hand in hand, I feel lighter somehow. Not healed – I don’t think that’s how grief works – but different. As if I’ve put down something heavy I’ve been carrying too long.
The cemetery gate creaks as we pass through. I glance at Theo, this woman who tracked down my father’s grave, who holds me through nightmares, who loves me not despite my damage but somehow because of it.
Later, we’ll join the Stirling Rebels at the Sin & Tonic to celebrate the season. I’ll watch Theo disarm Connor with her quick wit and make Brodie smile. Perhaps she’s in the mood to eviscerate someone at the pool table.
Aye, I like it when she does that.
But right now, this moment is enough. Her hand in mine, the promise of tomorrow.
I spent my whole life trying to outrun pain, outdrink memory, outfuck loneliness. Theo didn’t save me, she just held me. She walked into my life with her lists and her laughter and her impossible belief in me. Even when I didn’t deserve it.
Love is not the absence of pain. It’s choosing someone worth hurting for, worth staying for, working through it together.
I’d walk through hell to keep her safe. To make her proud. To be the man she sees when she looks at me. Loving Theo is the only thing that’s ever made me feel like I’m more than the damage I carry. And that’s not running. That’s coming home.
— THE END —
