Page 102 of The Music of Us
Together, they came to sit with me, their tails weaving around me, their silky-smooth fur brushing across my skin as if to say,Don’t cry.
Rumple came in last.
“Did you go get them all for me?” I questioned, taking in the fuzzy protection squad around me.
In answer, Rumple came forward, depositing something on the floor by my shoes, though I couldn’t yet see what it was. Rumple did that sometimes. The week after Mom got into heraccident, I broke down crying in the pantry only to find him pawing at it, trying to get in. When I opened the door, he laid a stolen gel pen at my feet as a “feel better” present.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “And I’m sorry. I let you guys down. You don’t deserve that.”
What would happen to them now? How would Rumple understand his home wasn’t here anymore?
How wouldI?
My future unraveling should’ve taken up all my thoughts. But on top of everything, I found myself thinking of Jake.
Somehow, I’d have to find a way to get over him.
I looked down at my feet again, finally registering what Rumple brought me:
A rectangular paper card.
“Is this... ?” I glanced at him questioningly before picking it up to see a single word written on the back. “This is my flash card you stole from Jake back before he left. You’ve seriously had it all this time?”
Rumple gave me a smug look, and I stared back down at the card again, lost in thought.
Limerence.Synonyms include crush and infatuation,my inner spelling bee champ reminded me.A word used to describe a state of mind resulting from romantic feelings for someone. It typically includes melancholic thoughts.
My lips pursed.
“What are you trying to say?” I asked, as if the Maine coon could give me an actual answer. “Of course I’m having melancholic thoughts. Jake ditched back then like how he’s ditching now.”
I rose. I had to pull myself together. Reaching back, I tuggedharshly on my hairband, only to feel it snap underneath my fingers, falling apart in my hands and making my hair topple loosely over my shoulders, just like how it’d been this morning, back before I knew everything that was coming.
I held my breath for three seconds, then let it out, trying to avoid round two of my breakdown. Okay. I’d find a way to pull my hair back into Battle Mode. Check on Mom. See if Phillip, Aspen, and Leon could at least take some photos with the adoptable cats before they left so I could try to get them into homes before we were forced to close. Forget about—
Commotion at the front of the café caught my ears. What was going on? I sent Rumple a look. He blinked knowingly.
Striding out of the room, I stopped short in shock.
Jake stood in front of me.
“But I— You—” I couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. My heart danced out a rhythm behind my rib cage. “You’re back. I thought you left.”
But there he was, right in front of me.
“Of course I’m back,” Jake said, reaching out to squeeze my hand. “I only left to see if Randy still lived in his old house.”
“Randy?”
My eyes flitted past Jake to see a willowy man with salt-and-pepper hair standing behind him.
Jake inclined his head toward the man. “Lucy, meet my old guitar teacher.”
My gaze jumped back to Jake. “Guitar teacher?”
I’d been wrong. Jake hadn’t walked when things got tough because he was leaving me, he walked out to get help because he was staying to help me.
Jake nodded. “Let’s get Marie on the phone.”
