Page 313 of Cross Checked
Neon pink.
Bright yellow.
CM55.
My number, held inside something she could add to her Nevers. Something that belonged to me but honored her. Something permanent enough to sit in the sculpture she had built from grief and memory and all the moments her mom should have been here for.
It had taken me three hours, one mildly concerning pain flare, and a lecture from Bliss later about not overdoing it when she found me asleep on the couch with paint under my thumbnail.
Worth it.
Aura had kept the marble hidden for me until tonight. If I kept it in the apartment, Bliss would have found it in under twenty-four hours. She was a marble menace and could sniff that shit out like emotional contraband with glitter.
Ryan appeared beside me. “You good?”
“No.”
He nodded. “Solid.”
“I could still back out.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
“True.”
Charm drifted over next, champagne glass in hand, eyes already shiny. “Is it time?”
“You’re crying already.”
“I am emotionally prepared.”
“That seems inaccurate.”
“I helped pick the ring, Cade. I am invested in the sparkle journey.”
Ryan muttered, “She threatened a jeweler.”
Charm lifted one finger. “I corrected a jeweler.”
“You told him his inventory lacked romantic literacy.”
“It did.”
I looked toward Bliss again. She was laughing now, head tilted back, one hand pressed lightly to my mother’s arm. My mother looked at her like she had hung the moon. My father watched them from across the room with a softened expression he probably thought no one noticed.
I noticed.
Because I remembered what his face used to look like when he watched rooms.
Cold. Measuring. Somewhere else.
Now he looked like a man who had spent months learning that love did not weaken a family. It built one.
Bliss had done that.
She had taken people who loved in silence and made them loud about it.
I set my glass down.
