Page 80 of Chasing Hope
“I can when it’s your parents.” A smile lifts my lips.I madeMatteo laugh!“Here, take it. Maybe it will make you feel happy like it does me.”
“Why green and blue?” he asks, taking it very, very gently.
“Blue for my eyes and green for yours.”
“Are you sure you want me to have it?”
Holding his gaze, I say honestly, “Of course. I want you to be happy. It makes me sad to see you upset.”
He slides it onto his wrist, his lip twitching before he frowns. “What will you do when you’re sad, though?”
Shrugging, I lie down on the trampoline, looking at the stars above. “I just float away when I get really sad.”
“Float away?” he asks, lying down beside me, the bracelet on his left wrist, his arm brushing mine.
“Yeah, I float when I’m sad.” Sighing, I confess on a whisper, “I don’t like floating. It’s hard to go back sometimes.”
“What does it feel like?”
“I don’t feel anything when I float. I just roam. Sometimes, I watch myself.”
“You can see yourself when you float?”
Nodding, I turn my head to find him watching me. “I grow numb. My mind feels foggy and then suddenly I feel like I’m flying. The first time it happened, it scared me enough I went back into my body, but now I’m so used to it. It’s nice not to feel anything. That part I like, but sometimes I struggle to stop.”
He’s quiet for a moment before whispering, “I guess you really are a dove, then, if you can fly.”
“I guess I am.” I huff, rolling my eyes. “I still don’t understand why you won’t tell me the reason you call me Dove. It drives me crazy.”
Matteo grants me a rare smile. “I know.” We’re quiet for a long time, his gaze on mine before his lips slowly drop, the smile I love so much fading. “I wish I could float away, too, sometimes.”
I shake my head. “You don’t have to float away when you have the bracelet.”
He looks down at it, brushing his pinky finger against mine. I take the invitation and lock them together.
“I don’t want you to get lost like me,” I explain.
“How do you find your way back?” he asks.
Shrugging, I turn to the stars. “I don’t know.”
But that’s a lie. I know exactly who I think of when I’m lost.
Him.
Always him.
My Matteo.
Chapter 27
Evie
BELLA
Hey love! Some of us were thinking of having a girls’ night at Totti’s next Saturday. Are you free?
EVIE
