Page 138 of Never Alone
Noah was in the living room with Jack and Ben. He saw me through the doorway. He got up and walked over.
He walked the careful way. The way a nine-year-old walks when he is trying not to scare an adult.
I crouched.
It cost me. I didn't let it show.
He stopped a foot away from me. He looked at the sling. The gauze at my eyebrow. The bruises along my jaw. The state of me.
"Cole. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, bud."
"You don't look okay."
"I will be. I promise."
He looked at me a beat longer.
"Mom didn't come back."
"I know."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know yet, bud. But I'm going to find her."
He nodded.
His face was working at being a face. He was using everything he had at nine to not let it do the thing it wanted to do.
"Cole."
"Yeah."
"Are you coming back for me?"
Something in my chest did a thing I had not been ready for.
I put my good hand on the side of his head.
"Yeah. I'm coming back for you. I'm coming back for both of you. I won't leave you behind."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
He nodded.
He didn't say anything for a beat. Then:
"We still need to finish the trim on the upstairs window."
"Yeah, we do."
"The one in your room."
"Yeah."
