Page 74 of Never Alone
She looked up.
I hadn't figured out what to say. I said it anyway.
"We're going to be fine."
She held my eyes for a second longer than she usually did. Then she let out the breath she'd been holding.
"I hope so."
She turned to the counter. Picked up the plate. Set it on the prep board between us.
"I made these for you."
"Tessa—"
"I wanted to say thank you. For—all of it. The visitation. The pullout. Picking him up from school."
I looked at the plate. I had not eaten anything since six that morning. The plate looked like food. The plate also looked like a hand someone had reached out across a table I had not been ready to sit at.
"I don't eat sweets."
The words came out before I had decided to say them. They were the wrong words.
I watched her face. She kept the smile up. Most of it.
"Oh. That's—okay. Maybe Noah will?—"
"Tessa."
"It's fine, Cole. You don't have to."
I picked one up. The pastry was warm; sugar came off on my fingers. I took a bite.
The first thing was butter. The second was cinnamon. The third was something I didn't recognize. It tasted like the kind of thing a woman who had been baking for years made for someone she wanted to do something nice for.
I chewed. Swallowed. "It's not bad."
She looked at me. "Not bad?"
"Yeah."
"Cole. Is that really the best you can do?"
"It's bad or not bad. You take it or leave it."
She looked at me a second longer.
"I'm taking it!"
She smiled and turned back to the stove.
I watched her. The corner of my mouth moved. I let it.
CHAPTER 15
Tessa
The barbecue was at Sam's and Jamie's house, the same backyard Cole had been telling me about for weeks. The crew had been asking after us. There had been no time.
