Page 192 of Always Love You More

“All right then.” She leans back. “Tell me about this girl I’ve seen you around with. She your girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” I answer, caught off guard by her question. “Her name is Sam.”

“I thought so.” Mrs. Richardson smiles. “What’s she like?”

I think about it for a minute, not sure how to answer. “She’s …” I shake my head. “I don’t know … She’s … Well, she’s really smart. Like, kind of brilliant actually. She reads all the time, too. And she’s in all of these hard classes at school, knows all these random facts.”

She nods, her face bright. “What else?”

I take a bite of my soup, thinking. “She’s fucking fearless—”

“Language,” Mrs. Richardson cuts in.

“Sorry,” I mutter. “She’s fearless, though. Which is sometimes a bad thing. Gets her into trouble.” I snort. “But mostly, it’s just …” I fidget with the spoon in my hand. “She’s really strong. Doesn’t let anything stop her from what she wants. And she isn’t scared of me. Never was. Calls me out on my shit—” I glance up. “Fuck, sorry.” I shake my head, cringing. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She laughs. “What else?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “She just …”

“She what?”

“She gets me. You know? We just click. It’s easy …” I pause. “Well, not easy. She can be … Sometimes, she struggles. But I don’t mind ’cause I know I can help her, make her feel better. And she gives it back. She’s seen me at my worst, too, and she doesn’t care. She doesn’t leave or make me feel bad. She makes me feel better, good even.”

“You love her,” Mrs. Richardson says.

“How do you—”

“Your whole face lights up when you talk about her.” She gives me a teasing look. “And I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk at once.”

I stare back at her silently.

“I’m happy for you, Jameson.” I watch her gaze drift over to a picture of her and Mr. Richardson. “Not everyone is as lucky as us.” She turns back to me. “Did you know I met Frank when I was your age, younger even?”

I shake my head.

“He’s the only man I’ve ever loved.” She smiles. “Fifty-two years I spent with him, and it only got better.”

“That’s a long time.”

“Didn’t feel like it,” she murmurs.

“I’m sorry you lost him.”

“I miss him every day,” she answers. “You know we both had a hard time growing up, too. Things weren’t always easy.”

I shift in my seat. “You never told me that.”

She nods. “The way you talked about your girl, about being there for each other …” She flits her eyes back over to the picture. “If you have that, you have everything. You understand what I mean?”

“Yeah,” I tell her, thinking about all the shit me and Sam have already been through together. How each and every time we’ve helped each other get through it. “Yeah, I understand.”

Chapter 46

Sam

Thebellrings,andI push up from my desk, shoving my notebook into my bag.

It’s the first day back since winter break, and it’s actually been nice to be in school again. It feels like a vacation after the long shifts I pulled at the diner. If anything, at least I get some time off my feet.