into him for letting us down, and now this? I send up a prayer for help, but as usual, there’s no answer except the persistent drops of rain as the storm passes over the house.
I pull back just enough so I can press a kiss to Jennings’s ravaged face. Resting my forehead against his lips, each breath links us together in a way distance will never separate. But even as I assimilate all I learned, I realize something else about tonight. Energy takes the form of gravity, motion, light, and so many others. But I don’t know why scholars don’t account for the most beautiful and harmful force in the world when they write about it.
Love.
Long moments later, Jennings presses his lips against my forehead before pulling away. “I’m sorry, Kara. I love you and I let you down. Can you forgive me for panicking?” His voice is wrecked due to his unshed tears.
I nod, because it seems love will forgive anything. Including, it dawns on me, mistakes made sixteen years ago by a girl who was so wounded she did all she could to survive. “Love forgives many things, Jennings.”
He sags in relief. I continue. “But it doesn’t change the fact we have to go.” Jennings jerks back, his eyes frightened. I rise up and press my lips against his. “I’m not leaving you,” I swear to him.
“Kara—” he starts.
But I interrupt. “I have to go because my entire life has revolved around giving that boy downstairs love. And that means giving him everything. I love you, but he represents us. And I love us more.”
Jennings shudders in my arms as he pulls me close. “How much time do we have left?”
I don’t want to answer, but I have to. “A little over three weeks.”
There’s so much silence between us, I’m afraid he’s not going to say anything else. I should have known what he says is perfect. “Then, let’s go get our son and see if he wants Subway. When I drove by earlier, they were still open.”
He tangles his fingers in mine. Together we make our way toward the kitchen. I swallow hard before yelling, “Kevin! Your father wants to know if you want Subway for dinner. If you do, get a move on.”
Thunderous footsteps follow my announcement. The basement door is flung open and there’s Kevin, whose eyes are rimmed with red. “Dad?” His voice quavers.
Jennings drops my hand and strides over to his son, yanking him tightly against him. “I’m sorry, son. I’m so, so sorry.”
And if science were to allow me to live for eternity, my heart would still shatter every time I recall the memory of my son breaking down in his father’s arms upon realizing our leaving is going to devastate us all.
Jennings
“What do you think of Seattle? Do you think Kevin would like it?” I ask her.
“Jennings, we have a life to get back to,” she reminds me. “We can’t pick up and move.”
Yes, you can. We can do anything together. I want to say that, but she continues on before I get the chance. “Kevin starts school in two weeks; I have to be back a few days before that. Our flights were arranged for us to return…”
“Stop talking,” I bite out harshly. “Doesn’t this, us, change anything? Don’t you want to want to hold on to what we found between the three of us?”
“More than anything.” I want to roar my triumph aloud, but her next words stop me cold. “But I have responsibilities, enormous ones. And the biggest one has three years of school to finish before he goes off to college.” Her eyes well with tears. “Do you think it’s easy to walk away from the only man I’ve ever loved?”
The gravity of what Kara’s saying slams into me. “I’m going to eliminate all the barriers between us to merge our lives,” I choke out. It’s a promise, a vow.
One I intend on keeping.
“It’s not going to be easy.” Her voice is ridiculously low, but with her body pressed up next to mine, there’s no way I can’t hear her words. They’re like tiny arrows piercing my heart. I don’t know of any way to reassure her yet until I’m back in Seattle taking the steps necessary to prove to her I’m serious.
In the meanwhile, I pull her closer and murmur, “There’s only air between us, my love. And haven’t I proven I know how to navigate that?”
Twining her arms and legs around me, Kara pulls me