“Funny.” But he didn’t laugh. “Aires said the same thing when he enlisted. Promise me you’ll come home and visit. You’re my baby, too.”
I wrapped both of my arms around him and he hugged me. “I promise.”
NOAH
In a tent set up in Shirley and Dale’s backyard, Echo lay on her stomach studying a huge map of the United States. Because of the warm April night, she’d pulled her shirt up a few inches to expose her skin. At least that was the reason she gave when her fingers inched the material of her blue tank away from the small of her back. Personally, I think she did it to drive me insane.
“Sorry,” Echo said. “I’m not an ocean kind of girl. Birds and sand and seaweed.” She shivered and stuck out her tongue. “Not my scene, but we can go there if you want.”
A week ago, I’d held her hand in the hospital and wondered if she’d ever come back to me. Tonight, I watched her in complete awe. Echo was here and she was mine. Sitting beside her, I traced patterns on the exposed skin of her back. “I’ll go wherever you want, baby.”
The light from the old camping lantern the two of us bought flickered and she raised an I-told-you-so eyebrow. Echo was not a fan of the treasures that could be found at Goodwill, nor was she a fan of sleeping outdoors. But she’d promised to give camping a shot on our trip this summer.
“The tent’s in good shape,” I said to prove my point. “It would have cost us a hell of a lot more at a real store.”
“If you say so.” She moved her finger west of Kentucky. “I want to see snow-capped mountains.”
I brushed her curls away, bent down and kissed the nape of her neck, loving how her muscles relaxed as she leaned into me. I whispered into her ear, “Then that’s what we’ll see.”
“Noah,” she moaned in equal parts pleasure and reprimand. “How am I supposed to schedule appointments with art galleries if I never plan where we’re going?”
Her sweet smell drove my body higher as I nibbled on the edge of her earlobe. “I’m not stopping you. You plan. I’ll kiss.”
Echo turned her head to look at me over her shoulder. My siren became a temptress with that seductive smile on her lips. A mistake on her part. I caressed her cheek and kissed those soft lips.
I expected her to shy away. We’d been playing this game for over an hour: she plotted while I teased. Leaving for the summer was important to her and she was important to me. But instead of the quick peck I’d anticipated, she moved her lips against mine. A burning heat warmed my blood.
It was a slow kiss at first—all I meant it to be, but then Echo touched me. Her hands on my face, in my hair. And then she angled her body to mine. Warmth, enticing pressure on all the right parts, and Echo’s lips on mine—fireworks.
She became my world. Filling my senses so that all I felt and saw and tasted was her. Kisses and touches and whispered words of love and when my hand skimmed down the curve of her waist and paused on the hem of her jeans my body screamed to continue, but my mind knew it was time to stop.
With a sigh, I moved my lips once more against hers before shifting and pulling her body to my side. “I’m in love with you.”
Echo settled her head in the crook of my arm as her fingertips lazily touched my face. “I know. I love you, too.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.” If I had, then maybe we never would have been apart.
“It’s okay,” she murmured. “We’re together now and that’s all that matters.”
I kissed her forehead and she snuggled closer to me. The world felt strange. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t fighting someone or something. My brothers were safe. Echo knew the truth. Soon, I’d be free from high school and foster care. Hopefully, I’d be admitted on late acceptance to college. Contentment and happiness were unfamiliar emotions, but ones I could learn to live with.
“Do you mind?” she asked in a small voice that indicated nerves. “That we’re taking it slow?”
“No.” And it was the truth. Happiness and contentment were going to be a little harder for her than for me. Echo, Ashley and her dad had reached a new understanding, but old habits were tough to break, especially when they all lived in the same house. A new baby didn’t help the stress level. Echo’s therapy sessions had increased instead of decreased. Regaining the memory and the confrontation with her mom had created a whole new set of issues, but ones Echo felt she could deal with as long as she had Mrs. Collins.
Everything in her life was in flux and she needed strong, steady and stable. Oddly, she found those three things in me. Who would ever have guessed I’d be the reliable sort? “Besides, taking it slow creates buildup. I like anticipation.”
Her body rocked with silent giggles and my lips turned up. I loved making her happy.
“And you’re sure you want to leave your brothers and you swear you won’t lose your job?”
She’d asked those two questions a million times this past week, but I understood her fear. She didn’t want me to end up full of regret. “They’re closing the Malt and Burger for a month in July for renovations and my boss thinks a vacation would be good for me. As for my brothers …” I paused. “I need the space. It’s hard flipping off the switch. Maybe if I go away for a while I won’t feel like they’re my sole responsibility.”
She propped herself up on her elbows and tilted her head. Those beautiful green eyes searched mine. “You’re sure?”
“One thousand percent.”
The smile I loved so much graced her face. “Then we’re going west.”
NOAH
“When are you coming back?” Jacob asked. We sat in the tree house in Carrie and Joe’s backyard the day after graduation. Carrie and Joe had made a large dinner in celebration and told me to invite my friends. I’d brought Echo, Isaiah and a very sober Beth.
Echo was currently helping hide Tyler in a very bad game of hide-and-seek with Isaiah and Beth. “Latest? September. I start school after Labor Day.”
His little legs dangled from the edge. “Our mom’s school?”
“Our mom’s school.” With a major in architecture. The deal for foster kids covered my college costs and housing, but I planned on living off-campus with Isaiah and Beth once Echo and I returned. Beth and Isaiah would only be seniors next year, but Shirley and Dale didn’t care where they lived. As for Echo, she had accepted her scholarship to “our mom’s school” and planned on living in the dorms.
He extended his fingers and counted down. “But that’s at least three months.”
How could I explain to my little brothers why I needed to leave? How could I explain that for three years the only thing that kept my head above water was the thought of being a family with them again? I’d lost and I’d won. I’d lost the dreams I had, but won new dreams.
I needed time to rewire my brain, figure out how to be a responsible eighteen-year-old college student and carefree older brother. “I’ll call every day and I’ll send you presents and postcards from every place I visit.”
Jacob brightened at the word presents. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Echo and Tyler laughed as Isaiah flipped Tyler over his shoulder, grabbed Echo’s hand and ran across the yard to keep Beth from “finding” them. Beth slowly followed, pretending she had no idea where the three of them had gone. My throat swelled at the sight. I finally had a family.
“Tyler likes her,” Jacob said as he watched Tyler reach for Echo.
I cleared my throat and swallowed down the emotions overwhelming me. “What do you think of her?”
When I first introduced them a month back, my brothers had been shy around her. Then Echo drew a picture of Jacob and Tyler and the wall between them shattered. They thought it was cool that a grown-up loved crayons as much as they did. It took them longer to warm up to Beth and Isaiah, but eventually they’d been won over by Isaiah’s tattoos and by the gifts “Aunt Beth” bought them.
Jacob shrugged. “She’s cool for a girl.”
I laughed. “Yeah. She is.”
“Where are you going when you leave?”
“Everywhere, but mainly Colorado. There are a couple of art galleries Echo wants to visit there.”
He tackled me in a hug. “Colorado. They have mountains. Cool.”
Cool. We played a few more rounds of hide-and-seek until Tyler couldn’t keep his eyes open. Echo left with Isaiah and Beth to pick up the rest of the items she needed for our trip and to make her dad swear, yet again, that he’d take care of Aires’ car until she came back to town. Though she wouldn’t admit it, I think she also wanted another few minutes to rock Alexander.
Carrie let me read stories to my brothers, listen to their prayers and tuck them in for the night. Tonight, Tyler slept with Jacob in the bottom bunk.
“Love you, Noah.” Tyler yawned and closed his eyes. I touched the side of his head. It wasn’t the first time he’d said the words to me, but it was the first time since Carrie and Joe allowed me back in my brothers’ lives.
“Me, too. I love you,” Jacob added.
“I love you both. Take care of each other and listen to Carrie and Joe.”
Jacob flashed me Mom’s smile. “We will.”
I kissed them both on the forehead and forced myself out of the room. The house had that peaceful quiet. The refrigerator hummed. The dishwasher quietly swished. The smell of rich coffee drifted from the kitchen.
I followed the scent and poked my head into the room. Carrie and Joe sat at the breakfast bar, sipping from mugs. “I’m not kidding. I plan on calling every day.”
Joe gave me a genuine smile. “We wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“Noah.” Carrie slipped off the stool. “I have something for you and I didn’t want to give it to you in front of your friends.”
She handed me a manila envelope. “Open it later, okay? I promise you’ll love it.”
“All right.”
Joe extended his hand. “Have a safe trip and don’t buy the boys anything too big.”
I laughed. Like I could buy anything bigger than the stuff in that toy-store basement of theirs. “I will. Thanks again.”
The moment I stepped out onto the front porch, I opened the envelope. Inside were lots of drawings from Jacob and Tyler, a picture of me and my brothers, and then a copy of the picture of my parents. I remembered this picture. I’d taken it after Mom and Dad handed over the key to the first resident of the Habitat neighborhood. The memory made me smile. Carrie and Joe weren’t the devil. They were people who loved my brothers and had hearts big enough to possibly love me, too.
I pulled out my cell phone and texted Carrie: thanks.
Seconds later she texted back: welcome. b safe.
Across the street, Echo sat on the hood of her gray Honda Civic. Her red curls shone in the street light and her spaghetti-strapped tank top dipped just low enough that my mind already wondered how I could get her to deviate from the plan of driving at least six hours tonight before setting up the tent.
