All In (Full Tilt #2)

by Emma Scott

“Take care of Kacey. Please. She’ll need you. She’s strong. But if she falls, help her… Love her, Theo. This life is…short. Don’t hold back. Okay?”

She’d fallen out of the goddamn sky like a bomb, blowing up our careful life, smashing routines and disrupting Jonah’s plans.

I could take care of her. Black days were coming. Weeks, months. Possibly years. However long she needed me, I’d be there for her.

I am the drowned girl. I’m drowning, Jonah. I need you back.

Drunk all the time… Keeps to herself, no friends… They call her the Drowned Girl, and man, it’s true. She’s fucking drowning.

“The words are pouring out, Teddy,” she said. But I should’ve heard how her voice trembled at the edges and how her eyes were shining and bright. Not for excitement or joy. But in the way you look when you’re scared to death and that fear is lighting up your nerves like a switchboard.

God, she’s so fucking beautiful. Drunk and disheveled, reeking of misery and defeat, and she was beautiful to me.

That was a close call, bro, I told Jonah. But she made it. She fucking made it. You’d be so proud of her.

Kind of fucking gorgeous, I thought. The strange color of her eyes—light blue iris ringed in darker blue—was more vibrant against the brass-gold of her hair.

“You made him happy,” I said. “Right at the time he needed it most. You made him happy. Quit worrying about what you didn’t do, because what you did do was everything. Okay?”

“You did the hardest thing. You stayed with Jonah to the end. For that, you’ll always have a place in this family.”

I went to her now, and I’ll go to her again if I have to. I’ll fail a hundred classes and be fired from a hundred jobs before I let anything happen to her again.

Her promise and mine linked themselves in my mind. In my goddamn heart.

A man who told the love of his life, at the moment of goodbye, to love someone else. And to his brother, a promise to love her…

“Live in the stars, baby. Okay?” My voice cracked but didn’t break, and I smiled through my tears. “You’re free. You made me free.”

You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same.— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“You’re always so good to me.” “I try to be, Kace,” he said softly.

Because I heard you sing. And I knew I’d never be the same.

“I am a universe.” Yvonne’s eyes widened. “I like that. Yes, you are a universe, right here in this room, and you are not done.”

“A semicolon is where a writer can choose to end the sentence,” she said, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear. “But they don’t. The story goes on. It’s a symbol of hope. To keep going.” She smiled tremulously. “Sometimes I need that reminder.”

The pain and loss in her eyes shimmered through the water and found me. The Drowned Girl.

“Don’t look beautiful,” I mumbled. “Don’t look beautiful, don’t look…” I opened the door. Beautiful.

My Theo. My universe.

“God, yes. I never thought…” I grazed the back of my fingers down his cheek. “What, baby?” “That this was for me.

“I love you. I’m in love with you and I will be for the rest of my life.”

“I love you too,” I whispered. “I love you, Teddy. I do. I’m in love with you.”

“Kace,” he whispered. “My treasure.”

I’ll love her enough. I’ll love her enough she’ll never want for it. I’ll spend my entire life loving her and making her happy. And she will be happy.

You’re my fucking world.” I started to come undone again. “You’re my entire world. My …” “Universe,” Kacey whispered, her fingers brushing my cheek softly. “You’re my universe. I love you, Teddy…”

Love had no end. She was infinite. She was a universe, my universe, and I was hers. Love had no boundaries, no rules, no favorites. And no limits.

“I want your blue butterfly,”

You’re strong and brave, and you’d take all the pain if it meant making those you love feel it less. You shoulder that burden by yourself. You put on armor and put up walls. But inside, you have this gentle, loving soul. A goodness running down the core of you, all along that steel strength. I want that on my body. The essence of you. I love you, Teddy. I want your love with me, imbedded in my skin for all the days of my life.”

I want your art, Teddy. I’m your canvas.”

Because love always wins. Always.

I see it all now, Theo. You take care of yours. You took care of Jonah all the time he was sick. All the way to his last breath, you were there for him.”

“You took care of Kacey when she was alone in New Orleans, drinking herself to a slow death. You stepped up when she was pregnant and you stepped up again when she wasn’t.

“I see you, Theo. I see you. If Jonah was the glue that held us together, you’re the rock we set our backs to. I’m proud of you for that.” His chin quivered, his voice cracked. “I’m so proud you’re my son.”

My love for Jonah a warm glow in my heart, like a sun that never sets. And deeper within, a fiery core—my love for Theo burning with powerful, unending intensity.

We stood up together, emerged from the barren space together, bonded not in shared grief, but in shared love. Theo and I, a treasure out of the ruin.