Rivers presses his lips into a tight line and slowly nods his head. Tully falls into him, throwing her arms around him and holding on tightly as her heart breaks.
Noah steps closer into my back and wraps me in his warm embrace as we watch the scene unfold before us. “Come on,” he murmurs in my ear. “Let’s go down to the beach and get something to eat.”
With that, we all start walking down to the beach and I don’t doubt that none of us will be getting any sleep tonight.
By three o’clock in the morning, we sit outside of Noah and Tully’s home while their parents sleep soundly inside. Rivers is dressed and ready to go and for the first time since he’s been home, I see the regret in his eyes about having to leave us once again.
Going the first time couldn’t have been easy, but leaving again knowing what kind of pain and devastation he’s going to leave behind will probably be one of the hardest things he’ll ever do.
A taxi pulls up on the curb and Tully sucks in a breath, realizing our time with him is through. Rivers stands and Tully and I fly right up behind him while Noah watches on with a hard expression.
Rivers comes to me first, giving me a tight smile before pulling me in for a hug. “Be good little sister,” he tells me. “I’m counting on you to keep these idiots in line.”
“You know I will,” I tell him. “But you know it’s not going to be easy without you.”
“You’re strong, Henley. You don’t need me to hold you up. Just promise me you’ll steer clear of Gina from now on. I know she’s your mom too, but she’s bad news. Visit her if you have to, but don’t get tangled up in her lies.”
“Ok,” I tell him, pulling back. “I promise.”
He presses a kiss to my forehead before letting out a deep sigh and turning to Noah. “I guess this is it, huh?” Rivers murmurs, giving Noah a strained smile.
“I guess so,” Noah responds as they step into each other and clap the other on the back in a rare show of affection for one another. “Just don’t be a stranger this time.”
“I won’t, man.”
They release one another and Rivers gives him a nod, a silent message begging for Noah to keep his girl safe while he’s gone, despite the fact that she isn’t his girl. I guess as long as his heart belongs to her, that’s the way he’s always going to see it.
Last but not least, Rivers turns to Tully who has tears pooling from her eyes. She stands back, too afraid to get too close. “Don’t go,” she begs her voice breaking as she refuses to wipe the tears away.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, looking just as devastated. “I love you so fucking much.”
He grabs her and hauls her into his chest, holding her tight as she squishes her face into him, instantly soaking his shirt with her tears. “Please,” she begs. “I need you to stay.”
“You know I can’t,” he says. “I should never have come back. I’m only making this harder for you.”
Tully scrunches her fists into the material of his shirt, desperately trying to keep him close before looking up into his haunted eyes “I fucked up your car.”
A wide grin spreads across Rivers’ face. “I know, baby. I was watching the whole thing.”
She searches his eyes. “What?” she gasps. “And you just let me do it?”
“Of course, I did,” he tells her. “It’s what you needed.”
Tully shakes her head, the emotion becoming too much for her to handle. “I’m going to miss you,” she whispers into the night. “Just come back as soon as you can.”
“I promise,” he tells her, moments before he crushes his lips down on hers, kissing her deeply and expressing everything he’s too afraid to say with words.
Rivers tears himself away from her and turns away, leaving Tully gasping for breath as he walks away. He grabs his bag and all too soon, the taxi is loaded, and Rivers is disappearing over the hill, leaving us all feeling completely and utterly deflated.
Chapter 16
We didn’t sleep a wink.
After Rivers left, Noah and I sat curled up on the couch, both staring into the distance and wishing things could have been different while Tully locked herself in her bedroom and cried until the sun came up.
We sat around the table with breakfast before us, not one of us with an appetite to eat and not one of us daring to say a word.
He’s gone and there’s nothing we can do about it except wait for him to come back home. Who the hell knows when that’s going to be? Hell, the next time we see him could be after deployment over a year from now.