Brighter Than The Stars: Book One

Alternate 1.8

"Psst."

Madeline stirred for a moment, but her eyes remained closed until she felt the soft touch of a hand moving her hair away from her neck. "Hmmm," she hummed out, still trapped between worlds of unconscious and woke.

"You gonna wake up, M&M, or am I going to have to carry you inside?"

She groaned, forcing her eyes to open and face the day that was still bright. "Not enough sleep, and too much sun."

They'd spent hours out on the water enjoying her father's prized possession, listening to music, laying on the floor, chatting to their hearts content. It was a perfect day- the best she could remember- all because she'd spent every waking moment of it with Elijah.

His car door opened and closed, and within ten seconds, hers was opened as well. Elijah unfastened her seatbelt and scooped her body up in his arms like she'd weighed nothing.

"I can walk."

"Too late to turn back now," he told her with a smile and wink.

She could only imagine what Marty would think of this sight. All she could do was relish in it, feeling his heartbeat against her hand. He was here. After so many years, he was next to her. No amount of little reminders would allow her to grow used to that fact.

Madeline reached out and turned the handle of the house, and watched as he kicked it closed behind them, only to come face to face with her dad standing by the staircase.

Despite his arms being crossed like a concerned parent, the smile he was trying his best to subdue gave him away. "You two get hitched today, or what?"

"That would have been a nice final nail in the coffin for Martin Martin," Elijah joked as he set her down. "Would you be mad if we did?"

Her dad just chuckled. "Hell no. Now if she married that schmuck, Marty, then I'd be mad. Trust me, Elijah, if you decided to woo my daughter, that kid wouldn't be competition. So, I take it you had yourselves a run-in? Special, isn't he?"

Elijah laughed and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Special's putting it nicely. Good enough guy, I guess, but that didn't stop me from enjoying breaking his heart."

"That's mean," Madeline told him, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, well, it had to be done. Otherwise he'd be following you around all summer, and if ended up stalking you, I'd be getting a hell of lot meaner. This saves us all some grief."

"Well, Mary's at the store, getting everything to make that lemon parmesan chicken you love," her dad told him. "Or did love. I guess we shouldn't just assume your tastes haven't changed in all these years."

Elijah smiled at him. "I haven't had it since your wife made it for me, but something tells me it'll be just as good as I remember. Nothing beats her cooking."

"Well, enjoy that muscle while you have it, because we'll be rolling your ass out the door by the time summer's over. If you stay that long, that is." It seemed reality hit her father that Elijah wasn't there's to keep. A thought that'd crept into her own mind throughout the day. "Anyhow, I've spent the last hour cleaning out all the boxes in the guest bedroom."

Elijah's gaze jumped to Madeline's, his smile fading, then to the floor. "I was actually hoping to keep crashing with Maddie. I know that might be asking for too much, but I get nightmares, and Maddie calms me."

"I'll talk to Mary," her dad told him. "I can't imagine her having an issue with it."

Elijah's stare left the floor and returned to her dad. "I promise I'll behave."

'I don't want you to behave.'

When that single thought entered Madeline's mind, she felt her body heat up. Of course she'd noticed he was attractive. But this was Elijah. Her Elijah. She wasn't meant to have friendship killer type of thoughts about him. Except, that's exactly what she'd been having.

Waking up in his arms that morning, him walking into her room without his shirt on, the way he'd felt against her when she hugged him that morning, and so many small moments out on the boat.

"Hell, what's the worst that could happen? The two of you fall in love, and you end up sticking around? You knock her up and get tied to the family for a minimum of eighteen years?"

Though it was an innocent joke, Madeline couldn't stop her face from going beat red. "And on that note, I'm going to take a shower."

She rushed up the stairs, away from her father's mortifying comment, and collected clothes to change into.

A light tap on her open door caused Madeline to turn around. Glancing up, she saw Elijah standing in her doorway. "Can you believe he's so desperate to have you stay, he pretty much threw me at you?" It was all she could think to say. Laugh it off. Pretend falling for him was ridiculous. Pretend that the thought of them sleeping together was nonsense, rather than something that caused her stomach to do giant cartwheels.

Elijah stepped into her room, his eyes moving to the prism once again, before coming to meet her own. "When we were driving around earlier, it sounded like you were dreading it too."

"Of course I am," Madeline admitted freely. "Last night and this morning, all I could do was bask in the reality that you were here. But as soon as we left the house, I just had all these little reminders that I'd have to say goodbye to you again.

"It fucking broke me the first time. Not just broke, but crushed. I pieced back together what I could, but there were so many fragments too far gone to repair." Madeline sucked in a breath, counted to three, then released it. It wasn't so much that he needed to hear her words, but she needed to say them.

"You were such a big part of my life, and you never lost your place in it. A part of me has been empty this whole goddamn time. Now you're here, and I'm so grateful for that. But it's only temporary, and I feel like calls and letters and short visits are just going to remind me of broken promises."

Elijah's eyes narrowed at her. "What broken promise?"

"Your letter," she reminded him. "You made a promise to yourself years ago that you wouldn't come back into my life, because I deserved more than pieces of someone."

His face softened; the jaw she hadn't noticed was clenched loosened. "Do you have the letter here?"

Madeline nodded, turned around, and opened the top drawer of her desk. She pulled out the envelope and handed it over to him.

The way he touched it so gently reminded her of the first time she'd held it, the way his hands were careful opening it, the way his eyes gazed at the words he'd written three years ago. "You committed this thing to memory, didn't you?"

"Maybe," she half admitted.

Elijah nodded absently as he continued to read the letter. After a minute or so, he placed it back into the envelope with the same soft touch. And when he spoke, his tone matched his touch. "You remember what I said earlier, about how I couldn't let you write me back? Do you remember my reason?"

"Because I would have asked you to come back."

"And I couldn't because of the same reason in this letter," Elijah reminded her. Then he walked past her, over to her desk and grabbed a notebook and pen from the top. He dropped the items next to the letter on the bed. "So write to me."

As soon as he walked out of her room, Madeline rushed over to the letter to confirm. Sure enough.

I made a promise to myself years ago not to be in your life unless I could be all in (on the off chance you want or need me to be), because you don't deserve small pieces of someone, and that's all I could give you while my dad's alive and living next door to you.

Then she remembered the words he spoke to her before he left.

"You're the only person who could ever talk me into staying, M&M, so I'm begging you not to ask me to."

His bastard father was no longer alive. Madeline was finally free to ask him to stay.