Free Home Sweet Home by Bella Riley

Andi.”
    “I know. That’s why I’m coming right now. Right away.” He thought he heard a sob in her voice right before she said, “I love you, Nate. Be strong and wait for me. I’ll be there soon.”
    She hung up and he called 911. He knew the paramedics and police would help him and his sister. His neighbors would help.
    But Andi was the reason he would make it through.
    As long as she was by his side, he’d be okay.
     
    * * *
    Nate woke up from his dream, sweat coating his skin, the sheets kicked off. He was sitting up in bed, cradling his pillow like it was his baby sister while his heart pounded almost through his chest.
    He had to force himself to look around his bedroom, to see the house he’d built on the lake four years ago. He wasn’t that kid anymore whose whole life had changed in an instant. He wasn’t the boy waiting in the dirt for someone to come save him.
    Still he couldn’t stop thinking about those first hours after he’d discovered his father on the floor of the trailer. Right after getting off the phone with him, Andi had called her family, and Carol had come right away to take him and Madison to the empty cottage behind their big house. By the time Andi had arrived in Emerald Lake, the trailer had been closed off by the chief of police to ensure there was no foul play.
    Andi had run to him, held him, rocked him in her arms. Nate could see how badly she wanted to help, only he was already way beyond help.
    But somehow seeing her only made things worse, only reminded him of all the things he could no longer have.
    Because from the moment he found his father lying on the floor, everything had changed. His sister became his number one priority, and any dreams that he’d had for himself—for a life with Andi—had to be stuffed away.
    He didn’t remember falling asleep on the couch between questioning from the police and practically being force-fed by Andi’s mother. All he remembered was waking up to the sounds of his sister’s wails—and seeing Andi calmly changing Madison’s diaper, even though he knew she’d never done much babysitting around the lake. There was baby poop all over both of them, and she should have been freaking out, but she wasn’t.
    She was calm and collected and methodical about it all.
    And Nate knew he couldn’t do any of this without her.
    Over and over he’d told himself not to ask her to stay. It wasn’t her life that had exploded. It wasn’t her mess that needed to be dealt with. But in that moment, it was less courage than desperation that had him asking.
    Begging.
    “Stay with me, Andi.”
    She had looked at him with such shock, as if what he was asking her was so utterly unexpected, that he knew he shouldn’t say anything more. He should have told her never mind, that he didn’t mean it, that it was the exhaustion—and grief over losing his father—that was making him say crazy things.
    But he hadn’t done or said any of those things. Instead, he’d decided it was a test.
    A test to see if she really loved him. Or not.
    “Defer college for a semester. This is all such a big mess. Help me with Madison. Help me get my feet on the ground. I don’t know if I can do it without you.”
    She’d stared at him, then scanned the four walls of the cottage as if she could find an escape route if she looked carefully enough.
    “ Of course, you can do it, ” was what she’d told him.
    She didn’t need to say anything more. Those six words made everything perfectly clear to him. But he’d still pushed.
    Still hoped.
    “I need you, Andi.”
    He watched the care, the love, with which she carefully laid his clean and dry sister down in the donated crib and covered her with a blanket, kissing her on the cheek. Madison waved an arm in the air and Andi caught it, holding onto it with a smile for the little girl.
    Hope had flared in his chest one last time as he watched the sweet interplay between the two people he loved most in the world.
    But then Andi