a place we know| ✓

forty eight

WARNING–TRIGGERING CONTENT; MENTION OF SELF-HARM
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"And find a place where every single thing you see tells you to stay."
S E E K E R
.
.
January 30th
4:30 PM
New York
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Audrey was snatched back by a gentle tug on her elbow. She looked up, finding Tucker's mellow, brown eyes moored on her face. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

She quickly averted her gaze to his twins and her daughter, lost in conversation as they headed towards their rooms. "Yeah, sure."

He nodded gratefully and guided her down the outdoor staircase and to the first floor of the shelter, where they stood off to the farthest side of the brick building, distant from the row of doors that lined it. From this position he could still keep and eye on their children. It was Leah's despair that bothered Audrey, equivalent to the colors of this wretched shelter. It hadn't snowed for a few days and all that was left of heaven's white dust was now brown and slushy, melting under their shoes.

The mornings and afternoons were fairly quiet. Once the sun sank, there'd be all kinds of residents lurking around the vicinity.

"Are you okay, Audrey?" Tucker held both her frostbitten hands and they warmed in his palms. "Tell me what's going on. I can help you."

Audrey's head turned aside, her eyes fastened on the dead weeds and cracking concrete. "I'm doing fine, Tucker. There's nothing to help me with because there's nothing wrong."

He drew his hands back and took his heat along with them, wearing a face of low spirit. "I'm not blind. Ever since you told me that Leah spoke to her dad, you've been acting distant. Did he say something? Do something? I'm trying to understand–"

"You don't have to understand, Tucker, because everything's alright. He didn't say or do anything like you think; I didn't even talk to him. I've been overwhelmed lately, that's it."

She said it in one swift breath, giving herself no chance to trip over her words. Her throat was so dry and itchy, mouth full of cotton, her saliva acidic as she swallowed. There was much to tell Tucker, but her burden wasn't his.

Gliding his fingers through his shaggy hair, they fell in soft waves around his florid skin and abruptly stopped at his chin. Audrey adored that aspect of him; despite being all man, he sported the appearance and soul of a boy.

"I'm in it a hundred percent for you, Audrey," he uttered, voice billowing out like wind and scattering out into the weather. "And I haven't been able to say that about anyone before. I thought the feelings I had for my sons' mom was this, what I feel towards you, but they don't even come close. I care about you in ways I haven't cared about her before."

Audrey sought to stare into his eyes, where the constellations of his essence thrived, but he had them downturned to the dirty snow.

"Tucker, I'm sorry."

His eyes shot up to her. She could finally see his glistening pools of umber and exhaled softly.

"I'm sorry you feel like I'm distant," she continued, licking her parched lips as she spoke. "I don't mean to. This is still new to me because you're the only other guy I've ever felt like this about. I kinda get scared. I don't want to betray Leah's dad, especially when I told him I'd never stop caring about him."

"None of this means you can't care about him. I'm not asking you to forget. I just need to know if this is what you want," Tucker said. "Are you in the right place for this? I don't want anything one-sided."