“You’re not going to throw up.” I feel the car slow to a stop, and my heart pounds so hard I can hear the blood rushing into my ears. “Hey.” His warm fingers wrap around my lower jaw, and he turns my face toward him as I blink my eyes open. We’re not parked right in front of my parents’ house like I assumed. We’re stopped in the middle of their long driveway, still out of view. “Tell me the worst-case scenario.”

“What?”

“What’s the worst-case scenario in your mind of what will happen after you tell him?”

My throat starts to burn just thinking about it. “My dad says that he never wants to see me again, and I lose my family.”

“Do you think that is an actual possibility?”

“No,” I whisper, and he nods, sliding his fingers along my jaw.

“It’s going to be okay, Franny, and if it’s not, I’ll make sure that you’re okay until it is.”

And if it’s not, I’ll make sure that you’re okay until it is.

My chin wobbles. “Thank you.”

“We’re a team,” he says so adamantly I’d be stupid to question if he really means it.

“Yeah,” I agree.

I didn’t fully understand what he meant the first time he told me that we’re a team, but I’m starting to get it now. The things that are too heavy for me to carry? He’s the person I can pass them off to, and he’s the one I can lean on when I’m exhausted.

I can’t remember if I ever had that with Matthew or if our partnership was always one-sided. I do know that, in the end, we were just two people taking care of ourselves, when we should have been taking care of each other.

“Are you ready to get this over with?” he asks, and I run my teeth over my bottom lip, then nod. “That’s my girl.” He touches his mouth to mine once more, then lets me go.

I watch him put the engine back in drive and drag in a breath as we head toward my parents’. I’m still scared, but not as scared as I was a few minutes ago, because he’s right. My worst-case scenario is not going to happen. My dad would never turn his back on me, and if he tried, my mom and Jacob would never agree to that.

“Mom! Dad!” I call out, walking into my childhood home a few minutes later.