“I know you carried a torch for French, but he’s gone now. For good. There’s no rescue mission that’s gonna bring him back from where he’s at. I don’t mean to be an ass, but that’s the truth. We tried, we really did. But he didn’t try back. Not hard enough, anyway.”

Her shoulders curled in a bit under the weight of those words. He leaned toward her, close enough that he could hear the air that slouch pushed out. “Rose, it’s okay. Maybe not now, but it will be. And I’m willing to wait until you truly understand that. I will wait for as long as it takes. I’m in, totally in. For every minute you are sad, or so angry you want to claw the bark off a tree, and maybe even the times you’re happy enough to smile. I’m in. And better yet, I’m the one who’s already here.”

He reached a shaking hand across the new distance between them. “I can wait, I promise. You’re worth every minute, however long it takes.”

“Derrick…”

He cut her off. “You know how I feel about you. Christ, everyone knows how I feel about you. I’m not exactly subtle, you know?” He dropped his hand against his thigh. “And I know I can be…a lot, but you and I, we’re a good team. We were amazing out there, weren’t we?”

She nodded, slow, to make the time to think.

“And we can keep being a good team. But for that to happen, you gotta stay with me. Please stay with me.” He tried to exhale, but the air hitched up in his throat.

That was it. He was done asking. Now it was her turn to give an answer. And she wasn’t sure she had one, not one that she could bear to hear herself say out loud. She remembered him in the bush, how he took care of her when she couldn’t take care of herself. She remembered lying beside him in the tent, pretending to still be asleep so she could enjoy the weight of his arm over her. She remembered the dream she’d had where they were strung together like Christmas lights. She knew how she felt when he was around: like everything might just work out. Like she was safe.

She just wasn’t ready to say the words. She took a breath and, for the first time in weeks, looked him directly in the eye. She had an answer.

CHAPTER 31

TRAVELING SONG

French

FOR A WHILE, I THOUGHT MAYBE I COULD JUST LEAVE, go running after Rose, now that Mitch was gone. But the tracker flashing in the bush before I could smash it meant the Recruiters were on their way, might even be in the area now. The only good chance I had—that we had—was to stick together and run forward, and fast.

“What happened out there, anyway?” Tree asked once we slowed our run to a fast walk.