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"Charlotte," he whispered "Don’t go back there"

"I have to," I breathed, touching hed and silently waited for e points away fro forced to carry on without hiht And, with another tick froain Not without him So I threw on a pair of shoes and cliain

"I can still reh it was still infinitely waroing, I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t sit there doing nothing anymore He was out there so on their own accord toward the park The sa with my son before the world had turned upside down My hands ached for the stroller handle, and my ears yearned to hear the cries I’d so desperately been trying to silence with thatto have those cries back" My body tensed, the regret and longing in the ain

Porter nuzzledover ht here, Charlotte I’ve got you"

I inhaled so deeply that s carried me closer to the place I’d last seen him, I allowed my mind to conjure up memories of that trip It was crazy… When I had left , I was frustrated, sleep-deprived, and iht, I’d never been happier in my life" My voice cracked

But Porter silently held me and allowed me the time to collectmy eyes, I allowed s, like, ‘Shh… It’s okay, baby Maht here’ I whispered them into the wind as if he could hearme by, hope slipped further and further out ofthe sun was still high in the sky, children running and laughing all around us, Lucas crying in his stroller" I paused as ain hit my eyes "But, ht"

"Sweetheart," Porter soothed, gliding a hand up and down ht My eyes aiardless of how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop the sun fro It was the darkest sunrise of my entire life For ten years, I lived and breathed that darkness every day until I found you"

"Jesus, Charlotte" He palmed each side of my face and kissed me His lips were full of love and tasted of hope

"It’s always darkest before dawn, Porter We just have to wait a little while longer The sun always rises, baby"

"Dad?" Travis croaked, and we both exploded out of the chair

"Yeah…I’ our son’s dark hair down

I flipped the nightlight by the sink on so we could see him

He’d been asleep for hours When they had returned hiy and out of it from the anesthesia We didn’t even have a chance to talk to hiet a new heart?"

Porter took both of our hands in his "No, buddy There was so with the donor heart They didn’t even start the surgery"

"Oh," he groaned "That kinda sucks"

I laughed, a single tear escaping the corner of my eye

Kinda sucks weren’t the words I’d wanted to use when I had seen his surgeon in that doorway

It had been too soon

I had known right then and there that there wasn’t going to be a transplant that day Suddenly, I feared there wouldn’t ever be one And, after the drug of hope had swirled so high insideforce

We were right back to the agony of waiting and praying all over again

It had takenin Porter’s arms to realize that it wasn’t over

There was only one choice

And, through it all, ould be together

As long as we held on to that, we couldn’t possibly lose

"Yeah It definitely sucks," I said softly

Porter gavesqueeze "Hey, what do you say we FaceTime Nana and Hannah? They made me promise to call as soon as you woke up"

"Okay," he ery, does that "