Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

I climb into my car right when the bottom falls out of the sky. Huge
drops of rain assault the windshield, the pavement, the hood of my car.
They’re so fat, they sound like acorns hitting my car.
I sit for a moment, waiting to figure out where I’m going before I start
the car. I don’t want to go home yet because Ryle might show back up. I
definitely don’t want to go to Allysa’s because I’ll absolutely run into him
in the apartment building where he lives.
I feel very protective of Emmy right now because Ryle has every right
on paper to show up and take her from me for the day, but I’m not allowing
my daughter around him on a day I know his fuse is nonexistent.
I look in my rearview mirror, and Emmy is just sitting peacefully,
looking out the window at the rain. She has no idea the kind of chaos that
surrounds her existence, because to her, I’m her entire existence. Every
ounce of her trust is in me. She depends on me for everything, and she’s just
sitting there happy and comfortable, as if I have it all under control.
I don’t feel like I have it under control, but the fact that she assumes I do
is good enough for me. “Where do we go today, Emmy?”