Bare Hearts by Devon Youngblood

glass doors with a cup of coffee in her hand.
    “Did you get some sleep?” I give her shoulder a light squeeze.
    “A little.” I can tell her mind is somewhere else.
    “I’m sure you can get someone to look after your shop today if you wanted to stay here,” I offer, trying to ease her mind.
    The anger boils my blood at the thought of her hurting like she is. I wish the guy would just rot in hell and leave her alone.
    “I might do that. I need to go to my house, to look for that money he is talking about. Maybe if I find it he will be out of my life forever.”
    “I’ll go with you. I can help if you want; two heads are better than one,” I offer.
    “Sure, that would great.” She offers a weak smile.
    Pouring myself a cup of coffee, I refill hers before taking a seat at the table. I sit and just watch her taking in the view out back.
    “Maybe we should cool it for a while. Spend a few days apart, so I can get some things in order. Maybe we shouldn’t rush what we have going on. This is all too much for me to process.”
    My heart sinks at the very thought of losing her. “How could you say that? After everything we’ve been through together. Can’t you see this is what he wants?” I yell, slamming my fist against the table, causing Lily to jump. “If you think breaking us apart is what you want, go for it. But I can guarantee I won’t go down without a fight. I will fight for us.” My body coils at the thought of losing her. I can’t let her do this. “I can’t lose you now, not like this. I won’t live without you in my life. I refuse to let him win,” I tell her.
    “I’m trying to protect you; I just don’t want you to get anymore hurt in the process. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you,” she says with worrisome eyes.
    “Just let me in, Lily. Whatever happened in your past, I don’t care about that. I care about now, being with you. You came into my life at a time when I lost everything; my world crumbled around me and you were the only light in my darkness. Can’t you see my feelings for you have evolved into something I’ve never felt before? Yes, it’s scary; I know, but don’t give up on us now,” I tell her. She sucks in a breath and brings her lips to mine, kissing me deeply.
    “Now, let’s get a move on it before the day gets away from us.” Lily makes a phone call to her flower shop to get someone to cover for the day.
    We make our way over to her house and once we’re inside she looks around, as if the place is foreign to her.
    “I guess we start in her room. That might be the most logical place to start,” she instructs.
    Lily starts going through her drawers, while I look under the mattress and closet. After several hours of searching the house from top to bottom, we come up empty handed.
    “Now what?” Lily asks feeling deflated.
    “Where is the most unlikely place she would hide something? A place she wouldn’t want anyone else to look?”
    She ponders the question, giving it some thought. “We’ve literally looked everywhere.”
    “I think there is one more place we should check out,” I say as she follows me into the kitchen. Opening up the freezer we both hurriedly start placing everything on the island counter. Way in the back I pull, out a block of what looks to be ice inside a plastic bag.
    “Do you think that’s it?” She asks curiously.
    “Let’s thaw it out and see. But I think this could be it.”
    We place the other contents back into the freezer. While we wait for the block to thaw we decide to pop in a movie to take our mind off all this stress for a while. She picked a romantic comedy, because that’s all she mostly owns. I suffer through it, just so I hear her giggle or laugh at the cheesy parts. The way she giggles and her eyes crinkle warms my heart. And for the most part we did forget about the real world for a little bit. But life has a funny way of creepy back up quickly.
    “Okay, let’s go check on