Influx (Book Four)

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

Nerves pour through my system and I rub my sweaty palms on my ironed dress pants. Rolling my tense jaw out, I still haven't quite regained all the mobility in my face, but for once I don't even mind. I can speak, I can walk, and damn I lived to see another day. Glancing at Click, she's dressed in a jumpsuit Ruka helped pick out for her and she looks so grown and mature. She catches my gaze and I pull her close and snap a photo.

"You sent that to print already?" She asks me amused and I fidget in my seat.

"I'm going to mail it to your father so that he knows you are doing okay," I say genuinely, and she grins.

"I'm going to write something on the back of the photo!" She says excitedly and I grin. The car pulls to a stop and I wipe my palms again and Click laughs at my nerves before bounding out of the car into Cabe's arms. He smiles down at her with such a softness I am almost distracted by my own awaiting hand. Alexander helps me out of the car and pulls me into his arms for a moment.

"You seem nervous," he says without missing a beat.

"It's been a very long time since I was around the entire family," I say anxiously, and he spins us around for a moment.

"You've been missed, and now there's a new addition to the family," he says bumping into the younger lovebirds. He glances at my hair and see's I had it cut and styled.

"You totally dig the short hair," I tease, and he laughs and agrees, and we walk into the open backyard where there is a massive party raging. The crowd erupts into cheers and I breeze around with ease, Alexander holds my hand the entire time, no matter how sweaty and damp it gets. I have to make him let go so I can wipe it off and we just snicker at each other.

"Hadley!" My parent's chorus and I pull both my mother and father into massive hugs and Click follows right behind me. This is just as much her family now. I catch her gaze before she runs over to her friends and something inside me radiates warmth.

"You're glowing," Alexander says, and he wraps his arms around me and we sway to the music playing in the distance.

"I honestly can't remember the last time I was this happy," I admit, and Alexander squeezes me, and I laugh. Staring out at the large crowd of people, I don't feel as nervous. They welcomed me back without a moment of hesitation. I hear a camera going off and glance at Orion, he grins at me deviously before checking his camera.

"That's such a good one!" He yells so excitedly and Faith leans up over his shoulder and gasps.

"Show them!" She says excitedly and I carefully take the camera from him. Focusing in on the photo, my breath is knocked out of me at how at peace I look in the photo. Alexander has his head resting on my own and we are both looking off into the distance, completely oblivious and incredibly at ease. His arms are wrapped tightly around me and I have our one hand intertwined. I barely notice that the left side of my face doesn't quite match the right, I am more focused on how content he looks.

"That's a keeper, I'll take two copies of that," Alexander says happily and I second that as the music picks up. My ears prickle at the familiar tune and Alexander laughs in my ear.

"I hope you know Cathleen and Aviva danced to this at their wedding, it was the only song Cathleen would have their first dance be to," Alexander says, and I am surprised by that. This was all of our favorite song growing up, we would scream it at the top of our lungs, even though it was more of a ballad, and we would take turns dancing with each other.