Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
I wavered, unsure, my fingers hovering over the screen, waiting for her response, though I could almost feel she was waiting for me to elaborate. Like she already knew. But she’d always had a way of tapping into exactly what I was feeling.
Me
Is it wrong if he’s exactly what I need, too?
The dots danced and played for the longest time before her response came through.
Mom
No, Emery, it’s not. I wondered. Thought that I sensed something between you two. And you deserve to be happy. Whatever that looks like. And if he’s what that makes you, then you take it.
I swallowed around the rocks in my throat.
Me
What about Ivy Threads?
Mom
You get to choose your priorities in this life, Emery. Whatever your heart is calling for? You listen to it. You chase joy and grab onto it wherever it’s waiting for you. It’s your time, my sweet girl. I’ve felt your spirit waiting to be freed for a while now, and it’s time. Don’t you dare feel guilty for finding love or happiness because I promise you that is what your sister would have wanted. I know you know that. Embrace it.
I could almost feel my mother curl her arms around me.
Me
I love you so much.
Mom
I love you, too. More than you know. You and that little girl. Now go and wrap your arms around that joy.
“Put it right there in the basket.”
Standing on a stool at the island, Maci carefully set the container of the little finger sandwiches that we’d spent the last hour working on into the basket, her tiny tongue coming out in concentration as she nestled it beside the container of fresh fruit.
“I fink I got it really good, Auntie Em. This is definitely going to be a super fun picnic. Do you fink my mommy wishes she was here?”
Her rambled, casual words pierced me like a knife.
A dull, blunt blade that sheared through me with gutting pain.
My knees going weak as I thought of my sweet sister. Guilt roiling in my spirit because I still didn’t know if what I was doing was wrong.
The only thing that was becoming clear was there was no letting go of him.
My foundation had been rocked. All the things I’d thought I’d known and wanted completely demolished in his touch.
My hand was shaking as I ran it over the top of Maci’s head, the words choked as I murmured, “I think she would definitely want to be here.”
“I fink I’ll draw her a picture so my dragon can fly it all the way up to heaven so she can see it.”
Grief bashed through my spirit, but somehow, it was mixed with this blossoming joy that had sprouted inside.
“Your mommy would absolutely love that.”
A wash of warmth suddenly flooded the room, and my stomach tightened in anticipation. Kane’s nearness eradicating every question all while evoking a thousand more.
I looked up to find him striding through the entryway, wickedly cool and sporting one of those easy grins that I found so sexy, though there was no missing the intensity. The worry he’d carried after what had happened at the beginning of the week so clear.
There’d been no trace of whoever had attacked me. No clues to pick up on. No additional threat.
That didn’t mean we hadn’t all been on edge since then.
Those magic eyes rolled over me as he approached, and I had to steel myself from the reaction that he evoked in me.
A bare glimpse and the fire he’d ignited was rekindled in an instant.
I couldn’t count the number of times he’d had me in the last week since I’d given in to our connection. Every moment while Maci was asleep, we’d be tangled in each other. Kane searching me in every way while I discovered exactly what it was like to be worshipped.
Sometimes it was soft and slow, but usually, it was grasping hands and desperate bodies. A wild sort of freedom that I was fast becoming addicted to.
“Found us a good blanket,” Kane said, lifting the folded white and black checked blanket that he’d carried in.
“Finally, my Mr. Kane. I fought we were gonna have to wait for you for the whole night, and we gotta hurry up and have our picnic ’fore the sun goes to sleep.”
It was only three, but apparently, she was concerned.
An affectionate chuckle rolled out of him, though I knew him well enough now to sense the tension that underscored it. Nervous of Maci’s reaction.
He’d confessed it last night, in the deepest hours as we’d lain in the dark curled in the middle of his bed.
His fear of being enough for her.
Of being good enough for her.
Was I a fool that after everything he’d confessed, after the terrifying things he’d suggested, that I’d argued that he was more than good?
It seemed impossible that I’d been here for just over two weeks and every presumption I had made had been transformed. I’d wanted nothing more than for this man to change his mind and allow me to take Maci home with me, but now I couldn’t imagine ripping the little girl from her daddy.