Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Warmth skated from Theo. “Definitely have my hands full with you. All of you.”
Then he squeezed my hand tighter before he gave it a tug. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
He led us in.
It wasn’t like it was the first time I’d been there, but it felt like it.
Like wonder and awe as I stepped through the door and took in the surroundings.
The kitchen and living room. The insane view of the lake that stole my breath.
Tingles rolled through me when I glanced at the flames lapping in the fireplace where Theo had me for the first time.
As if he heard my thoughts, he pressed his mouth to my ear. “Prepare yourself, Pipes. Gonna have you in every spot of this house.”
Need raced, and I tucked it down for later as Theo started up the stairs.
Baby gates had been installed on both the bottom and top, and Theo walked directly into the room that we’d prepared for Finn.
Together, we’d picked out the bedding and decorations, and Raven, Charleigh, and Emery had helped me paint it.
Finn squealed and squirmed the second we stepped inside. “Finn’s room?”
“That’s right, little man.” Theo set him down, and he knelt in front of him, holding onto his tiny shoulders with those massive hands. “This is your room. A place where you know you’re always safe.”
I knew that Finn didn’t quite get it, but the only thing that mattered was that he did feel safe as he nodded again and turned and raced into the room. He darted from one area to the next, going through the toys in the toybox and the books that had been placed on a built-in bookshelf.
“You like it?” Theo asked.
Finn jumped onto his toddler bed that was covered in owl bedding. “I wuv it, my Feo.”
Theo crossed the room and pressed a kiss to his head. “And I love you.”
Finn beamed up at him and patted his chest. “I got a happy heart.”
Theo cupped Finn’s cheek and murmured, “Yeah. Me, too, little man. I’ve got the happiest heart there could ever be.”
Hours later, I was in the massive closet, hanging my clothes on hangers.
The night murmured its comfort.
Nelly was downstairs in her room, and Finn had been long asleep in his right down the hall.
I leaned down and grabbed the last shirt from my suitcase, situated it on a hanger, then hooked it on the rod.
I zipped up the suitcase and tucked it into the corner where Theo kept his.
My chest expanded when I realized I didn’t ever have to use it again.
Not unless I wanted to.
I no longer had to run, and if I traveled and wandered, it would be because I was exploring with my family.
Beside Theo.
That energy suddenly washed over me from behind.
Powerful.
Profound.
So perfectly overwhelming as it wrapped me whole.
I glanced back to find Theo leaning against the doorjamb of the closet with his hands tucked in his pockets.
So brutally beautiful he never failed to rob the air from my lungs.
“You gonna miss that thing?” He dipped his attention to the suitcase.
I looked back at it. “I think I could never leave this house and be just fine.”
Then I lifted my gaze back to him. “But honestly, it doesn’t matter where I am. As long as I’m with you, then I’m happy.”
Theo pushed from the jamb and slowly moved my way.
The ground trembled beneath my feet.
He curled those muscled arms around me, and he burrowed his nose in my hair.
“Good, because that’s exactly where you’re always goin’ to be. With me.”
I glanced at the duffel that was also on the floor. The one that had held my darkest secrets.
I had talked with Colt Astersen about our situation. Gave him the whole truth since Theo said he could be trusted. He urged that the best course of action was my coming back out into the light.
Telling the world what had happened so we wouldn’t have to get new identities and forever be worried about being discovered.
Apparently, Justin had already been wanted for the murders of the man and my family, and with all the information I was able to give him, he believed I wouldn’t be charged as an accessory, something I’d been terrified of, terrified of what would happen to Finn if I were to go to prison.
He believed I was a victim myself.
Though as long as Finn was cared for, I told him I would face that consequence if it was required.
I’d made that fateful mistake, and I would no longer run in fear from my responsibility.
Colt had told me not to be afraid of that happening. Not after the atrocities Justin had committed were exposed. How I’d been running from him for all this time.
The jewelry and the rest of the money had been returned to the man’s family.
Now, the only thing that remained in the duffel was my sketchbook. The fragments of the dreams I’d carried with me, though they’d been skewed with sorrow.