Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
They were both quiet for a few minutes before Sam said, “Your mother…was she a…good person?”
Autumn pondered that a moment. She thought about how Sam had told her that not only minds but souls could be ruined. Twisted. Killed even, so that something darker rose in their place. She still wasn’t sure that was true. She’d seen how a loving and kind mother could act toward her own child and someone else’s in Veronica Monroe and, to some extent, the nurses at Mercy, especially Salma. Veronica had accepted Autumn into her home and heart instantly, and her love had been a much-needed balm throughout the last nine years. But her birth mother? She hadn’t been evil to her necessarily, but she had certainly been no mother. And she definitely wasn’t good to herself. “Maybe she was good once, a long time ago, but not anymore, no.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said, turning his head and looking at her. “I know you wished for her to be.”
Their gazes held, and Autumn’s heart gave a kick. Yes, he did know. No one else knew the way she’d longed for her like Sam did. The way she’d wondered and hoped. He’d read her most personal words and dreams.
Autumn was glad he had. Glad he knew. She was honored he’d treated her thoughts—her feelings put to words—with such reverence.
She tipped her chin, opening her mouth to speak, when something wet and cold hit her cheek. She tilted her head back farther, watching as tiny white flakes drifted from above. “It’s snowing,” she said wondrously. “Oh my goodness.” She stood, and so did he, Autumn laughing as the wind picked up, the breeze swirling with white.
Sam smiled as he watched her spin around once, raising her arms. She stopped, laughing. They wouldn’t be able to stay out here too long. It was getting colder by the moment, and she didn’t think there was any snow gear in the cottage.
Sam tipped his head, catching a few snowflakes on his tongue, laughing as one hit him in the eye. He squinted. Time slowed. Autumn watched him as he raised his face again, crystals glittering in his golden lashes. His tan cheeks were flushed with cold, his lips a deeper shade of pink, and the joy on his face was innocent and guileless. Look at the light within him. Radiant. It socked her in the gut. It felt like, for just a second, he’d opened his chest and shown her his hidden heart. It stopped her breath, and for the barest instant, everything was right in the world. Every single thing.
There was no past to get mired in. No remembered pain or shattering injustice that might never be made right. No anger or resentment, no doubt, no fear. Nothing at all to overcome.
And loving him was as simple as drawing in air.
Just a beautiful moment, as pure and shimmery as the snowflakes that fell. The future was theirs, anything they dared to dream. Anything at all.
And even when it passed, when the moment moved on and became a different one, a part of her stayed there and remembered what perfect had felt like. And she knew that any version of heaven she experienced from that day forward wouldn’t be quite right without him.
I love you.
She didn’t say it. He wasn’t ready to hear it. But she did. Oh, she did.
He brought his face forward, his eyes sparkling, that smile still playing on his mouth. The snowflakes on his face were melting into droplets of water. He’s glorious.
His smile faded. “Are you okay?”
She realized she was standing completely still, staring at him, and she laughed, nodding, not quite able to find her voice just yet.
He watched her for a moment, questions in his eyes. “Should we…go inside?”
She nodded again, laughed again. “Yes. Let’s go inside.”
They returned to the warm cottage and took off their boots by the door. Sam turned to her to say something when they heard the sound of a car pulling up in front of the cottage. Autumn’s heart jumped, and she rushed across the room to the front door, Sam right behind her. Please be Bill. But he’d just brought groceries a few days before. Who else?
She peeked out the window, breath rushing from her lips. “It’s Sheriff Monroe,” she said to Sam. “I know him. He’s a good man. He’d never hurt either of us.”
Sam was tense but didn’t attempt to stop her as she pulled the door open.
“Autumn,” the sheriff said. “What the hell is going on?”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sam’s arm shot out, and he stepped between Autumn and the older man in the sheriff’s uniform.
“It’s okay, Sam,” Autumn said, ducking from beneath his arm. “I know him.”
The sheriff shut the front door and walked toward them, glancing at the makeshift hospital bed near the window, his eyes lingering on the table covered by medical supplies. “I knew something was up when I kindly offered to drive out here and check the pipes Bill mentioned were making strange noises a few months ago and he nearly shit a brick falling all over himself saying he’d already done it. That man’s a terrible liar. And wouldn’t know a water pipe from a pipe cleaner. Then Peggy Lou at the secondhand store mentioned Bill came in last week and picked up a few pairs of pants in a size that definitely wasn’t his.” He looked Sam up and down, clearly assessing his size and coming to the correct conclusion.