Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Accosted you!” Jo’s mouth fell open, her face impishly outraged. “I accidentally brushed up against you.”
“Baby, I think they only call it that in the Red Light District.”
Their laughs tangled in the air, dying off into the quiet they were never afraid of together. Jo pushed the floppy hair back from his forehead, leaning in to briefly pull his lip between hers.
“What were you thinking about out here by yourself when I walked up?”
“That song you have on repeat.”
“I thought you’d like it.” Jo frowned, studying his face in the dim light.
“I do. It just reminded me of my mom.”
“I’m sorry.” Concern wrinkled Jo’s eyebrows. “I didn’t know.”
“No, it was a good memory. Something I’d forgotten. I don’t think I was even five years old, but I remember her dancing me around our little apartment. Before the drugs and…” Cam trailed off, not wanting to mention the subsequent horrors in this place. In these moments he’d just made sacred. “Before everything else.”
“So the song made you happy?” Jo smiled, kissing his nose and linking their fingers on her knee.
Was this happiness? He’d lived most of his life running after this feeling. He’d thought it would be like rainbows and fireworks, but instead it was a gentle contentment, a steady flame that burned brightest and hottest when he was with this woman. With their little girl. In the house where Jo had grown up and they were making a home again.
Happy. He rolled the word around on his tongue, tested it on his heart. He had run so long, chased by demons. Maybe he never would have found this kind of happiness any other way. When you’ve run in the dark for so many years, you relish the light and love every day in the sun. He wouldn’t have appreciated all he had now without experiencing the days when he’d had nothing.
“Cam, I said the song made you happy?” Jo persisted, still waiting for his response.
“You make me happy.” He blinked at the tears that had snuck up on him, swallowed the burn in his throat. “So damn happy.”
Jo looked at him, blinking at her own tears, tracing the line of his brows and his cheekbones with one finger.
“And of all the amazing things I’ve had in my life, you, Cameron Mitchell, are the best. I think there are all kinds of paths we can take. Choices we can make to have a good life. But my best life is with you.”
“And my best life is with you.” Cam pushed the unruly hair over her shoulder, kissing her mouth. “I think there’s one thing that would make our life even better.”
Jo’s eyes laughed and sparred with his.
“Cam, don’t you say it.”
“More babies.”
They laughed and talked like they had as children. Kissed and whispered like they had as lovers. By the river, they loved like they would for the rest of their days.