Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“When he’s ready, we’ll be there for him. If he’ll let us.”
“You want that?” She rested her hand on his shoulder. “To reconcile with him?”
“I don’t know.” He gave her his real answer. “What I do know is that I didn’t come here to talk about Cam.”
“Really? Is that so?” The look she offered teased him, but Walsh couldn’t laugh. Couldn’t even force himself to smile, because the weight of the next few moments pressed into his chest until his heart hurt.
“I want to tell you a story.” Walsh steadied his breathing and locked his knees in place because they were actually shaking. “A story my mom told me right before she died about my great-great-great-great-grandmother, who was actually a slave.”
Kerris blinked several times, processing the surprising information.
“I know it’s hard to believe looking at me, but she was an eighth black.” He studied her face with a wry smile. “People were probably always trying to figure out what she was, too. I guess you know what that’s like.”
Kerris looked away, but a small smile tugged at the soft line of her mouth.
“She was the master’s mistress.” Walsh grimaced before continuing. “She had two of his children. Those are my ancestors. But the story my mother told was about Great-Grandma Maddie and Asher, not her and the master.”
“Asher?” Kerris looked up at Walsh, frowning. “Who was he?”
“He was a slave on the plantation, and he fell in love with her almost instantly. He loved her, but he couldn’t live that way. Said he’d rather die than watch her with another man for the rest of his life. So he ran away. Escaped, but had to leave her behind.”
Walsh pressed on with the story, hoping it would make as much sense to her as it had to him.
“He went on to fight for the Union, and when the war was over, he returned to North Carolina to find Maddie. The master had died in the war, but had left her, as a free woman, a plot of land and a small bit of money to raise his two children with. That land and that little bit of money was the foundation for my family’s success.
“When Asher found her, she was raising the master’s kids and working that land by herself. He married her. He didn’t care that she’d been the master’s mistress, or that she’d had the master’s children, or that she was living on land the master had left her. He just knew she was his soul mate, and he’d do whatever it took to spend the rest of his life with her. They took their second chance.”
“Walsh, that’s beautiful.” Kerris curled her hand into a fist on his chest, her eyes telling him the story had landed with her the same way it had for him.
“Yeah, it is.” Walsh smiled for the first time since he had started. “My mom told me that story because I asked if she believed in soul mates. I thought I had found and lost mine.”
Walsh saw the tears standing in Kerris’s eyes and felt the band restricting his chest loosen inch by inch. He pulled a small ring from his pocket. It was a simple gold band. Not flashy, or expensive, but with an intricate pattern etched into the surface. His mother left her original wedding band for her father, but this one—this one she’d left for Walsh.
“Mom said I came from a long line of romantics, and she knew that I would find a way to love. That’s why she left me this when she died. It’s the ring Asher gave my great-grandma Maddie.”
Walsh stooped several inches until they were almost eye level. He searched her eyes and saw the answer before he asked the question. His heart banged against his chest like it wanted out so it could fall at her feet.
“Kerris, will you please, please marry me?” He plowed on, almost afraid to give her the chance to refuse. “I know you just got divorced today, and it might look bad, but I can’t live another day without this promise. I want to wake up yours every day for the rest of my life. And I have to know you’re mine. It doesn’t have to be this ring. Good grief, I could go to Harry Winston or—”
“Don’t you dare.”
Kerris reached for the hand holding the simple gold band. She looked at him, and he’d never seen her eyes so sure. So confident. So certain. He didn’t know if his love had done that for her, or if she had done it for herself, but it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever witnessed.
“I don’t actually care how it looks.” She watched him through her lashes, coquettish for once. “If you’re sure you want me…”
“Kerris, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” He hated the tears he had to blink away. He wanted to get through this without wussing out. “You are the soul mate I thought I’d never get to live my life with. I’m pinching myself that we get a second chance. Please don’t make me wait any longer, baby.”