Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Tom stopped and stared at the table.
“Each section is a page of the book,” she said. “There’s more I completed before in folders. But today, I finished it. It’s done.”
Tom didn’t take his eyes from the table.
“And now,” she whispered, “I’ve let him go, so I can give all of me to you.”
Tom dropped his head and closed his eyes.
I can give all of me to you.
He’d loved Genny, Christ, to his soul.
But he’d never had all of her.
Never.
Corey never had it.
They didn’t because Duncan did.
I can give all of me to you.
“He’ll always have a piece of me, Tommy,” Mika said gently. “A special place that’s just his. But the rest…”
She trailed off.
Tom opened his eyes, but he didn’t see anything when he said in a thick voice, “Not that photo. The one in your home. Keep that for you two. For the cover, use the one with the cat on his chest. It says everything about him.”
“You’re right, yes. Tommy. It says it all. I’ll use that,” she whispered.
Tom focused on the paper in front of him.
She Has Your Hair
“Hey!” they heard Cadence call up the stairs. “Matt and Sasha are here!”
His son.
Lead foot.
Risktaker.
Beloved.
Tom read:
She bubbles.
And froths.
And rushes to greet the day.
She has your hair.
The stick twirls in her fingers.
She doesn’t notice it.
She has your hair.
The beat pounds
through the house.
Her beat. Yours is gone.
I close my eyes.
She has your hair.
In the beginning
I lay in our bed
with her tiny baby body on your pillow.
I never washed the case.
She has your hair.
The coils spring back
if tugged.
Bouncing.
Alive.
She has your hair.
You never heard her cry.
You’ll never hear her voice.
You’ll never see the light that dances in her eyes.
Your eyes.
She has your hair.
Every day
an agony
that you will not meet.
She bubbles.
And froths.
And rushes to greet the day.
She has your hair.
Tom, gutted, stripped raw through those words, looked to Mika.
And after reading beauty and tragedy written by a master of costuming emotion in the shroud of words, he spoke simply.
“I’m in love with you.”
Tears filled Mika’s eyes.
“Part of me has been in love with you since the microscope,” he admitted. “You have all of me now.”
Mika, so Mika.
She gave it back and didn’t make him wait.
“I’m so glad I’m not the only one.”
They were only three feet away from each other.
They collided in the middle.
He tasted her, he smelled her, he felt her, warm and soft, pressing against him.
Steady and strong, anchoring him.
It was what he’d been searching for all his life.
We were all adrift, everyone was searching for an anchor. It could be a person. It could be a career. It could be a place.
For Tom, it was Mika.
She knew what he could do at his worst, and she’d fallen in love with him.
He broke the kiss that tasted of salt and smoothed the hair away from her face, gliding his thumbs through the wet on her cheeks, as he looked into those sparkling aquamarine eyes.
They could do long distance.
She could live on the moon, and he’d go to her there.
“I’ll build the tennis court,” he said.
A laugh exploded from her almost like a gasp, and she was kissing him again.
“Shit. First Mom and Bowie, now this,” they heard Matt complain.
“See! I told you! This studio is life!” they heard Sasha exclaim.
“I hope I find a guy who kisses me like that,” they heard Cadence whisper.
Tom broke the kiss, touched his lips to Mika’s cheeks, looked into her eyes and told her what he needed to do next.
He did this without words.
She nodded.
She’d written that poem.
She knew.
He let her go and walked right to Sasha.
She has your hair.
He took her head in his hands exactly like he’d been holding Mika, and he looked in her eyes.
“Daddy,” she whispered, those eyes now wide, staring alert into his.
“I’m sorry I allowed you to flounder,” he said.
“Dad, it was me who—”
“I love you more than my own life, Sasha. And that will never change. You can come to me with things you need to unburden, or you can find your way to carry them, knowing I’m always close at hand to share the load. It’s your life, and now that you’re grown, the only reason I’m in it is to love and support you. Do you understand me?”
A tear fell through her lashes, gliding down her cheek as she nodded.
He pulled her fiercely to him, pressed his lips hard to her skin and kissed her forehead.
He then let her go and turned to Cadence, who was standing in the circle of her mother’s arms, staring at him and Sasha.
“You have that now, do you understand?” he asked her.
Her answer trembled. “I think so.”
“We’ll have time and then you’ll understand.”
She sucked in her lips as wet hit her eyes.
Mika pulled her closer and kissed the side of her head.
He moved to his son.
She has your hair.
Rollo never had it.