Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
She let me stroke her fur as I inspected her for any kind of damage. She looked fine.
“She scratched him,” I explained to Kip, laying a kiss on her fur. “She tried to protect me.”
“A dog would’ve done a better job,” he grumbled but ruffled Boo’s fur affectionately.
I kissed her nose.
She stared at me, then Kip, and turned around, presenting us with her ass before she strutted to the end of the sofa, settling herself beside my feet.
I giggled. First small, then larger. Sure, there was probably an edge of hysteria to the laughter, but most of it was real.
Kip regarded me with concern for a beat before the corner of his mouth twitched. I doubted he was able to muster up anything close to a smile because he was still deep in badass worry mode, but I was teasing my carefree husband back toward the light.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s just, you know, we’re trying to have a poignant and intense moment, and then the cat interrupts and ends it with shoving her ass in our faces before walking off,” I said as I giggled.
Kip tilted his head, still staring at me intensely, still not smiling. He brushed a sodden strand of my hair from my face.
“I love you very much,” he said quietly.
The words boomed inside my head, and I stopped laughing.
I squeezed his hand.
“I know,” I murmured.
The waves crashing was the only sound for a handful of seconds as we had yet another poignant moment.
Then Kip jerked, as if he were lurching out of some kind of trance. “Now can I take you to the motherfucking hospital?”
I grinned again. “Sure, you can. Only if you don’t carry me.”
“No fucking way,” he replied, lifting me into his arms.
“Kip,” I snapped. “I am now able to walk. I’m not an invalid just because I’m pregnant and was almost drowned.”
He did not dignify my statement with a response, just kept walking through the house.
Suffice it to say we bickered the whole way to the hospital.
Where, of course, we found out our daughter was completely fine.
I’d known that already.
Because, for the first time in a long time, I had hope.
I had faith.
epilogue
Happily Ever After
A whole bunch of shit went down after my current husband killed my ex-husband.
As one might expect.
First was the hospital, where Kip demanded I have every kind of test under the sun. Then I’d argued with that. He’d gotten mad. I’d yelled.
Then there was Nora, Rowan, Tiffany, Calliope, and Tina rushing in once they got the news. It was kind of embarrassing that my friends had to drop everything for the second time and run to the hospital on my account. So dramatic.
After we’d gotten the all clear, there had been the business of Kip killing a man. It was technically self-defense. That’s what Finn, our sheriff, said. Sure, there was a bunch of paperwork to go with it, but Kip wasn’t in trouble.
I wasn’t quite sure if it was technically self-defense, because Kip didn’t need to kill him. I hadn’t been the most reliable witness, but I did remember Kip having the upper hand from the start. He could’ve easily knocked Emmet out or whatever it was that soldiers were trained to do to subdue a threat without eliminating it.
Of course, I hadn’t told the cops that.
Emmet had tried to kill Kip’s pregnant wife. No way was Kip going to let him live.
I didn’t lose sleep over that.
Not a wink.
I lost sleep over my hip pain, heartburn, leg cramps, my overall discomfort. But not seeing Kip kill my ex-husband.
It might hit me later. That’s what Kip thought, at least. And Nora. And the rest of my friends.
Well, not Calliope. She’d believed me when I said I was fine.
It didn’t feel like it was going to hit me later. It was fucking dark, but I was happy Emmet was dead. He was a bad person who’d made my life a living hell. I didn’t know if he deserved to die in the grand scheme of things, but I was glad he was dead.
I didn’t think that made me a bad person. It just made me human.
My mother arrived in Jupiter like a fucking whirlwind. She came into the house, kissing me and Kip full on the lips. She’d smelled of patchouli and lavender. Her hair was still blonde, with small streaks of silver. She kept it long and wild. Her face was wrinkled, showing the hard life she’d lived before all this new-age shit. The years were not kind. But somehow, she still looked beautiful.
She radiated it. Beauty. And I hated to admit that shit. But it was true.
It only took a couple of days of her in the house, burning sage, making soups, brewing teas, and arranging crystals to see how utterly changed she was. How hard she was trying. How much she’d loved me. How much she’d maybe always loved me. But she’d fought her way out of all of her bullshit so her love shined through.