Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
A shocked silence fills the room, the tension so thick, it’s suffocating. I look between them just as Cameron does—hell, the whole room does. I have to force myself to breathe because I’m getting light-headed watching them.
“Hey there, Emery!” Owen says, breaking the tension, not that I’m surprised.
Owen is a dork.
Emery swallows. “Hey, Owen. Hey, everyone,” she says with a shyness I’ve never seen in her before. Finally, she tears her gaze from Quinn’s to look over at Shea and Elli. She goes to Shea, and he envelops her in a hug that is both familiar and sweet.
Cameron looks at me in confusion.
I clear my throat free of emotion and say, “Emery stayed here a lot growing up.” Leaning in, I whisper, “She and Quinn hooked up here.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh my.”
“Yeah.”
Next, Shelli hugs her, kissing her cheeks and wiping her tears away. “It’s so good to see you, my darling girl. How are you?”
“Be better if I hadn’t gotten the call that two of the most astonishing people in the world had passed. I just talked to Grandma last week. What happened? Mom didn’t know.” Her voice is so horse, so raw, it kills me.
“Grandma had a stroke and fell into a coma. They couldn’t get her back, and we’re pretty sure Grandpa died from a broken heart.”
Hearing Elli say that really does me in. I feel Cameron tense beside me, and I close my eyes, leaning into her. She holds me like I don’t outweigh her or tower over her. She is the strength I need when none is in sight.
“I’m so incredibly sorry for your loss—for all of y’all’s loss,” Emery says, and everyone murmurs some kind of thanks. When I open my eyes, I see that Emery is making her way around Shea and Elli, her eyes on Quinn. I look at Quinn to find his jaw slack and his eyes wide. He steps out from behind the piano, just as Emery reaches him. All eyes are locked on them, with no intention of giving them privacy. We’ve all been waiting for this, and I wonder if anyone is going to bring up Ava.
Looking at the two of them, I sure hope not.
Emery makes the first move, wrapping her arms around Quinn’s neck, and my dude falls into her. His tears come quick, his arms tightening around her like she is a life preserver and he’s drowning. He buries his face in her wild, curly hair, and when her lips graze his temple, I have to look away. I take a deep breath and then look at Cameron. “Wanna get out of here?”
She nods, and I thread her fingers with mine. I guide her toward the back door, and in the mud room, we put on coats and snow boots since Boston is in dead-ass winter. We head into the freezing cold and crunch through the snow until we get to the snowmobiles. I get on, and she climbs up behind me, wrapping her arms around me. I’m surprised she hasn’t asked where we’re going, but then, I don’t think she cares. She wants to be with me. I start the vehicle, and we take off into the woods of the Adler property. We could have walked but it’s cold, and I want to be alone with Cameron.
I need to be alone with her.
When we come to the pond house, I park beside it and then get off before helping her down.
“Where are we?” she finally asks, and her teeth rattle. I chuckle at her red nose, her purple lips, and her wide eyes.
“And you want all four seasons?”
She laughs. “Yeah, I don’t know about that now. Don’t get drafted by Boston, ’k?”
I scoff. Though, knowing she plans to come has me grinning for the first time since I found out Jenna and Mark had passed. As I guide her toward the pond house, I tell her, “This is where we went pond fishing, and we skate on that pond when it’s good and frozen.”
I open the door with the key from behind the broken board by the door and push it open into darkness. It’s cold as fuck in here, so I hurry to the wood-burning stove and throw on some logs. I light it as Cameron sits on one of the fluffy, oversized chairs, bundling up in her jacket and mittens. The chair was for Grandma when she’d come out here while Grandpa fished. On the table beside the chair is a stack of romance books. She loved the Outlander series and told everyone she was just waiting to fall through some stones to meet her Jamie. “Pray God he looks like your grandaddy.”
That Halloween, Grandpa dressed up as Jamie Fraser just for Grandma.
With a lump the size of a puck in my throat, I somehow get out, “It’ll warm up soon.”