Page 51 of Roam

Winnie: I’m in.

Ellie: Me too.

Sarah: Count me in.

Remi: You know it. Luke might need a buddy.

Jesse: I really want to, but I have two outside jobs that have to be finished tomorrow and paperwork piling up.

Clara: I’m free, Jesse, if you need help with paperwork. I’m bored.

Jesse: Perfect. Any time after lunch.

Sprite: Thanks. One o’clock. I’ll pick up Blake after lunch.

Sprite walked back toward the house, a little bit lighter. No matter how hard this road was, she now had friends who were walking along beside her. Or maybe sisters because Remi was almost her sister-in-law and Remi had four sisters. It was too confusing to deal with tonight, but regardless, she had a family who would help her.

Roam had mentioned going to the puppies. She wondered what he’d think about all the women who were going too.

She opened the door to the house and walked in. It was quiet. Roam had said he’d get everyone through bathtime and she should relax. She sat down on the couch and laid the case down, flipping the latches open. She lifted out the guitar.

She hadn’t learned to play until she was an adult. Her mother would have never paid for any type of extracurricular activities. Sprite had used money from her second paycheck after she started earning money to buy the guitar. She’d taught herself how to play by watching videos. She pulled up a video on her phone and looked up the chords to the song Roam was singing. She’d loved the words and they really hit home tonight for some reason.

She strummed and adjusted until she had the guitar in tune, then started playing the tune. She hummed along with it. She was on her second time through when Roam sat down beside her and started singing along. When he sang he’d be her shelter, it was all she could do to keep it together.

He’d already been her home and her shelter before she’d even realized how much he meant to her. The morning after the one-night stand that wasn’t, he was already meeting the needs he didn’t know she had.

She’d believed she was having a one-night stand with a gorgeous stranger. Instead, she was having the first time with a man who filled every broken piece of her heart. She finished the song just basking in their voices singing together and the music.

In the silence, she gazed at the man who had changed her life for the better.

“You filled the broken pieces that I didn’t even know were broken.”

“Did you ever think that maybe we were just two broken people who were getting by until we crossed paths? Maybe we were meant to find each other so together, we could be whole.”

Roam had a good point because for the first time in her life, Sprite felt loved and whole.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Roam rang up his client and flipped the walk-ins welcome sign to closed. Rascal was grabbing them lunch. Sprite had left to take Blake to look at the puppies. He’d planned on going. But when Sprite mentioned who all was going, he’d decided to let Sprite and Blake have some special time with the women of Bluff Creek.

He had a call to return but he was going to get Matthew’s bottle ready before he called. If he didn’t, there was a good chance that he wouldn’t be able to hear the call if Matthew woke up. That boy had a set of lungs on him that he wasn’t ashamed to use if he was wet or hungry.

Roam walked by the playpen he’d added to the office and saw Matthew lying there looking around. He leaned over and picked him up, snuggling him against him.

“How’s my little buddy? Are you hungry for some lunch?”

“How about you let me hold him while you get his bottle,” Bear said from the doorway.

“Hey, why aren’t you at the diner?”

Bear laid a package on the desk, then held out his hands for Matthew. Roam reluctantly handed his son over because hello, sometimes he’d actually like to hold his own son.

“Open it,” Bear nodded toward the package.

Roam opened the sack and pulled out a navy blue and white crocheted blanket.

“Aww, Bear, did you make this for him?”

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