Page 55 of Embracing the Change

He nodded, needing that like he needed air to breathe, but he let her go and turned to Nora.

She looked like a Ralph Lauren ad. Medium-wash, western-inspired denim shirt, tailored white slacks, tan belt.

Her eyes were soft with relief and bright with tears as she lifted her hand to cup his cheek.

At her tender touch, the beauty in her expression, the memory of her the last few hours, not to mention how she’d been in his life the last few decades, it happened.

What he thought would never happen again.

But he was done.

It was over.

The fight. The denial.

The pain.

All of it.

Though, the instant he heard Castellini was making plays to get her back, and then Jamie saw her in that fucking dress, it had already been over.

She’d been at his side in a plane for the last five hours, holding his hand.

Before that, she’d been at his side in a damned helicopter, also holding his hand.

In fact, she’d been at his side the last nearly two years, and long before, looking after him, taking away his crushing loneliness and going so far as to make him laugh. A lot.

So Jamie took her face in both of his hands, angled his head, and captured her mouth.

She made a soft sound of surprise, but she was Nora. His Nora.

She didn’t pull away.

No, she wrapped her fingers around one of his wrists.

The kiss was hard and long, but closed mouthed, and he hoped it communicated all he felt for her, all she was to him, and all they were going to be in the future.

Jamie only ended it when he felt the wet of her tears on his lips.

He raised his head and looked down at her beautiful face.

The tears were not for what he just gave her, because Nora didn’t think like that. She didn’t think about herself first.

The tears were about what he was about to receive from Chloe and Judge.

“Go,” she whispered.

Yes. He was right.

Those tears were about the gift he was about to receive.

He nodded, pressed his forehead against hers, then let her go and moved to take his daughter’s hand.

Dru was staring up at him, lips parted, even more joy and relief in her eyes, but he couldn’t process that now.

“Show me the way, darlin’,” he prompted.

She squeezed his hand, and he traded chin dips and nods with Harvey’s wife Beth, Mika and Cadence, who, with Tom, had chartered their own plane and beat them there (they’d brought Dru), as well as Sasha, Matt, Gage, Alex, and Mi, Chloe’s best friend, along with Mi’s husband, Jacob. All of whom were in the waiting room.

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