Page 127 of No Place Like Home

To that, he nodded.

Jess and I would decide the best way to let the public know. That was something I wasn’t too worried about now. I was enjoying my time with them, but I also knew my time here was coming to an end. I needed to leave, and I knew leaving without my two girls wasn’t something I would look forward to doing.

I loved having them in my house, even if they stayed in my bed and I slept in the guest room. Watching how Jess was with Quinn, I knew I wanted her to be in my life indefinitely. She didn’t want to confuse our daughter, so I was kicked out while my fucking dog slept in my spot.

I told myself that patience was key.

“Do you have the other one?” I asked Max.

“Yeah. I’ll go to the prison early next week,” he assured me.

He handed me the paper, and I read over the contract. Jess’s father would be getting out of jail in a few years. To ensure he never talked to her again, I would pay the asshole off. I hadn’t gone to see him, because I knew that I would have lost it on the man who damaged my wildflower if I did.

“Anything else?” Max asked as he ran his fingers through his copper hair.

I got up and shook my head. I was about to walk out of his office when I turned around. Shit, my dude really has it bad for Freya. He had a shit ton of pictures of them together.

“Tell your brother to cash the damn check, or we’re suing him.”

Max just laughed.

“He’s annoying that way.” He shrugged it off.

And yeah, it was annoying as fuck. He’d taken care of my girls for three years. And I wanted to repay him, because that was on me. I know Jess said she was tutoring English online to get by, but something in me still hated that Prescott was the one who was there for her and not me. I guessed he was better than Cubbie.

* * *

Jess

Enough was enough.

I was mad now. Even if I had been working on my shit and Quincy had given me happiness like I had never had before, there was still an emptiness inside me.

Now here I was in front of Juliet’s house. Everyone had arrived to Cynthia and Pete’s minus Rosie, and I knew it was because I was there.

Sighing, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

I didn’t call out for her. I just headed straight for her room. I opened the door, and there she stood. I didn’t know who was more shocked: her or me. My baby sister wasn’t a baby anymore. Tears filled my eyes. Her blonde hair was long, now falling down in beachy waves. Her lashes were long and thick with mascara. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, but on her way to being a woman.

“You need to stop being mad at me,” I demanded from her.

“Go away,” she hissed.

God, she was beautiful.

“No.” I closed the door. “I’m not leaving this room until you talk to me again.”

“Oh, kinda like you talked to me in the last three years?”

Ouch. That fucking hurt.

“I missed you so much, Rosie,” I hissed.

“No, you didn’t, or you would have called.”

“I couldn’t,” I told her.

“Liar.”

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