Page 121 of Quiet Beautiful Things

He puts a finger under my chin and guides my face back up. “I’d have helped. Don’t you know I’d do anything for you?”

Tears come to my eyes. There’s so much I want to tell him.

“Beth is here. Do you want me to send her in?”

I shake my head.

“Is there anyone else you want me to call?”

I shake my head again. All I can do is stare at him. He came after me. And because he did, Tara and I are alive, and Grant can never hurt anyone again.

He. Came. After. Me.

Emotions I can’t even explain flow through me.

“You want to tell me something,” he says. He doesn’t arch his brows. It wasn’t a question.

I gently raise my bandaged hands and set them back down.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to sign. I know what you want to say.” He sits on the edge of the bed, careful to avoid my hands. I move one up to my stomach to give him room, and he puts a hand on my leg as he looks directly into my eyes. “You want to tell me you thought about it and changed your mind. You changed your mind because you realized how stupid it would be to throw away what we have. You know we’re perfect together. You know we don’t need words or signs to talk to each other. You knew it from that first day in the market when we saw each other from across the store. We’re perfect together because I can read your eyes like I’m doing right now. And you know what they tell me? That you love me.” He signs, “You love me, Ellie.” He brushes a hair off my forehead. “I don’t need you to sign it. I don’t need you to text it. I don’t need you to write it down. I don’t need any of that, because I know it’s true.”

I swallow. I swallow hard. And it hurts. Because the tears caught in my throat sting so much, I almost forget about the pain in my hands. But this hurt, it’s a good one. He’s right. He does know me. And we don’t need words.

Which is why I decide to give him some.

I lick my lips. Then I speak.

“I love you, Blake,” I say, hoping I’m clearly enunciating the first words he’s ever heard me speak.

I thought he’d be surprised. Pleased, even. But strangely enough, he doesn’t seem to be. His teary eyes look into mine as he puts a finger to my lips. “I don’t need you to say it, either. All I need you to do is look at me.”

So I do. I look at him. And we stare at each other just like we did that first day. We’re connected on an almost telepathic level. He doesn’t sign. He doesn’t talk. But his eyes speak volumes. And it’s everything I’ve ever wanted to hear.

Chapter Forty-four

Blake

Three months later…

Maisy and I put the finishing touches on her new room then stand back and admire our work. Her princess bed sits in the middle, the four-poster bed with a canopy on top and sheers along the sides making it look like something out of a Disney movie.

Bolt has his own bed in the corner, also pink, which as a boy I think he should protest, but I get the idea he’d put up with anything for Maisy.

I know the feeling.

“Perfect,” I sign.

“I love it,” she signs, and hugs me. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too.”

Exchanging those words has become an everyday occurrence for us, and it warms my heart every single time.

Tapping her shoulder to get her attention as she organizes her toy ponies by height, I motion to the hallway. “I’m going to finish dinner.”

“Celebrate,” she signs.

“Yes, we’re celebrating. Big day.”

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