Page 122 of Watercolor Skulls

I grab her hand, accepting her apology. “I’m sorry too. I should have waited for you to come around to the idea of telling them.”

She doesn’t say anything, she also accepts my apology.

We strip our muddy clothes on the porch before heading upstairs to shower.

The two of us stand under the stream, watching the muddy water swirl down the drain. She turns in my arms. I grip her waist, holding her close to me, our wet bodies pressed together. “I love you,” she says, pressing kisses across my chest.

“I love you too.” I place a kiss on top of her head. “Do you know I wished on a dragonfly for you. It was when I drew up the tattoo that Jesse told you about.”

She hugs me around the waist, brown eyes blinking at me slowly. “It was Jackson’s fifth birthday. I was down by the lake, watching the dragonflies darting over the water, remembering what Raffe had told me years before.” I run my finger over her bottom lip as it wobbles.

“I was surrounded by my family, but I was lonely. There was something missing from my life. So, I wished for that something to come to me.”

She lays her head against my chest. Squeezing me tight. I’ve never told her this. Never told anyone but tomorrow is a fresh start for us, and I want everything on the table.

“You…you are a wish come true, Lily Ramsey.”

She sniffles. “Thank you for telling me that story. I really needed it.”

“Tomorrow is a new start for us. Everything is out in the open. No more secrets. No more threats hanging over our heads. It’s time to celebrate you, us, friends, family, Jackson…everything. It’s time to celebrate our new life…together. Yeah?”

Lily lifts her big brown eyes, gracing me with a beautiful smile. “Yeah.”

Chapter Forty-Four

Lily

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The minute I step into the warehouse Jackson is running to me. He throws himself in my arms, hugging me tight. Instantly he melts away the last bit of doubt I’d been harboring in my heart.

I set him down ruffling his unruly brown hair. His big brown eyes, much like my own, stare up at me. “Hey, little brother,” I murmur quietly.

He smiles big. “I always wanted a sister,” he says before dragging me away from Dan. “Aunt Jesse helped me paint a picture. You can hang it by the other one I made for you.”

I laugh. “I love your paintings.”

He makes me sit down in a chair and close my eyes. “Okay, you can open them.”

It’s beautiful. His gift to me is a watercolor portrait of Jenny and I laughing, it’s the selfie from my phone. But in the painting Jackson is between us, smiling big. Our little family. My mind wanders to Jenny.

“I bet the baby will have your eyes,” Jenny tells me.

‘‘And your craziness,” I counter.

We laugh as I lay my head on her stomach, facing her. The baby shifts, making Jenny grunt. I smile at her. “This one’s going to be a go getter, I can tell. Does it ever sleep?”

She rubs her hand over my cheek, brushing hair away from my face. “Not much.”

I close my eyes and trace circles over her swollen stomach. “Shh, little one. You need to sleep,” I whisper. The baby seems to settle at my words. When I open my eyes, Jenny is staring at me intently.

Jenny and I stay like this for a long time. It’s just the three of us. Trapped in this big house. Able to walk outside but not really free in any true sense of the word.

We gaze lazily into each other’s eyes, as comfortable with each other as any two people can be.

“Sometimes I pretend this baby is yours and not his,” she whispers.

My heart squeezes painfully. I sit up and she leans forward, pressing her lips to mine. She tastes like sunshine and rainbows. Fresh and soft and so unlike Benjamin that it makes my toes curl. “Thank you for loving me, Lily,” she says as she pulls away. She tucks my hair behind my ear. “I never thought I’d be loved again.”

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