Page 74 of Into the Light

“Understanding,” I said, as if that one word held the weight of a thousand in my hands.

“We don’t have to use labels, we can go as slow as you need, and I can’t promise I won’t fuck up along the way, but I just want you in my life, Ember.” He sighed, pausing before whispering, “The eight months I didn’t have you were the scariest of my life. I asked Santiago for a daily update to make sure you were okay and now knowing what you were going through I think I’ll spend my entire life trying to make it up to you.”

“But you were suffering, too,” I whispered. “And we grieved in different ways. I am good at running away from my problems, hiding in a closet, whereas you experienced sadness by taking control to please others.” He seemed to agree.

We sat there in the warmth of the bath, Rain pouring some water over me.

“Are you going to run away?” His voice sounded so different, so scared. “They all run away from me . . .”

“What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t enough for Ash, not enough for my dad who felt like he needed to protect his family so much so to get involved with Mr. Ortiz and . . . er, your mom.”

I nodded.

“Everyone fucking leaves me, Ember. Why wouldn’t I assume you would, too?”

I turned my head so I could look him in the eyes. “I don’t want to leave, Rain. I am fucking terrified, but that doesn’t mean I want to run away.”

I jumped out of the bath, surprise washing over his face as I wrapped myself in a towel.

“Give me the papers,” I demanded.

“The . . . what?” His face scrunched at my sudden outburst.

“The fucking papers.” I huffed, irritated he didn’t know what I was asking about.

“Ember, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rain said as he got out of the bath and grabbed a towel from the rack, wrapping it on his lower self. Momentarily, I got distracted by his fucking abs, but my attention snapped back to him when he chuckled.

“The house title,” I demanded, but it wasreallyhard not to stare at his chest.

“You can touch, princesa. You don’t have to continually stare.” I rolled my eyes.

“Just take me to them.”

He walked downstairs ahead of me, his shoulder blades flexing with each step he took. Damn, who knew shoulders could be so hot.

He went to the coffee table where he’d set the papers earlier and handed them to me. I looked them over and then back up at him.

“Gimme a pen,” I demanded.

“Ember, you shouldn’t sign something like this without talking to a lawyer. Why don’t you sleep on it—”

“Did I fucking stutter?”

He chuckled.

“No, ma’am,” he said, and then came back from the kitchen with a black pen. His hand grabbed my wrist just as I was about to sign on the dotted line, and I looked back up at him. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t want to run away anymore,” I whispered and then just as his hand released me, I signed the title of the house.

“We have to get these notarized, but otherwise this house is yours now as much as it is mine.” He smiled . . . like a genuine happy smile, something I hadn’t seen in a while. He crossed the distance between us, and his left hand slid over the small of my waist.

“There you are,” he murmured, his fingertips lifting, touching the edge of my smile. “I missed this.”

And in that moment, I realized I hadn’t smiled like this in so long. Nothing had felt this right in a year. Absolutely nothing. It finally felt like I’d found the puzzle piece I’d lost along the way. The last little part of me I needed to get in order to complete myself. Now, if only I could figure out where it fit into the bigger puzzle.

“Come on, let’s go to bed,” Rain whispered, and we walked upstairs.

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