Page 127 of Possession

Grace

My head was full of cotton. There were far too many realizations in one day to comprehend. Could my grandmother truly have been that manipulative?

Then again, hadn’t she done the same to my parents? She’d made the decision to take me in, and then she’d sent them back into their party-filled lifestyle. She’d taken me away from them for my own good. As a little girl, not even eight years old, she’d been a godsend.

This? Not even close to all right.

Then again, I’d never done anything to assert myself or my independence. I’d been happy to live with her and had even come back to that big beach house once I’d finished school.

More of my own isolationism because all I’d cared about was my art. It was the only thing that had never let me down. I wiped my hand over my face and fisted my hands into my hair.

So many mistakes made in the name of love.

I glanced at Blake. This man who’d known nothing other than heartache had actually built up the courage to talk to me back then. And I couldn’t even say that I would have done anything different.

In my heart of hearts, I hadn’t been ready for Blake back then. Maybe in the end, my grandmother had been right to send him away. I’d never know. All I could do was move forward from here.

I did love this man. All the maddening, quirky, protective, overwhelming parts of him had created a life that wouldneverbe boring.

That was one truth in all of this mess. I brushed my fingertip over the slight imperfection of the soldering at the top of the clock face. It made it all the more endearing. The Blake I knew now would never have allowed an imperfection to show.

I wish I could rememberthatBlake, but he was only a fuzzy part of my past. Like a dream that I couldn’t reach once morning came.

I curled my fingers into my palm and noticed the streaks of dust and dirt on my arm and knuckles. There was no way I could stay in the office when I looked like I’d been hit by a bulldozer. Not to mention, I was still wearing my work overalls.

Christ, I hadn’t even put on a bra.

I was a mess.

“Did you talk to Jack? Did he find anything in the iPad?”

“He’s still trying to crack it. Lucy found a back way into the network mainframe, but she has to figure out which is actual data, and which is the fake.”

“All right. I’m going to head back to the house and get cleaned up. We’ll go over everything he’s found.”

Blake nodded. “Are we okay?”

“We will be.”

I wrapped the clock back up in the oil cloth. “I’m going to fix this. How handy that you gave me a workshop to do it in.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Of course I do.” Anger laced my voice, and with effort, I smoothed it out. “My memoir is going to read like a damn thriller. And this clock is going on the front cover.”

He laughed. “You are one of a kind, Ms. Copeland.”

“And don’t you forget it.” I leaned over his desk and dragged his mouth to mine. “You are mine, and I’m not going to lose what we’ve built. No way, no how.”

The kiss was ragged around the edges, just like him. I loved all of him, not just the polished pieces he thought he needed to show the world.

“I’ll see you at home,” I said.

“Definitely. Jack’s coming down with the information, and I’ll be right behind you.”

I pushed through the doors of the research floor and took the elevator down. I passed Vi on my way out and waved to her.

The ride home was on autopilot. The days were shorter now and full dark had already come by the time I got home. When I pulled up the driveway, I frowned at the car waiting there.

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