Page 111 of The Savior

A small, almost surprised grin formed. “You know what I like most about you?”

“Hm?”

“We can talk about what happened. That we don’t have to ignore the past like it’s an elephant in the room, and that we can fight about it—”

The hand holding?“I wasn’t trying to fight earlier.”

He laughed. “I like that it’s okay to figure this out.”

No matter if the rest of the world would agree, he was right. No one was better suited to find solace and move forward with. “So.” She paused. “Are youokay?”

“Yeah.” He scanned the backyard. “Despite a target on the Nymans and that feeling you had at the bagel shop? I’m okay.”

“How about outside of an operational assessment?” She tapped his chest. “In here.”

His lips parted, but his gaze averted and held over her shoulder. Chelsea twisted, unsure what to expect.

Liam was trained on a childhood relic that swayed in a pine tree. “What is that?”

She snickered. “That arts-and-crafts beauty?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled too. “I always wondered what the hell it was supposed to be. I never asked—” He cut his attention back to her and shrugged. “I never asked…”

Her heart hurt at all the questions he might never have asked. But there was a lesson to be learned in their messy connection.Don’t hold back. Embrace the present.“It’s a wind chime.”

“What?” His forehead creased as he took another look. “Really?”

“Or maybe a wind-chime-turned-bird-house.”

He laughed then squinted. “I can see that—I think.”

She tossed her head back and laughed also. “I have no idea why Linda treasures those little projects.”

“Because the woman treasures you.”

A shallow sigh caught in her throat. Liam’s words made her nostalgic for the past and grateful for the Nymans.

“Was it a preschool project or something,” he asked.

Chelsea snorted. “We were definitely in our twenties.”

“Damn—I mean.” He rolled his lips together. “How did… that happen?”

She side-eyed him. “It involved a bottle of wine.”

“I can see that.”

“We came home one night as a surprise visit from school. Linda and Frank were asleep, but Linda had left out a bag of school supplies.”

“And that thing was the result?” he quipped.

She elbowed him. “Linda woke us up the next morning. We’d passed out in a sea of school supplies. Wood glue. Paint. Construction paper. You name it, we’d used it. She didn’t have anything she’d needed for the day.”

Liamtsked.

“But instead of reading us the riot act, she hung it up—” Chelsea couldn’t keep from laughing. “And Linda said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you to bring me something home from college to hang up.’ She picked it up like it was a Van Gogh but hung it in the tree.”

Liam bent down to kiss her. Chelsea froze, so lost in the past that the right now had slipped away.

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