Page 55 of Recipes for Life

I snuggled into his chest and his grip tightened. “I want you to have better than me, Odette. I want that for you.”

“But I want you, Murphy. Do...do you not want me anymore?”

I guess I’d never thought of that.Maybe he doesn’t want me.I felt my body tense with that realization, and I was about to move back into my seat and off his lap.

“Every part of my soul needs you, Odette...every part of it.”

“Yet you’re willing to let me go? If that’s what I wanted? What I needed?”

I already knew the answer—he had let me go; he was just loving me from afar, helping me in ways I couldn’t even comprehend but was beginning to.

“Yes.”

“Take me home, Murphy,please.”

Chapter 35

Odette

Murphy’s hand never left my thigh as he put the car back into drive and got back on the road. I quickly realized based on the direction he was going that he was likely thinking I meant the cottage, and I said, “No, not the cottage, Murphy. Take mehome.”

It took him a split second to register what I was saying, and I could have sworn he put his foot on the pedal a bit harder this time. I quickly took out my phone to shoot a text to Wynn, saying I was going to need to reschedule, but that I was fine and I’d call her later. Then I picked up my phone to call the office, saying I’d come in tomorrow instead.

By the time I had finished with my calls, we were pulling into the house, and Murphy had the car in park and was out, opening my door to help me down before I could even blink. He started to lead me toward the backyard.

“Can…can we go into the main house?” I asked.

He looked unsure, but nodded, pulling out the keys from where he had placed them in his back pocket.

Walking over to the front door, I felt such a sense of rightness that it was a little disorienting, but before he stuck the keys and turned the lock, he turned to face me. “Odette...the house... It’s...”

“Just let me see.”

He nodded, then unlocked the door and held it open for me so I could walk in first.

Shock overtook me, it was…completely thesame.

It even smelled the same—the same scent I always ordered off this one website because it was my favorite. The kitchen had the washed dishes, still sitting there from the morning I left.

Nothing had been moved, nothing had been changed.

I looked at him with no words, just questions.

“The smell…” I stammered, and he ran his hand through his hair, clearly embarrassed.

“I looked through the credit card statements to find the charges.”

“Everything is the same…”

While I knew he didn’t live here, I had expected something,anything,to have changed, but he left the house exactly as it was.

“I…I couldn’t change a thing, Odette. I couldn’t bring myself to be here, but I couldn’t… It felt like I was erasing you, erasing us, and it made me sick, so I left it here.”

“Even after all these years?”

“Always.”

Always.I grabbed his hand as I walked through the rest of the house, just taking all of it in. I thought I would feel a sense of loss or unease, maybe even hatred, but I didn’t. It felt like I was coming home.

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