Page 91 of In the Pursuit of Haven
…only that he’d gone tattling to Drake about Matthew and Haven, and then Robert ended up killing him in a bar!
Pete had gone off on Walt Leon the whole time we’d been at his place tonight. “WhoisWalt Leon?” I asked.
Jessie took a deep breath. “He’s from a rich family, related to the Crowninshields. My old man said he always had airs.”
“Related to Ruth?” I asked.
He laughed. “I guess so.” He reeled me back to his chest, running his fingers down my back. He brushed a kiss across my cheek. “Why?”
“He just seemed to be very involved in all of this—was he just their friend who got caught up in all of the excitement or—or was he like Robert? Did his family have a Relic? Was he a Shepherd somehow?”
“I’m not sure,” his low voice resonated against my ear, and I could tell that his mind was drifting again.
If anything his refusal to be distracted from me was my proof of his devotion, but I needed to get one last thing through to him before I lost him completely. We had hit some roadblocks on finding these Relics.
“We don’t have much on Tinker,” I said. “I mean, all we know about that island is that the residents were unknown until 1818, when a Reverend Smalls lived there.”
“We’ll go there tomorrow,” he said. He played with the soft collar on my sweater.
The irony wasn’t lost on me that I was becoming more fixated on this treasure than he was. Our roles had completely reversed. “And Children’s?” I asked.
His lips quirked up before meeting mine. “I think you’re going to love what I found.” His words got smothered against the creases of my cheek.
“After the two museums?”
He burst out in a laugh. “Okay, forget all my talk about me having any kind of magic. I’m going to need something a lot more powerful tonight to stop the gears of your brain from going into overdrive.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jessie woke me up with a kiss. We’d taken Haven’s bed last night, and now I was wrapped up in a burrito of blankets, sheets, and his arms.
Nothing felt more right.
My husband smiled down at me. “Good morning, sleepyhead. You ready to go through with all those big plans of ours?”
I groaned when I remembered how daring they all were. I snuggled closer to him, grateful that he’d be beside me every step of the way. “Only if you try to weave your magic, tough guy.”
“Ha! So now you believe in my magic. You actually want my help?”
I’d always wanted his help, but now I wasn’t afraid to admit it. “We’re a team, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” he whispered. He studied my face while I stared into the mirrors of his soul.
That storm in him was still there, but now I saw the calm in the midst of that storm, and he found that peace in me. I wasn’t sure for how long.
He squeezed me tightly and gently kissed my cheek. “You won’t be able to get rid of me, Roxy.”
I really wanted that to be true! The divorce papers were sitting with Haven’s important documents, and I squirmed uncomfortably. I’d applied for them before he could because I’d felt him drifting away, like my father had done with us when he’d left our family so long ago, and as I imagined my mother’s parents had done with her before they’d left her with Haven to raise.
I didn’t want to be the one who got left behind anymore.
I gulped. “Everyone goes away sometime,” I said.
His face turned serious. “Roxy…”
I didn’t know how to put my fears into words without pushing him away more, but I became even surer of this stark reality when I thought about Haven and Matthew. Everyone, including myself, nursed some kind of loss.
He also turned silent, watching me. Licking his lips, he broke through this overbearing misery, “I’m not your father, Roxy, and guess what? I’m not Matthew either.” He’d stunned me when he cut right through my doubts to reach for my heart. “Promise me that you’ll let me fight for us.”
