Page 115 of Tender Heart
“Oh!” I slap a hand over my mouth. A torn-up monarch is one thing. The message clear. One burned with cinders for a bed, trapped in an ivory paper crypt, sends a whole other type of message.
I swipe the remnants of insect from my jeans, and the envelope flutters to the ground, the letter inside slipping out.
Reaching down, I clutch it with a shaking hand.
Breath firmly held, I unfold the page.
I close my eyes, not wanting the words to reach my vision. I can’t take another loss. Another traumatic event that sets my life back years.
No, Evie, that is not main character thinking.Not how the heroine would react. She would take the bull by the horns. The page by the edges, her gaze burning so hard it would surely ignite. Setting the ivory pulp into flames.
With that thought, I open my eyes and scan first, lips pursed, frown dipped so low my face hurts.
Bile rises in my throat, burning its way through the air caught on the sob wanting out. I crumple the paper in my hand. Fire floods my veins.
Nothing,no one, will stand in our way of being together.
He means Cal?
He means Cal.
Oh my god.
I jolt from the seat and shove the letter into my bag. This was written—or sent, at least—around the time of the festival.
A matter of days.
Shit!
I sprint back to the marina, fear close on my tail as I desperately search for Cal. For Firefly.
When I reach our slip and the boat floats in its place undisturbed, emotion rushes my senses. I board, tripping over the side. “Cal!?”
The cabin is empty.
He had errands to run.
I press a hand over my chest, trying to calm my bounding, terrified heart.
He’s fine. He will be fine.
Footsteps thunder toward Firefly. I spin back, half expecting some strange face I don’t know to corner me on the boat, then move in and end this nightmare.
Just end it already.
I slam my eyes shut as a man rushes the boat.
Firefly rocks as he boards. I suck in a lungful, bracing.
A whimper slips from me as a hand touches my shoulder.
“Miss Evie?”
Emmett?
Emmett!
I sob, flying into his chest. The fear from the last ten minutes pours out in ugly, soul-racking cries.
