Page 86 of Free to Breathe
Stretching, I put my pen down. Another notecard is complete. With every word I write, I’m regaining the power I didn’t know I lost. Putting the small stack to the side, I pull Colby’s journal closer to me. Tucking my fist under my chin, I flip through the pages I’ve filled with random thoughts over the last few days.
Today the blank page seems to taunt me to fill it.
Because in some ways, this is the book I dread. This is the book that could be my last chance.
Picking up the pen, I unconsciously let my brain spew through the ink.
You should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I love you…
I finish the journal entry by scrawling my name and put it aside, just as the front door opens. Colby steps through. “Hey, princess. You ready to head to dinner at the farm?”
Pushing up from the couch, I walk over to meet him with a kiss. “I sure am. Any idea what we’re having for dinner?”
“None. What are you working on?” he asks curiously.
“Just some thank-you cards,” I answer ambiguously.
The slow smile that never fails to weaken my knees crosses his face. “Anything urgent?”
I shake my head. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”
He links his fingers in mine, and we stop at my island long enough for me to grab my purse. Soon we’re driving toward the main barn where the rest of the family is waiting. Our family, I amend, because my family has become Colby’s throughout this as much as they’ve become mine.
* * *
“I can’t take any more.”I’m doubled over with laughter. “I paid for your hair to be cut.”
“Do you see this picture?” Alison holds up the photo Holly took of her red-streaked blonde hair. “You stuck my hair in food coloring over something I didn’t do!”
“Who else could have? I didn’t come home that night.” Holly nods emphatically.
“Oh really?” Phil drawls.
We’re sitting around the huge farm table passing around the pictures Holly took of my morning-after revenge when I realized someone had eaten a good quarter of Colby’s birthday cake in college.
Keene accepts the picture and lets out a low whistle. “Damn, baby,” he says, addressing Alison. He turns to me. “Every time I see this, I’m impressed by the way you dole out revenge.” Glancing over at Holly, he says, “And it wasn’t you?”
“Hand to God, Keene. If it were, I would have paid for that haircut myself,” Holly swears.
I feel Colby’s body shaking as he tries to suppress his laughter. Finally, he lets loose. Planting a kiss on the back of my neck, he murmurs, “You’re going to kill me.”
I still. He can’t possibly mean what I think he means.
Does he?
“It was either that or do something about the raging hard-on I had pressed against your back just from smelling your skin.” He drops a kiss on my shoulder. “You were so sweet, made sweeter by you spending hours in the kitchen to make me happy on a day no one else gave a shit about.”
I turn around, laughter warring with indignation. “You! You ate your cake and let Ali take the blame?”
“Cori, will you miss his dick if I chop it off?” Ali says in a sugary voice. The table erupts in laughter.
“Tremendously,” I assure her. Colby’s grin is unrepentant. He leans down to brush his lips against mine, even as he addresses Ali.
“How about to make up for not fessing up when it happened, I treat you and Cori to a spa day once she’s permitted after surgery?” The smile he’s bestowing on me tells me the price he’s paying now was well worth the crime. Then and now.
“Deal,” we both say enthusiastically. But something’s wrong. When I say the word, it comes out wrong. I shake my head and repeat it. “Deee.” Frantically, I grab for Colby’s hand.
My heart is out of control.
