Page 79 of Colton's Secret Weapon
Lying with him in his bed that night, Dove couldn’t find the passion for lovemaking, but she found everything she needed. A safe place to grieve. To be. To breathe.
Her head on his chest, her arm around him, his arms holding her close, was as close to heaven as she was going to get in that lifetime.
“Right before the crash, my father told me that I should have just let him die and be with his wife.” The memory stabbed her, but not as deeply as it had when she’d first heard the words. “He got his wish,” she said softly. Wishing she understood better, but knowing that, in some space, at some time, she would.
She’d had a dark night of the soul. Her mother had taught her about them. She just hadn’t recognized what was happening at the time. Maybe due to the crash. To the shock of losing her father on top of everything else. To an emotional blow out that prevented her from accessing her cortex. And maybe a dark night wasn’t really dark without that total separation.
Because within the darkness, light shone the brightest.
“I want more than just sex,” she said. It was truth. And she wouldn’t deny it its say. She was who she was. Probably more so after all she’d been through. Had yet to get through.
Her father’s funeral. Cleaning out his house. Selling his business.
“Yeah, well, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that.” Mitchell’s response was so unexpected and sincere-sounding she raised herself up to look him in the eye.
“I love you, Dove St. James. I want more than just sex. I want a lifetime. Forever. However we can make it work. Marriage, no marriage. I don’t care. Just together. A couple. For the rest of our lives.”
She didn’t try to stop the tears that fell. The effort would be ludicrous. But she did smile through them. A day ago, she might have struggled with his declaration. Needing to meditate over it. Right then, after suffering the dark night, she just trusted. More deeply, more fervently than she ever had before.
“You don’t need to worry about theforeverpart, Mitchell,” she told him, meaning far more than the single lifetime he spoke about. “I knew almost from the beginning that we were destined to travel through life together.”
“You did not,” he said, frowning. “You were the one who saidno commitment, no expectations.”
“I didn’t say I knew we’d be lovers or a couple. Just that we were soul mates.”
Shaking his head and grinning, he said, “Soul mates. I can see I have a whole lot more to learn.”
He might have. And might not. Mitchell was Mitchell. The world needed him.
But not as much as she did.
And that was as it was meant to be.
“I just figured something out,” she told him.
“What’s that?”
“The deepest level of truth and learning isn’t inside yourself. It’s in joining your deepest heart with another’s.”
“It’s calledhome, Dove.”
She kissed him then. Needing more than words. More, even, than understanding.
She needed to rest. To heal.
Because finally, she’d come home.
Epilogue
Mitchell woke up to a text message. Long after dawn had arrived. Careful not to disturb the exhausted woman sleeping with her head on the right side of his chest, he reached for his phone with his left hand.
Read the message. And knew he had to wake her up.
There were times when family was a pain in the ass. The thought was quickly quashed with another. There was never a time when family was a bad thing. Not ever.
Then he glanced at the hour and woke her up quickly.
“Dove, it’s almost noon.” He was texting Wes even as he said the words.
