Page 179 of Unravel Me

“Sorry I’m crying,” I cry, slapping at the tears streaming down my face.

She laughs, pulling me into her embrace. It’s everything Lockwood, warm and bright and so fucking steady, the safest place to be. “I thank your parents every day for setting you on our son’s path that day. For letting us hold onto you. And I thank you, Rosie, for making our family whole.”

It’s wild, isn’t it? How you can spend years searching for love, for acceptance, and right before you accept that it’s not for you, someone sweeps in and showers you in it. It’s like Adam took one look at my heart and said, “This is what you want? Let me give you more.” He didn’t just give me him; he gave me the family I’d been searching for all these years.

A small hand tugs on mine, and troubled brown eyes peer up at me. “Are you okay, Rosie?” Lily asks me. “I saw you crying.”

I crouch down before her, brushing her bangs off her forehead. “I’m okay, sweetheart.”

“Were you thinking about your mommy and daddy in heaven?”

“Yeah, I was.”

“Can I give you something to help you feel better?”

“I’d like that.”

Two tiny, gentle hands cup my cheeks, and I close my eyes as Lily presses featherlight kisses across my nose. “There,” she whispers. “Butterfly kisses.” She turns to leave but pauses, smiling back at me over her shoulder. “I think Connor’s the luckiest kid in the world. He’s got the best mama.”

My heart catches in my throat, a few special kisses and two little sentences from a five-year-old girl that sound identical to the ones a five-year-old Adam said some twenty-one years ago.

Adam joins me at the counter, tucking me into his side as we look out at our Christmas.

“Did you get everything you wanted?”

My gaze slides to Lily, and my heart patters against my chest as she helps Connor onto the couch, snuggles up with him and Deacon and Bev and the dogs.

The perfect fit.

Adam’s palm touches my lower back, gliding up my spine, his thumb moving over the nape of my neck. “You know what I was thinking?”

“What?”

“We have five bedrooms, and only two of them are being used.”

My chest rises and falls quickly. “Yeah?”

He looks at Lily, and when she grins at us, he grins too. “Yeah.”

* * *

“For fuck’s sake, Marco, I haven’t even left yet!”

I prop my fists on my hips in the doorway of my bedroom. Oh sorry—Marco’s Zen Den. That’s what he’s calling it now. I guess that’s why he’s changing my soft-glow white pot lights out for warm amber bulbs, why there are bamboo branches in a large ceramic vase in the corner, and why he’s currently plugging in a diffuser.

He fans the mist at his face and inhales deeply, then winks at me over his shoulder. “Gotta get rid of all the bad juju.”

“There’s no bad juju! Connor and I don’t have bad juju!”

Okay, so as it turns out, I’m more attached to this little apartment and this tiny bedroom than I realized. It should be simple to pack up and leave today, to officially begin the new year at my new home. And it is. But I underestimated the hold this place has on me.

This was our home. This is where I found out I was pregnant, and the couch in the living room is where Archie held me and assured me I’d be such an amazing mother. This bedroom is where Connor slept when he came home from the hospital, and where I spent that entire night just staring at him, refusing to believe I’d created something so damnperfect. This home is where he smiled for the first time, and these walls heard his laugh before I had to share it with anyone. He learned to crawl, learned to walk, and learned to love right here in this home.

“Oh God. Fuck.Archie! Help! I made her cry!” Marco rushes to my side, pulling me into his chest. “I was joking about the juju, Ro. You have the best juju. No one does juju like Rosie Wells-slash-soon-to-be-Lockwood.No one.”

“What did you do now?” Archie asks with a heavy sigh, entering the room.

“He didn’t do anything,” I choke out, flapping at my face. “I’m just—”hiccup“—really gonna miss you guys!”

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