Like Dragonflies, page 21
“She slept with my dad…” I swallow down the unease. “And she, uh, got pregnant. So Sage is my…she’s my…”
My aunt’s eyes widen slightly but then she sets down her coffee, shaking her head. “Half sister.”
I give her a clipped nod before picking at my nail to avoid her intense stare.
“That’s illegal, you know,” she says.
“Yeah. Apparently I like trouble,” I grumble.
She reaches across the table and pats my hand. “This girl must be worth it for you to give up your glamorous Duncan life to run off with her.”
My head snaps up and I give her a fierce nod. “I love her, Aunt Darcy. I’d do anything I could to make her happy.”
“Because she makes you happy.”
“Over the moon,” I say with a half-grin.
She lets out a heavy sigh. “As long as she’s nothing like her tramp mother and is good to my boy, I can’t ask for more. I’ve looked after you your entire life and I’ve never seen you like this before. Sometimes things don’t work out like they’re supposed to, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work out. I’m here for you, son. Even if you did get a little more country bumpkin than I thought you had in ya.”
We both chuckle and I give her a wide smile.
“Thank you for understanding and loving me anyway.”
“That’s real love, Mars. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve loved all parts of you, even when you were a little shit.”
I can’t help but smile as I think of how easy it was to let Aunt Darcy in on my relationship. When she finally met Sage, she took to her much better than I expected. Now, they’re close as can be.
Once I’ve made my replies to Zion, I close my laptop and hurry back out front.
“See you tomorrow night,” I call out to some regular patrons as they leave.
I follow them to the door and lock it.
“Put those big muscles to use and put the chairs up,” Aimee barks out. “I’m mopping tonight.”
She turns up some Pearl Jam on the stereo—something Sage converted her to long ago—as she sets to cleaning up behind the bar. I grab a bucket and place some glasses into it from the last table of our night before giving the table a quick wipe down.
“Where’s Fiona?” I ask, as I start setting chairs upside down on tables.
“At her mother’s,” Aimee grumbles.
I make a sour face that has her chuckling.
“My thoughts exactly,” she says.
Aimee and Fiona are engaged and Fiona’s mother has been horrified from the start that her daughter is gay. But Aimee and Fiona love each other. I think it’s one of the reasons why we’re such good friends with them—aside from Aimee being my boss. They understand what it means to have a love others might frown at, and fighting for it anyway. Of course, Aimee and Fiona don’t know about Sage’s and my story. It’s not something we tell anyone. They just know she has a shitty mom and I have a shitty dad. We’re out here trying to start a life, fresh and away from drama.
“Pretty soon, you’ll see my art up and down this entire street,” I say in a nonchalant way.
Aimee’s bleached blonde hair swings in her ponytail, bouncing off her face when she whips around to look at me. “You little fucker! How come you didn’t tell me sooner? Was that what you were doing in there?”
I hoist another chair up. “I just found out. Cool, huh?”
“Fuckin’ badass, Mars.”
We chat as we clean up and soon I walk her out to her car. I give her a quick hug before heading inside. Once the doors are locked and the lights are shut down, I head down the hall past the office to the back stairwell. When Aimee hired me, I found out she was renting a small two-bedroom apartment upstairs. The rent was ridiculously cheap. Sage and I were all too happy to leave our shithole apartment in downtown Memphis to take this gem.
And oh what a gem it is.
I pull out my keys from my pocket and unlock the door. The apartment is quiet, but I know my night owl of a wife is awake. Even though she doesn’t have classes now that it’s summer, I imagine she’ll be painting. I lock the door behind me and empty my pockets on the entryway table. The apartment is clean, dark, and quiet. Tiptoeing through our home, I make my way into our bedroom. She has the terrace door open and her easel is set right in front of it. With her back to me, I take a moment to admire her from behind.
Tonight, she’s beautiful in a fitted black tank top and black yoga pants. Her raven hair is braided neatly down her back, leaving her neck open and exposed. My mouth waters to mark her pretty neck up.
“Hey, beautiful.”
She turns and flashes me a bright smile. “Hey, handsome.” Her chin nicks toward the open doors. “Full moon. Too beautiful not to paint.”
I walk up behind her and massage her shoulders as I kiss the top of her head. Her painting is more than just a moon, though. It’s a bird’s eye view of the moon from Mars. All the planets from Mars to the moon have been drawn to scale. I can tell the perspective is from Mars’s view because just a little bit of red-orange peeks from the corner of the canvas. It’s cool as shit.
“Do I get to keep this one?” I tease.
“Nope. Not yours.”
I dip down and kiss the side of her throat as my palms slide to her breasts. “Can I convince you to give it to me?”
“Never in a million years,” she tells me with a smile in her voice. “The planets belong to our Star.”
My heart warms at her words.
For so long, my life was dark and depressing. Now, it fucking twinkles. My life is perfect. I hear the voice that always stops my heart through the monitor perched on our dresser.
“DaddaDaddaDadda.”
Sage starts to rise but I stop her with a kiss to her mouth. “Stay. Finish your painting.” Her fingers run through my hair and she nods.
I pull away and kick off my shoes. After a quick change out of my work clothes into a T-shirt and pajama pants, I slip out of our room to the only other bedroom in our apartment. As soon as I open the door, I see my sweet Star standing in her crib. Her raven hair is in disarray and her denim blue eyes pierce my heart.
“Hey, baby,” I coo as I approach her.
She holds onto the side and her knees buckle a few times—one, two, three—like she’s getting ready to jump out. But she doesn’t. Our daughter isn’t like most toddlers her age. At almost two, she should be terrorizing us at every turn.
Not Star.
Our Star is quiet and withdrawn. She scores a little behind in the speech and social aspects of her developmental milestones, but she’s miles ahead on her fine motor skills. Star can hold a paintbrush and will sit with the patience of a saint for long periods of time with her mother as they paint. She may not speak in sentences yet, or like to make eye contact, but she’s brilliant.
Sage worries about her, but Charles and I both assure her Star is going to be just fine. She may have a genetic disadvantage with her parents being half siblings, but she’s perfect as far as I can tell. It was enough to worry Sage, though, to the point she’s religious about taking her birth control. We were both only children—until way later in life—and we turned out okay, despite everything. Until Sage realizes our daughter is just shy and awkward like her mother, and slightly broody like her father, she’ll keep on taking that birth control.
“Come to Daddy,” I whisper as I pick up my little girl. She smells like baby shampoo and I inhale her familiar scent. “Did you miss Daddy?”
“DaddaDaddaDadda.” She rubs at her eyes and rests her cheek on my shoulder. “BookBookBook.”
“You want a bedtime story?”
She nods—one, two, three—and I sit down in the rocker beside her crib. I flip on the lamp and reach into the basket beside the rocker. I find her favorite book.
Stars and Mars.
It’s a picture book about an alien and his alien mother. They point out all the planets and the stars. The little alien’s favorite planet is Mars.
I situate Star in my lap and read her the story. She whines when I finish, so I read it again. And again. Star likes things in threes.
Charles and I call it a quirk.
Sage and her pediatrician wonder if it’s more.
When I rise to put Star to bed, she whines again. Someone missed Daddy.
“Come on,” I tell my sweet angel. “We’ll cuddle in Mommy and Daddy’s bed. Daddy is tired.”
She clings to my shirt and her thumb finds her mouth. Suck. Suck. Suck. I know she’ll be out soon. We both will. When I reenter the bedroom, Sage has turned off the overhead light and is cleaning up her mess.
“So much for celebrating, huh?” she asks, a playful smirk on her face.
“We’ll have to celebrate later. Maybe Aimee and Fiona can watch her this Sunday. Then we can celebrate all day long.” I waggle my brows at her. A soft chuckle resounds from her.
“Okay, mister. It’s a date.”
As she heads to the bathroom to clean up, I settle in our bed with Star in my arms. She is extra sensitive tonight and doesn’t let go. I pat her back—one, two, three—just how she likes and kiss her soft hair.
“Love you, little Star.”
I’m almost asleep when Sage exits the bathroom and crawls into bed. She rolls onto her side and cuddles close, her nose nuzzling her daughter and her fingers finding my hair.
“I’m really proud of you, Mars,” she whispers.
I grin in the half-dark room. It’s unbelievable they chose me out of everyone. They’re going to pay me more money than I make all year at the bar to spend a couple of months tagging old brick walls. It’s like the job I’ve always dreamed of. Each business has their own concept that represents what they’re selling or offering. I’m beyond thrilled. “Thanks, babe.”
I catch her wrist and pull her hand that’s still stained with paint to my lips. I press kisses all over, lingering where the simple gold band that promises her to me forever.
“We could buy a house now,” I tell her.
“And fill it up?”
My eyes dart to hers. “We could,” I say slowly, careful not to get my hopes up.
“I’d like that,” she says. “Maybe after college is over and, you know…”
She just wants to make sure Star doesn’t develop some crazy-ass genetic disorder. We go through phases. Most times, our genetics doesn’t play a factor in our love. But other times, it likes to steer the ship. Those times, I’ve found Sage sobbing over her laptop, where she’s fallen down the rabbit hole reading articles. I have to calm her and remind her everything will be okay.
We can’t worry about what might happen.
All we can do is love each other and hope for the best.
“Maybe three,” she says, her voice breathy. It’s always this way when she dreams of what our future will look like. “It would make Star happy.”
Star must agree because she sucks on her thumb one, two, three times.
“One day,” Sage says, a firmness in her tone.
“I’ll wait all the days for you.”
Our eyes lock and love shines so fucking bright in her green orbs.
“How did we get so lucky?” she breathes, her eyes growing glassy with tears.
“I don’t know. Maybe the universe had an off day and we slipped through the cracks.”
So often I’ve hated the universe for all the times it ripped away at us.
But what if…
What if the universe was fighting against all odds to bring us together?
What if the universe was on our side all along?
Maybe the universe was trying to tell us something. To flee our bitter, ugly world and fly high. Together. Like dragonflies. Away from the bad and seek out the good.
Years ago, lying in a field, we gazed at the stars never knowing we’d have one of our very own.
A little star who may not shine exactly like the others, but she blinks, blinks, blinks in a way that makes her special and unique.
“Mars?”
“Mmm?”
“I love you. I love our life.”
I smile, catching my wife’s intense stare before my lids grow heavy with sleep. “Love you more.”
“Impossible,” she whispers.
Star sucks on her thumb one, two, three times.
My heart takes on a cadence of its own.
It beats one, two, three times for my two precious loves…
And then a billion, trillion more.
A beat for each star in the universe.
The End
Listen on Spotify here.
“Movement” by Hozier
“How’s It Going to Be” by Third Eye Blind
“Way Down We Go” by KALEO
“Tainted Love” by Marilyn Manson
“The Night We Met” by Lord Huron
“Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve
“Love on the Brain” by Cold War Kids and Bishop Briggs
“Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star
“Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons
“Run, Run, Run” by Tokio Hotel
“Mess Is Mine” by Vance Joy
“Dust in the Wind” by Kansas
“Halah” by Mazzy Star
“To Be Alone” by Hozier
“Desire” by Meg Myers
“Stay With Me” by Sam Smith
“I Found” by Amber Run
“Alive” by Pearl Jam
“Behind Blue Eyes” by The Who
“Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three
“The Morning After” by Meg Myers
“Heart Heart Head” by Meg Myers
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley
“Love Is Not Enough” by Nine Inch Nails
“Black” by Pearl Jam
“Everything in its Right Place” by Radiohead
“The Red” by Chevelle
“Crazy On You” by Heart
“The Bends” by Radiohead
“Comedown” by Bush
“Arsonist’s Lullabye” by Hozier
“NFWMB” by Hozier
“A Million Dreams” by P!nk
“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” by ZAYN and Taylor Swift
“Consequences” by Camila Cabello
“Mr. Rattlebone” by Matt Maeson
“I Walk the Line” by Halsey
Psychological Romance Standalones:
My Torin
Whispers and the Roars
Cold Cole Heart
Blue Hill Blood
Romantic Suspense Standalones:
Dirty Ugly Toy
El Malo
Notice
Sweet Jayne
The Road Back to Us
Surviving Harley
Love and Law
Moth to a Flame
Erased
Extremely Forbidden Romance Standalones:
The Wild
Hale
Like Dragonflies
Taboo Treats:
Bad Bad Bad
Coach Long
Ex-Rated Attraction
Mr. Blakely
Easton
Crybaby
Lawn Boys
Malfeasance
Renner’s Rules
The Glue
Dane
Enzo
Red Hot Winter
Contemporary Romance Standalones:
The Day She Cried
Untimely You
Heath
Sundays are for Hangovers
A Merry Christmas with Judy
Zeke’s Eden
Schooled by a Senior
Give Me Yesterday
Sunshine and the Stalker
Bidding for Keeps
B-Sides and Rarities
Paranormal Romance Standalones:
Apartment 2B
Running Free
Mad Sea
War & Peace Series:
This is War, Baby (Book 1)
This is Love, Baby (Book 2)
This Isn’t Over, Baby (Book 3)
This Isn’t You, Baby (Book 4)
This is Me, Baby (Book 5)
This Isn’t Fair, Baby (Book 6)
This is the End, Baby (Book 7—a novella)
Lost Planet Series:
The Forgotten Commander (Book 1)
2 Lovers Series:
Text 2 Lovers (Book 1)
Hate 2 Lovers (Book 2)
Thieves 2 Lovers (Book 3)
Pretty Little Dolls Series:
Pretty Stolen Dolls (Book 1)
Pretty Lost Dolls (Book 2)
Pretty New Doll (Book 3)
Pretty Broken Dolls (Book 4)
The V Games Series:
Vlad (Book 1)
Ven (Book 2)
Vas (Book 3)
Four Fathers Books:
Pearson
Four Sons Books:
Camden
Not Safe for Amazon Books:
The Wild
Hale
Bad Bad Bad
This is War, Baby (Book 1)
The Breaking the Rules Series:
Broken (Book 1)
Wrong (Book 2)
Scarred (Book 3)
Mistake (Book 4)
Crushed (Book 5 – a novella)
The Vegas Aces Series:
Rock Country (Book 1)
Rock Heart (Book 2)
Rock Bottom (Book 3)
The Becoming Her Series:
Becoming Lady Thomas (Book 1)
Becoming Countess Dumont (Book 2)
Becoming Mrs. Benedict (Book 3)
Alpha & Omega Duet:
Alpha & Omega (Book 1)
Omega & Love (Book 2)
Twisted
The Twisted Series (Books 1-6)
Flowers Behind the Gates Series:
Flowers Behind the Gates
Sleeping Monsters
Power Trip
Death of a Rose
Garden of Secrets
LUCY Duet (Books 1&2)
Naughty R&B (A six story anthology)
Have Mercy
Dangerous Territory
Tortured Whispers
The Monarch Room
The Moreau Estates
Wisteria
My aunt’s eyes widen slightly but then she sets down her coffee, shaking her head. “Half sister.”
I give her a clipped nod before picking at my nail to avoid her intense stare.
“That’s illegal, you know,” she says.
“Yeah. Apparently I like trouble,” I grumble.
She reaches across the table and pats my hand. “This girl must be worth it for you to give up your glamorous Duncan life to run off with her.”
My head snaps up and I give her a fierce nod. “I love her, Aunt Darcy. I’d do anything I could to make her happy.”
“Because she makes you happy.”
“Over the moon,” I say with a half-grin.
She lets out a heavy sigh. “As long as she’s nothing like her tramp mother and is good to my boy, I can’t ask for more. I’ve looked after you your entire life and I’ve never seen you like this before. Sometimes things don’t work out like they’re supposed to, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work out. I’m here for you, son. Even if you did get a little more country bumpkin than I thought you had in ya.”
We both chuckle and I give her a wide smile.
“Thank you for understanding and loving me anyway.”
“That’s real love, Mars. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve loved all parts of you, even when you were a little shit.”
I can’t help but smile as I think of how easy it was to let Aunt Darcy in on my relationship. When she finally met Sage, she took to her much better than I expected. Now, they’re close as can be.
Once I’ve made my replies to Zion, I close my laptop and hurry back out front.
“See you tomorrow night,” I call out to some regular patrons as they leave.
I follow them to the door and lock it.
“Put those big muscles to use and put the chairs up,” Aimee barks out. “I’m mopping tonight.”
She turns up some Pearl Jam on the stereo—something Sage converted her to long ago—as she sets to cleaning up behind the bar. I grab a bucket and place some glasses into it from the last table of our night before giving the table a quick wipe down.
“Where’s Fiona?” I ask, as I start setting chairs upside down on tables.
“At her mother’s,” Aimee grumbles.
I make a sour face that has her chuckling.
“My thoughts exactly,” she says.
Aimee and Fiona are engaged and Fiona’s mother has been horrified from the start that her daughter is gay. But Aimee and Fiona love each other. I think it’s one of the reasons why we’re such good friends with them—aside from Aimee being my boss. They understand what it means to have a love others might frown at, and fighting for it anyway. Of course, Aimee and Fiona don’t know about Sage’s and my story. It’s not something we tell anyone. They just know she has a shitty mom and I have a shitty dad. We’re out here trying to start a life, fresh and away from drama.
“Pretty soon, you’ll see my art up and down this entire street,” I say in a nonchalant way.
Aimee’s bleached blonde hair swings in her ponytail, bouncing off her face when she whips around to look at me. “You little fucker! How come you didn’t tell me sooner? Was that what you were doing in there?”
I hoist another chair up. “I just found out. Cool, huh?”
“Fuckin’ badass, Mars.”
We chat as we clean up and soon I walk her out to her car. I give her a quick hug before heading inside. Once the doors are locked and the lights are shut down, I head down the hall past the office to the back stairwell. When Aimee hired me, I found out she was renting a small two-bedroom apartment upstairs. The rent was ridiculously cheap. Sage and I were all too happy to leave our shithole apartment in downtown Memphis to take this gem.
And oh what a gem it is.
I pull out my keys from my pocket and unlock the door. The apartment is quiet, but I know my night owl of a wife is awake. Even though she doesn’t have classes now that it’s summer, I imagine she’ll be painting. I lock the door behind me and empty my pockets on the entryway table. The apartment is clean, dark, and quiet. Tiptoeing through our home, I make my way into our bedroom. She has the terrace door open and her easel is set right in front of it. With her back to me, I take a moment to admire her from behind.
Tonight, she’s beautiful in a fitted black tank top and black yoga pants. Her raven hair is braided neatly down her back, leaving her neck open and exposed. My mouth waters to mark her pretty neck up.
“Hey, beautiful.”
She turns and flashes me a bright smile. “Hey, handsome.” Her chin nicks toward the open doors. “Full moon. Too beautiful not to paint.”
I walk up behind her and massage her shoulders as I kiss the top of her head. Her painting is more than just a moon, though. It’s a bird’s eye view of the moon from Mars. All the planets from Mars to the moon have been drawn to scale. I can tell the perspective is from Mars’s view because just a little bit of red-orange peeks from the corner of the canvas. It’s cool as shit.
“Do I get to keep this one?” I tease.
“Nope. Not yours.”
I dip down and kiss the side of her throat as my palms slide to her breasts. “Can I convince you to give it to me?”
“Never in a million years,” she tells me with a smile in her voice. “The planets belong to our Star.”
My heart warms at her words.
For so long, my life was dark and depressing. Now, it fucking twinkles. My life is perfect. I hear the voice that always stops my heart through the monitor perched on our dresser.
“DaddaDaddaDadda.”
Sage starts to rise but I stop her with a kiss to her mouth. “Stay. Finish your painting.” Her fingers run through my hair and she nods.
I pull away and kick off my shoes. After a quick change out of my work clothes into a T-shirt and pajama pants, I slip out of our room to the only other bedroom in our apartment. As soon as I open the door, I see my sweet Star standing in her crib. Her raven hair is in disarray and her denim blue eyes pierce my heart.
“Hey, baby,” I coo as I approach her.
She holds onto the side and her knees buckle a few times—one, two, three—like she’s getting ready to jump out. But she doesn’t. Our daughter isn’t like most toddlers her age. At almost two, she should be terrorizing us at every turn.
Not Star.
Our Star is quiet and withdrawn. She scores a little behind in the speech and social aspects of her developmental milestones, but she’s miles ahead on her fine motor skills. Star can hold a paintbrush and will sit with the patience of a saint for long periods of time with her mother as they paint. She may not speak in sentences yet, or like to make eye contact, but she’s brilliant.
Sage worries about her, but Charles and I both assure her Star is going to be just fine. She may have a genetic disadvantage with her parents being half siblings, but she’s perfect as far as I can tell. It was enough to worry Sage, though, to the point she’s religious about taking her birth control. We were both only children—until way later in life—and we turned out okay, despite everything. Until Sage realizes our daughter is just shy and awkward like her mother, and slightly broody like her father, she’ll keep on taking that birth control.
“Come to Daddy,” I whisper as I pick up my little girl. She smells like baby shampoo and I inhale her familiar scent. “Did you miss Daddy?”
“DaddaDaddaDadda.” She rubs at her eyes and rests her cheek on my shoulder. “BookBookBook.”
“You want a bedtime story?”
She nods—one, two, three—and I sit down in the rocker beside her crib. I flip on the lamp and reach into the basket beside the rocker. I find her favorite book.
Stars and Mars.
It’s a picture book about an alien and his alien mother. They point out all the planets and the stars. The little alien’s favorite planet is Mars.
I situate Star in my lap and read her the story. She whines when I finish, so I read it again. And again. Star likes things in threes.
Charles and I call it a quirk.
Sage and her pediatrician wonder if it’s more.
When I rise to put Star to bed, she whines again. Someone missed Daddy.
“Come on,” I tell my sweet angel. “We’ll cuddle in Mommy and Daddy’s bed. Daddy is tired.”
She clings to my shirt and her thumb finds her mouth. Suck. Suck. Suck. I know she’ll be out soon. We both will. When I reenter the bedroom, Sage has turned off the overhead light and is cleaning up her mess.
“So much for celebrating, huh?” she asks, a playful smirk on her face.
“We’ll have to celebrate later. Maybe Aimee and Fiona can watch her this Sunday. Then we can celebrate all day long.” I waggle my brows at her. A soft chuckle resounds from her.
“Okay, mister. It’s a date.”
As she heads to the bathroom to clean up, I settle in our bed with Star in my arms. She is extra sensitive tonight and doesn’t let go. I pat her back—one, two, three—just how she likes and kiss her soft hair.
“Love you, little Star.”
I’m almost asleep when Sage exits the bathroom and crawls into bed. She rolls onto her side and cuddles close, her nose nuzzling her daughter and her fingers finding my hair.
“I’m really proud of you, Mars,” she whispers.
I grin in the half-dark room. It’s unbelievable they chose me out of everyone. They’re going to pay me more money than I make all year at the bar to spend a couple of months tagging old brick walls. It’s like the job I’ve always dreamed of. Each business has their own concept that represents what they’re selling or offering. I’m beyond thrilled. “Thanks, babe.”
I catch her wrist and pull her hand that’s still stained with paint to my lips. I press kisses all over, lingering where the simple gold band that promises her to me forever.
“We could buy a house now,” I tell her.
“And fill it up?”
My eyes dart to hers. “We could,” I say slowly, careful not to get my hopes up.
“I’d like that,” she says. “Maybe after college is over and, you know…”
She just wants to make sure Star doesn’t develop some crazy-ass genetic disorder. We go through phases. Most times, our genetics doesn’t play a factor in our love. But other times, it likes to steer the ship. Those times, I’ve found Sage sobbing over her laptop, where she’s fallen down the rabbit hole reading articles. I have to calm her and remind her everything will be okay.
We can’t worry about what might happen.
All we can do is love each other and hope for the best.
“Maybe three,” she says, her voice breathy. It’s always this way when she dreams of what our future will look like. “It would make Star happy.”
Star must agree because she sucks on her thumb one, two, three times.
“One day,” Sage says, a firmness in her tone.
“I’ll wait all the days for you.”
Our eyes lock and love shines so fucking bright in her green orbs.
“How did we get so lucky?” she breathes, her eyes growing glassy with tears.
“I don’t know. Maybe the universe had an off day and we slipped through the cracks.”
So often I’ve hated the universe for all the times it ripped away at us.
But what if…
What if the universe was fighting against all odds to bring us together?
What if the universe was on our side all along?
Maybe the universe was trying to tell us something. To flee our bitter, ugly world and fly high. Together. Like dragonflies. Away from the bad and seek out the good.
Years ago, lying in a field, we gazed at the stars never knowing we’d have one of our very own.
A little star who may not shine exactly like the others, but she blinks, blinks, blinks in a way that makes her special and unique.
“Mars?”
“Mmm?”
“I love you. I love our life.”
I smile, catching my wife’s intense stare before my lids grow heavy with sleep. “Love you more.”
“Impossible,” she whispers.
Star sucks on her thumb one, two, three times.
My heart takes on a cadence of its own.
It beats one, two, three times for my two precious loves…
And then a billion, trillion more.
A beat for each star in the universe.
The End
Listen on Spotify here.
“Movement” by Hozier
“How’s It Going to Be” by Third Eye Blind
“Way Down We Go” by KALEO
“Tainted Love” by Marilyn Manson
“The Night We Met” by Lord Huron
“Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve
“Love on the Brain” by Cold War Kids and Bishop Briggs
“Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star
“Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons
“Run, Run, Run” by Tokio Hotel
“Mess Is Mine” by Vance Joy
“Dust in the Wind” by Kansas
“Halah” by Mazzy Star
“To Be Alone” by Hozier
“Desire” by Meg Myers
“Stay With Me” by Sam Smith
“I Found” by Amber Run
“Alive” by Pearl Jam
“Behind Blue Eyes” by The Who
“Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three
“The Morning After” by Meg Myers
“Heart Heart Head” by Meg Myers
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley
“Love Is Not Enough” by Nine Inch Nails
“Black” by Pearl Jam
“Everything in its Right Place” by Radiohead
“The Red” by Chevelle
“Crazy On You” by Heart
“The Bends” by Radiohead
“Comedown” by Bush
“Arsonist’s Lullabye” by Hozier
“NFWMB” by Hozier
“A Million Dreams” by P!nk
“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” by ZAYN and Taylor Swift
“Consequences” by Camila Cabello
“Mr. Rattlebone” by Matt Maeson
“I Walk the Line” by Halsey
Psychological Romance Standalones:
My Torin
Whispers and the Roars
Cold Cole Heart
Blue Hill Blood
Romantic Suspense Standalones:
Dirty Ugly Toy
El Malo
Notice
Sweet Jayne
The Road Back to Us
Surviving Harley
Love and Law
Moth to a Flame
Erased
Extremely Forbidden Romance Standalones:
The Wild
Hale
Like Dragonflies
Taboo Treats:
Bad Bad Bad
Coach Long
Ex-Rated Attraction
Mr. Blakely
Easton
Crybaby
Lawn Boys
Malfeasance
Renner’s Rules
The Glue
Dane
Enzo
Red Hot Winter
Contemporary Romance Standalones:
The Day She Cried
Untimely You
Heath
Sundays are for Hangovers
A Merry Christmas with Judy
Zeke’s Eden
Schooled by a Senior
Give Me Yesterday
Sunshine and the Stalker
Bidding for Keeps
B-Sides and Rarities
Paranormal Romance Standalones:
Apartment 2B
Running Free
Mad Sea
War & Peace Series:
This is War, Baby (Book 1)
This is Love, Baby (Book 2)
This Isn’t Over, Baby (Book 3)
This Isn’t You, Baby (Book 4)
This is Me, Baby (Book 5)
This Isn’t Fair, Baby (Book 6)
This is the End, Baby (Book 7—a novella)
Lost Planet Series:
The Forgotten Commander (Book 1)
2 Lovers Series:
Text 2 Lovers (Book 1)
Hate 2 Lovers (Book 2)
Thieves 2 Lovers (Book 3)
Pretty Little Dolls Series:
Pretty Stolen Dolls (Book 1)
Pretty Lost Dolls (Book 2)
Pretty New Doll (Book 3)
Pretty Broken Dolls (Book 4)
The V Games Series:
Vlad (Book 1)
Ven (Book 2)
Vas (Book 3)
Four Fathers Books:
Pearson
Four Sons Books:
Camden
Not Safe for Amazon Books:
The Wild
Hale
Bad Bad Bad
This is War, Baby (Book 1)
The Breaking the Rules Series:
Broken (Book 1)
Wrong (Book 2)
Scarred (Book 3)
Mistake (Book 4)
Crushed (Book 5 – a novella)
The Vegas Aces Series:
Rock Country (Book 1)
Rock Heart (Book 2)
Rock Bottom (Book 3)
The Becoming Her Series:
Becoming Lady Thomas (Book 1)
Becoming Countess Dumont (Book 2)
Becoming Mrs. Benedict (Book 3)
Alpha & Omega Duet:
Alpha & Omega (Book 1)
Omega & Love (Book 2)
Twisted
The Twisted Series (Books 1-6)
Flowers Behind the Gates Series:
Flowers Behind the Gates
Sleeping Monsters
Power Trip
Death of a Rose
Garden of Secrets
LUCY Duet (Books 1&2)
Naughty R&B (A six story anthology)
Have Mercy
Dangerous Territory
Tortured Whispers
The Monarch Room
The Moreau Estates
Wisteria
