After All
Page 19
“I’d love that.” She leaned into me and I immediately pulled her into my arms.
“Did I hear right?” Trevor asked.
“All crashing here.” I nodded. “Why don’t you two run your stuff up and find some dry clothes in your room?”
After a few too-big smiles and some eye-brow raises from my kids they ran for the house together, probably as anxious for Ashley and I to have some time alone as I was. Or almost.
We watched the kids fight their way in the front door as they tried to pull my keys from each other’s grasp. Some things hadn’t changed since they were kids. And when I turned toward her, her eyes were on me again. I was stunned still for a moment that we were here. That she was next to me, wanted to be here, and even more amazingly, wanted me to be here too.
“I'm falling in love with you.” The words sputtered from my mouth and my heart hammered.
“I’m falling in love with you, too,” she whispered. Even in the dark I saw all the best parts of Ashley in her eyes. The sweetness, the confidence, the strength, the determination, the love… And the sadness I'd seen was gone.
And that was it. After all I’d been through. And after all she’d been through, we’d finally found our happy ending, or really our beginning. Because we were definitely at the start of something big.
“You know, Ashley.” I leaned in close to whisper. “I think one day I might ask you to marry me.”
She pressed her cool, wet lips to my cheek. “One day… I might say yes.”
THE END
OR, I GUESS, THE BEGINNING…
A FEW WORDS FROM MIA
Thank you author-friend Kelley Vitollo/Nyrae Dawn for listening to me talk through three different versions of this book. And to Christa Desir who is forever and always my voice of reason when threading together plot lines.
This book began as LDS Fiction, and I have to say my faith had a lot to do with how I wanted to tell this story. If you're curious about the original, drop me a line at authormiajosephs@gmail.com and I'll send you the PDF. But it is very different not just in story, but in POV which alternates between Ashley and Ree…
Thank you to my many readers of awesomeness—author Kaylee Baldwin and Angie for reading version one. And author Cassie Mae for reading at lightning speed, and Ruth Stevens Josse for the SAME thing. Seriously, without you two, the revised version of this book would be collecting dust on my hard drive…
My husband works as a prosecutor in Alaska, and I’m reminded all the time of how fortunate I am to have a family that functions, that doesn’t hurt one another, and maybe even more importantly, doesn’t want to. So, a huge thank you to him as well. Also, I pick his brain every time cops get involved in one of my stories…
MORE BOOKS FROM MIA JOSEPHS
She’s also the author of the New Adult Romance, The Weight of Love, Fall/Late summer 2013.
Mia plans to release With Everything I Have, a Word War II era love story sometime in 2013 or early 2014.
Mia Josephs is a pen name for author Jolene B Perry, author of The Next Door Boys, Left to Love, and My Forever. Her books under Mia Josephs are similar in feel to those three novels.
The name comes from Mike and Jolene, or, as many of her usernames show – MJ. The initials have been in place since her wedding, and it’s where she got the idea for Mia Josephs.
The reason for the pen name is complicated, but in simple terms, her readership was frustrated with the many genres coming from Jolene Perry and Jolene B Perry, so she jumped ship to publish a few beloved projects on her own.
You can find her at –
www.miajosephs.blogspot.com
or on twitter @miajosephs