The Messenger (Professionals Book 3)
Page 23
On a sweet little sniffle, her head pressed into my shoulder. "I love you," she declared, the words steeped with feeling.
It didn't matter how many times I'd heard it, it always landed with the wonder of that first time she'd said it.
"I love you too, Jules. Always."
Jules - 8 years
"What is the point of a shoe rack if no one uses it?" I asked, letting out a sigh as I put them all back in their rightful places.
Kai's shoes.
And our son's.
Our daughter, bless her heart, always picked up after herself. She arranged her toys in her room every night before bed. There was so much of me in her.
Our son, well, he was all Kai. Warmth and light and this unstoppable need for new and inventive ways to get his adrenaline pumping.
After having walked in on him using a cardboard box to surf down our hardwood stairs, I pretty much decided that sons were the sole reason wine was invented.
"Where are you guys?" I called, dropping two overflowing canvas bags down on the counter from the farmer's market Gemma and I went to every weekend, picking up all the healthy stuff I'd been raised on, having always wanted to give that to my children as well. With a smattering of junk in there every now and again. I reached for an empty sippy box on the counter, tossing it as I moved through our kitchen, huge, white, a place we spent so much time cooking, baking, creating memories.
We even had a junk drawer with birthday candles and wrenches and sticky notes.
All in their rightful drawer organizer compartments.
"Kai?" I called, moving through the living room, the one with huge windows that allowed me to have sills full of houseplants.
On a sigh, I saw the door open leading from the back porch. They'd leave the door open, then have fits when they found a fly or grasshopper in the house.
I moved in that direction, fanning the aforementioned fly until he found his way back outside, closing the door from the other side, standing on the back deck, looking out at our yard.
It always made me sigh in relief.
I had my gardens.
Kai had is manly grilling station.
The kids had space to run and play.
It was everything, everything I had ever wanted.
As if I had called their names, our children flew in and out of my gated vegetable garden, a place they knew they weren't supposed to be unless they were helping me tend or harvest it.
I moved in that direction, wondering where Kai was that he hadn't shooed them out, only to feel my hands grabbed on each side by the little ones of my son and daughter.
"Come on Mommy. We have a surprise."
Oh, God.
Surprises, coming from kids, almost inevitably meant something was muddy, markered permanently, or broken onto to be reassembled. Badly.
Taking a breath to resign myself to one of those fates, I let them lead me down the rows of green beans, rounding at the end.
And there was Kai.
"Surprise, Mama," he declared, beaming.
Beaming because he was clutching something small and golden to his chest.
We'd always talked about it.
But the time had never seemed right.
Kai was on the road a lot.
I worked a lot.
Then we'd had kids that stole all our energy.
It just never felt like the right time to do it.
To get the final thing on my vision board.
"One-hundred thirty-two months and twenty-one days," he added as I closed in on him. On them.
One-hundred thirty-two months and twenty-one days since we met for the first time.
And he had given me his heart, his hand, a home, a future, our children. And now my golden retriever puppy.
He'd given me everything.
Everything.
There had been no more lists, no timelines, no plans.
We had let everything play out as it seemed meant to. And everything had fallen into place perfectly. Beautifully.
My chest tightened as the puppy lapped wet-tongued kisses over my chest.
I looked up at Kai, sliding his long hair behind his ear, leaning in to kiss him.
Hard and long to a chorus of heckling noises from our children, my heart overflowing with a love I had never known could exist.
Until he had shown it to me.
Until I had finally allowed him to.
And look what could happen with a love like that.
X
#KaiAndJulesForever
DON'T FORGET
Dear Reader,
Thank you for taking time out of your life to read this book. If you loved this book, I would really appreciate it if you could hop onto Goodreads or Amazon and tell me your favorite parts. You can also spread the word by recommending the book to friends or sending digital copies that can be received via kindle or kindle app on any device.
ALSO BY JESSICA GADZIALA
If you liked this book, check out these other series and titles in the NAVESINK BANK UNIVERSE:
The Henchmen MC
Reign
Cash
Wolf
Repo
Duke
Renny
Lazarus
Pagan
Cyrus
Edison
Reeve
Sugar
The Fall of V
Adler
The Savages
Monster
Killer
Savior
Mallick Brothers
For A Good Time, Call
Shane
Ryan
Mark
Eli
Charlie & Helen: Back to the Beginning
Investigators
367 Days
14 Weeks
Dark
Dark Mysteries
Dark Secrets
Dark Horse
Professionals
The Fixer
The Ghost
STANDALONES WITHIN NAVESINK BANK:
Vigilante
Grudge Match
OTHER SERIES AND STANDALONES:
Stars Landing
What The Heart Needs
What The Heart Wants
What The Heart Finds
What The Heart Knows
The Stars Landing Deviant
Surrogate
The Sex Surrogate
Dr. Chase Hudson
DEBT
Dissent
Into The Green
Stuffed: A Thanksgiving Romance
Unwrapped
Peace, Love, & Macarons
A Navesink Bank Christmas
Don't Come
Fix It Up
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Gadziala is a full-time writer, parrot enthusiast, and coffee drinker from New Jersey. She enjoys short rides to the book store, sad songs, and cold weather.
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<3/ Jessica