by Deb Rotuno
She nodded, more tears falling down that beautiful face. “Yes,” she whispered, smiling at me.
My first reaction was to demand her constant safety, watch her like a hawk, and take her right back to the lodge so we could keep her under my mother’s care…and inside that damn fence, but I stopped myself. We were so good. We were more than good. We were safe, and we were prospering. We were together, with a growing family and growing community. And it seemed fitting that she’d waited to tell me here at our cabin—the place that meant so damn much to us.
“Jack, you okay?” she asked, raking her fingers through my hair.
Smiling up at her, I nodded, leaning down to kiss her stomach and then wrapping my arms around her. I’d told her back when things were scary, back when I’d finally made it across the country, that things couldn’t always stay bad, that life truly had to find a way to move on. It seemed we were proving it. Death and viruses couldn’t stop life from continuing. I kissed her belly again, kissed the new life we were bringing into this new world, finally meeting Sara’s sweet face.
“Oh, Shortcake, I’m beyond okay. I’m…absolutely perfect. I promise.”
The End
Acknowledgments
I need to thank Jenny Rarden for always keeping me going, for cleaning me up, and for setting me straight. I’d like to thank some of my friends who have pushed me to keep going, cheered me on, and helped me with the tiny details: Reina Latona, Pamela Stephenson, Sue Bartlet, Bethany Tullos, Jodi Parker, Inga Kaczmarek, and Melanie Moreland.
And I need to thank my husband, John, for putting up with something that once started as a hobby but turned into something different. Love you.
About the Author
Deb Rotuno was born and raised in central Florida, where she currently lives with her husband and four cats. She’s worked in retail for almost seventeen years, but if she were able to do anything she wanted, she would be a full-time reader, writer, and fur-baby mom. She has always been a big reader, and writing was something she started late in high school, but she began to dabble in it again once she discovered fanfic in 2009. Since then, she’s read and written plenty in her spare time, especially since she cannot watch a TV show or a movie without thinking about how she could write a story like it.
Website: www.debrotuno.com
Twitter: @Drotuno
Facebook: Facebook.com/drotuno
RR Books
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Twitter: @RR_Books
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