Page 46 of From the Embers
I stared at it until the light dimmed and then extinguished.
Overwhelmed by emotion, I brought a hand up to cover my mouth. It was something so simple. But after everything we’d been through, that one picture meant more to me than he could ever have known. I’d spent the last two days pouring over old phone records and pictures, clawing my way down the rabbit hole of a man who had claimed to love me for better or worse but destroyed our family with his every lying, cheating breath. Meanwhile, Eason had spent the last year taking care of a family that wasn’t his own—at least not by blood—to the point that he kept a picture of us front and center on his phone—and I had a sneaking suspicion in his heart as well.
How was he so incredible? And how had I not seen it all those years?
Oh, right, because we weren’t Rob and Jessica, looking for something new and exciting when we already had it all. What a joke.
I didn’t know what the thing between Eason and me was or what it might grow into, but I never wanted to look back and wonder if we were only trying to get back at them for the way they had broken us.
I wanted Eason, despite it all.
That afternoon, while I’d been safe in his arms, his mouth moving over mine, feeling more alive than ever had solidified that for me. But risking him, risking us, for a moment of passion wasn’t something I could do in good conscience. Our lives were so intertwined that the slightest misstep could be earth-shattering for everyone—including the kids.
Smiling down at him, I rested my palm on the side of his face. Poor guy was so tired he didn’t even stir. “We’ll get there,” I whispered. “Together.”
EASON
The house was silent as I roused from a desperately needed deep sleep. For several beats, I had no idea where I was or even what month it was. But as the exhaustion cleared from my brain, everything came flooding back.
The phone.
The affair.
Luna. God, Luna.
And as I stretched my arm out to the side, silky skin met my fingertips.
Bree.
A smile pulled at my lips as I glanced over at her. Sound asleep on her side, facing me, her chestnut hair cascading on the pillow around her. It was still dark out, so I couldn’t see much, but I didn’t need a light to know she was too fucking far away from me. After that kiss, she could have been on top of me and it still wouldn’t have been close enough.
Fuck me. That kiss.
Bree had always been sexy; that was not something I’d missed just because she was my friend. I’d noticed her ass every time she’d come back from a run in those skintight shorts. There had been too many nights when a chill had caught her by the firepit, her tank top doing nothing to hide the peaks of her nipples. And let’s not even get me started on those fucking skirts and heels she wore to work. I hated every man at Prism on a daily basis because they got to stare at her all day. All I got was to see her in the moments before work and, if I was really lucky, as she walked up the stairs to change when she got home.
But it wasn’t all about physical desire with Bree. I was drawn to her in ways I’d never experienced before. With anyone. She was fierce and confident and poised to the point that she could run the entire world if she wanted. She certainly had a way of keeping me in line. Although it had to be said that I took much pleasure in getting under her gorgeous skin every now and then.
She was thoughtful when no one was watching, and she’d deny everything if she got caught.
Her green eyes were beautiful, but never more so than when she looked at her children. Two of the luckiest kids I’d ever meet.
Naturally nurturing, she took care of everyone and never expected a damn thing in return.
But at the end of the day, I’d never allowed myself to go there with Bree because she hadn’t belonged to me. She’d been Rob’s, and him being gone hadn’t changed that.
But you know what did change it? Rob’s being a piece-of-shit bastard who’d crossed every line that had ever been drawn in the sand.
All bets were off.
Guy code or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. It was done now.
Bree was no longer off-limits, and earlier, when she’d pushed up onto her toes, her lips aimed at my mouth, declaring she had never been his, denying myself a woman I could never have evaporated into nothingness.
Fuck them. Bree was mine. My friend, my family, and if I had my way about it, my everything.
