Page 250 of Broken Saint

I think back over the events of the day, and one moment lingers in my mind.

“What happened in the kitchen earlier?” I whisper.

He’s still awake behind me—I can tell by his breathing, and the way it hitches.

He knows exactly what I’m talking about.

He was freaking out. He looked like a deer caught in headlights standing in the middle of Mom’s kitchen.

His fingers flex against my stomach, and his breath races across my neck and shoulder, making my skin erupt with goosebumps.

“Your home. It’s…” He trails off, but despite wanting to probe, I remain silent. “It’s the kind of family home every kid deserves.”

His confession forces all the air from my lungs.

“From the moment I stepped inside, all I could feel was love and warmth. It took me by surprise. I’ve never felt it quite so strongly before.”

As much as I hate that he hasn’t experienced it before, I also love that I get to show him what real love and family should be like.

“You’d better get used to it,” I whisper. “Your life from here on out is going to be full of it. I won’t have it any other way.”

“I can’t wait, Bombshell. I can’t fucking wait.”

No more words are said between us. They’re not needed.

Eventually, I drift off to sleep, happy that I’m safe in his arms.

We have a way to go until everything is fully right between us, until I’m able to put what happened firmly in the past. But it’ll happen.

It has to. We’re a family now. And it doesn’t matter how hard life gets; families stick together.

Always.

64

ELLA

Murmured voices coming from the kitchen let me know where everyone is as I step out of my bedroom.

It’s been a week since Colt arrived in Texas. A week of us navigating this new us. A better us.

I’m still struggling with tiredness and battling against my own mind where food is concerned. But that’s nothing new. Only now, I have the added pressure of keeping someone else healthy.

But as much as I might be feeling the pressure, it’s given me a new perspective on…well, everything.

It’s helping Colt, too. He’s been more open and honest with me about everything in this past week than he has in the years we’ve known each other.

I always thought I knew him, even if it was just a small part that he allowed me to get to know. But now I can say that I really and truly know the man that everyone else knows as the Seattle Saints number forty-two.

And not only that, but I also know that he’s mine.

It might be naive of me, but I believe him this time when he says he’s in it for the long haul.

No doubt over the coming years, we’re both going to have wobbles. But I trust that we’re going to be able to talk to eachother about our thoughts and worries long before anyone does anything stupid.

With my heart so full I fear it might burst right out of my chest, I round the corner and step into the kitchen doorway.

It takes a moment for Mom and Colt to notice me, but the second they do, they jump up like two little kids who’ve been caught raiding the candy jar.