Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“In my abuela’s culture, we revere the elderly. My grandmother never wanted that secret told, so I’ll never tell. I never did, but I can tell you. I’ve held that for so long. It made me hate my mother. I know addiction is a sickness. Christ, what I do, I’m fully aware of the hypocrisy, but I can’t unloathe my mother. It’s just not in me.”
“I’m so sorry, Ashton.” I laced our fingers together.
“That day I saw you, I have never stopped thinking about you since that day. Maybe it linked us? Maybe I started loving you that day, knowing what my mom took away from you, knowing what she did to Abuela.”
My eyes were swimming.
I was flashing back to that same day as well. “Your grandmother loved you?”
“Fiercely.” He blinked, some wetness showing. “My grandfather too. I think they didn’t know how to help my mom. They didn’t believe in therapy, or they would’ve sent my mother to one. They didn’t know. It’s different now.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
He cleared his throat. “I’ve been reading more of the group role dynamics you mentioned. That’s therapy based, right?”
I nodded. “I’ve been interested. I think because of my own dad, but also from Easter Lanes. People talk a lot to a bartender that’ll listen.”
His smile was so soft. “I get that.” He looked around. “That’s why we’re here. A new place. A new compound.”
I sat back. “What?”
“I bought this place. Not just for us. The familia too. My aunts. Cousins. Nieces. Nephews. And for . . . our kids if we ever have them.”
Children.
My heart was pumping.
I wanted to hug him, hold him, cry with him, but now I wanted to kiss him and so many other things. “Kids?”
“If you want.” He was back to looking at me, watching me steadily, loving me right back. “I know I’d want, someday.”
“I want. I very much want. Children?” I felt full all over again. Full of love, life, and happiness. “I love you.”
Those eyes of his, looking back at me with such tenderness. “I love you too.”
“Wait. Did you sell the other compound?”
“No.” He picked up his fork, taking a last bite of his Rogel cake. “I burned it. It felt cathartic to see it in ashes.”
EPILOGUE
ASHTON
I waited until the next morning. I didn’t want to be predictable, but as soon as she started waking up, with her coffee already on the nightstand, she rolled over, and I was there.
“Morni—” She stopped because she saw what was in my hand.
The ring. I moved so I was half lying on her, nestled between her legs, and I held it up to her. “Will you marry me?”
“Ashton.” She sat up slowly, reaching for the ring.
She’d start crying. She was a crier, at least lately, but she cried when she was happy. She rarely cried from the other reasons anymore.
Those tears were starting. Her bottom lip beginning to tremble. “Is this—are you sure?”
I groaned. “God, I’m sure.” I reached forward, brushing her hair back, tucking it behind her ear, and I held her head in the palm of my hand. “I meant it last night. I think I’ve loved you since we were kids. Just took me a long time to figure it out.”
She was biting her lip, still crying, but her eyes were beaming at me. She kept looking from me to the ring, and back again, until she was only focusing on the ring.
I sat up. “Molly.”
“What?” Still focused on the ring. “It’s a double-stoned engagement ring. Ashton. This is amazing.”
One was a princess-cut stone. The other was shaped in a moon. Both were platinum and on a gold band.
“Trace helped with the ring, by the way. If you say yes, he’s requested that they’re our first call. And they’re on standby. Meaning, they’re staying in one of the guesthouses here.”
She gasped. “They’re here?”
I was half cursing in my head. “You need to say yes or put me out of my misery. What—”
“Yes!” She launched herself at me, tackling me backward on the bed. “Yes, yes, yes. Oh my god, yes.” She went back to letting the tears fall as she kept staring at the ring.
I took it, took her finger, and I slowly slid it on. “There. Mrs. Ashton Walden.”
She couldn’t stop staring at it, until she burst out, “If we have a girl, we’re naming her after my mom. I know your grandmother was like the matriarch, but my mom comes first.”
She was so fierce, and I had no idea life could be like this. None.
I leaned forward. “If we have a girl, we can name her after your mother.”
“Gen Everly Walden. I’ve always felt bad for my middle name. Like, it needed to shine more, but it never just got its due moment. You know?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn’t care. I moved in, needing to taste her. So I did, and I kept tasting her, kissing her, and she was kissing me back.