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Part of me would always be her—sun-drunk and in love, listening to stories of his youth, dreaming out a future we knew we could never touch but doing it anyway.

I would carry her hope, her dreams, her longing—all the joys and pains of living.

I swore to myself then and there that I would never allow myself to slip away again—that I would find a slice of joy in each and every day.

And on the days where it was too hard to do it for myself, I would do it for him.

The man with the laughing eyes, the strong hands, and kind heart that loved me back to life.

Chapter 31

As hard as it was to leave the cliffs, I was eventually able to bring myself to do it.

When the shadows around my heart finally fled, Wolfe drew me to my feet. We walked for a while along the coast, following the shimmering sea around the base of the cliffs. We laughed until we were both aching with it, wind tearing tears from our eyes.

Even as a writer, I always wondered if there was such a thing as a soulmate, but looking at him… I knew.

I wanted to track down that girl who took our photo and buy her camera from her so I could capture him just like this. Sea at his back, arms spread on the stone wall, looking at me with hooded, hungry eyes.

I did what I did best though—I wrote it all out, the exact shades of him.

I prayed it would be enough.

My stomach was growling by the time we hit the car and made our way back home. I fiddled with the radio long enough to bring in a fuzzy station, music filtering through the car. It wasn’t a song I knew but with the window cracked, his hand in mine, it was enough.

When I parked the car, Wolfe stopped me with a hand to my arm. I glanced at him, brow raised in question.

“I’ve been thinking…”

“Yes?” I asked, and the word was breathless.

“Would you do something for me?”

“Anything,” I replied immediately.

Amused, he tilted his head. “Would you go upstairs and put that dress back on? The one you wore to the pub?”

Heat erupted inside me. My legs began to tremble, but I dipped my head all the same.

“I can. Why?”

“You said it’s been a while since you’ve been on a date. I can’t take you on a proper one, but I thought I could take you on one here.”

Love. Sadness. Joy. Disbelief.

Could one ever exist without the others trailing far behind?

“You don’t need to—”

“I want to. You have the ingredients stocked for what I want to make. Go upstairs, shower, change, do whatever you normally do, and let me do this for you.”

“All right,” I whispered.

His grin was wolfish. “Good. I’ll come collect you when it’s time.” He pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and then was out of the car in the same breath.

Nerves fluttered through me. We’d already slept together, so why was I suddenly so nervous?

We split up when we entered Kilmorran. Wolfe hooked a left down the hallway toward the kitchen and I skirted the sitting room to take the stairs. His whistle floated through the space and my lips twitched.