Page 104 of In The Dark

“And you’re the love of my life.”

Jo’s breath caught at that, because it was true. She felt it in every bone, every breath…every gentle silence between them.

Amelia’s stomachgrumbled as she inhaled the scent of the Thai green curry wafting around the place. They’d set the table the way they always did, lazily and together, with the dishes close enough to share and their chairs positioned so their legs tangled beneath the surface. Amelia watched as Jo ladled steaming curry over a bed of rice, her brow furrowed in concentration as though getting it right was the most important thing in the world. Like everything she did for Ameliahadto be perfect.

God, I adore her.

“Yours looks better than mine,” Jo said, nudging Amelia’s bowl gently across the table.

“I watched you plate up both.” Amelia laughed as she pulled her chair in. “They’reidentical.”

“Mine has more coriander. I think I’ve sabotaged myself.”

Amelia smiled, her heart full to the brim, and took her first bite. “Oh, my God. You’ve outdone yourself this time, baby.”

Jo beamed at the compliment and swallowed a mouthful. “You have your talents, and I have mine.”

Amelia watched Jo quietly. She wasn’t sure when it had started feeling like this, easy and unforced, but now it was second nature. The glances across the table, the laughter, theunspoken threads that seemed to tie everything together. Life was no longer messy. It was beautiful, and it was Amelia’s for the taking.

Halfway through her bowl, Jo set down her fork and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Have you heard anything?”

Amelia looked up. “From Callum?”

Jo gave a small nod.

“No. You?”

“Nothing.”

Amelia shrugged. “He’ll be licking his wounds somewhere, trying to make sense of the world now that heisn’tthe centre of it.”

Jo arched a brow. “You’re not worried?”

“I know my son.” Amelia set her fork down and reached for her sparkling water. “He processes things slowly. He pushes the world away until he can make peace with what he can’t change. And hecan’tchange this.”

Jo reached across the table and laced their fingers together. “No, he can’t.”

The quiet settled over them, allowing them a moment or two to take stock of the day. Another property complete, more images added to Jo’s website and portfolio, and now dinner with the woman she loved. “Thank you.” Amelia gave Jo’s hand a squeeze. “For being so…good to me. When everything came out, you could have washed your hands of me and walked away. You should have, really…”

“Hey.” Jo gave her a look. “Don’t youdarethank me for loving you.”

Amelia’s lips parted at those words.

Jo smiled. “You gave me something I didn’t think I’d ever have again. Not really. Not after Callum.”

Amelia searched Jo’s eyes.

“I know it was over long before you and I got together, and I know I was doing so much better, but I think parts of the wreckage remained. You know?” Jo grazed her thumb over Amelia’s knuckles. “I didn’t realise how much of myself I’d buried just trying to feel okay again. You…” She exhaled. “You pulled me out of that. Not by fixing anything, just…by loving me like there was nothing broken.”

Amelia’s throat tightened. “I don’t see broken when I look at you, baby.”

“I know,” she whispered. “And that means everything to me.”

Amelia felt the weight of Jo’s words settle deep inside of her. Not in a heavy way, but in the kind of way that rewrote and softened something. She let the moment stretch and settle between them, one of those quiet lulls that felt like its own kind of intimacy.

“You’re my entire world, Amelia.”

Jo gave her hand another small squeeze, then picked her fork back up and finished eating. Did she realise the severity of her words or her love? Did she understand just what she meant to Amelia? Jo simply smiled back at her as though she hadn’t just shifted something seismic inside Amelia with a single sentence.