Page 68 of Salvation (Clover-Hills #1)

Blake

“ I ’m gonna go read.” Elain declares as we reach the front steps to the house.

We watch as she goes inside, and Wesley stands from the rocker chair to come stand in front of me. He cups the side of my face and lands a quick kiss on my forehead. “How’d it go?” He asks.

“As good as you think it would.” I shrug.

He just looks at me, brows slowly rising in question. “It was…good. For me, it was. It hurt, but it was freeing. I think I needed it.”

He nods, not pushing me any further. And I’m thankful for it. He cranes his head to look behind me. “Want to go for a walk?”

I nod, turning my head to follow his gaze, knowing exactly where he wants to go. I gracefully take the coat he’s handing me and place my hand in his awaiting one.

***

We walk for just a few minutes before we’re standing at the pond nestled next to my previous home.

Our hands, still interlocked. It’s frozen over now due to how harshly cold the weather has become, but it’s our pond all the same.

I breathe out, watching as my breath fogs in the air before me.

“It’s crazy what time can do to a place like this. ”

He nods along, bringing our hands up to place a tender kiss on top of mine.

His lips are hot against our cold hands.

“It’s crazy how much a place like this can do for us .

” A little smile graces my lips at that comment, and his grin mirrors my own as he turns fully to face me, dropping our hands and wrapping his arms around my middle to pull me in.

“What now, Miss. Warner?”

“What now?” I repeat, leaning my head against his chest. “Now, I’ll share my story.”

And I will. Now, I will write that book that Whitney reminded me of when I first quit my job in the city.

I’ll write for me. For Elain. For the next little girl who feels like the bruises were her fault.

For the woman she’ll become, the trauma that will shape her for the rest of her life.

For the daughter she’ll have that will only ever know love and gentle hands.

Because there will be someone else, in a world like this, there always is.

But I’ll do my best to help heal even one.