Page 155 of Stolen Harmony

“She always said I needed someone stubborn enough to stick around when things got difficult.”

“And you needed someone patient enough to wait for you to figure out you were worth sticking around for.”

We stayed in the piano room until well past dark, playing music and making plans and celebrating the simple, miraculous fact that we'd found each other despite all the reasons why we shouldn't have. That love had been stronger than fear, that trust had been stronger than doubt, that the future we were building together was brighter than any past we'd left behind.

Later, as we lay in bed with Roxie purring between us and Max snoring on the floor, I thought about how far we'd come from that first night when Rowan had knocked on my door, broken and angry and desperate for something he couldn't name.

“Are you happy?” I asked into the darkness.

“Ridiculously happy,” he said, his voice thick with sleep and contentment. “Disgustingly, embarrassingly happy.”

“Good. That's the plan for the next fifty years.”

“Fifty years of disgustingly happy sounds perfect.”

I closed my eyes and listened to the sound ofhis breathing, steady and peaceful in the way that only came from feeling completely safe. Outside, Harbor's End was settling into another night, but inside our house, inside the life we'd built note by note and day by day, everything was exactly as it should be.

The song we'd started playing a year ago was finally finished. And it was beautiful.