Where she fit.
Where she wanted to be.
Her vision blurred from the rain, and eyes swollen from her tears, she couldn’t see much. Didn’t matter. She didn’t need to see to know Jay stood nearby. She felt him. His heartbeat echoed inside her chest. His blood pulsed through her veins. His presence existed in every breath she drew and the spaces in between.
He lived inside of her, the silence and the storm.
In the place where love becomes a lifeline and a vow.
Always and forever.
She reached out her hand and took the first step—for him. God damn, her body was frozen, her muscles quaking with the effort to keep her on her feet. Seconds felt like eternities. Then Jay took her hand. His rain-slicked palm sliding against hers. His fingers gripping her tight. Strong. Capable. Familiar.
“One more,” he said, testing her resolve and forcing her to take another step. Not for him this time. But for herself. The others let her go, and she stood on her own, teeth chattering too hard to speak. “You can do it,” he coaxed with a gentle squeeze of his hand, and she believed him, because she’d made her choice, and she wanted to live. Wanted to love. Wanted to stay.
To Jay, it felt as though the entire universe had paused. The breath of life suspended between heartbeats while Becca wavered on the cusp of a choice only she could make. Even the storm around them had abated, the pouring rain slowing to a steady, rhythmic pulse, like it knew the woman he loved—the woman who had every reason to crumble—was choosing not to.
Without a doubt, the first step she’d taken had been for him.
But the next one?
The next one had to be for herself.
Because this was her reckoning. Her awakening. Her moment.
Her bare foot shifted, trembling but firm. One step. She took one step, and his heart cracked open. Split wide. His relief so fierce it nearly brought him to his knees. His Becca. Broken. Grieving. Mud-covered and soaked to the bone. Yet still, she stood, she fought, she won.
Victory had never been so sweet.
One shaky step, and he could feel the hope rising, swelling, filling the hearts of the people around them. Their family. Their support system. The ones who’d gotten them here and given them a chance for a happier tomorrow and a brighter future.
Eve’s hand over her heart. Gray’s silent nod of encouragement. Summer’s quiet tears. The way Adam threw his arm around Davis. Chase waited. Jamie hovered, ready to come to their aid. They’d seen everything Becca had lain bare, her pain, her cracks, her bruises.
And they loved her all the more for it.
He did too as he lifted her into his arms and held her tight.
Her final destination reached, she shivered and tucked her head under his chin, melting against his chest, too spent to even wrap her arms around his neck. God, she was frozen solid. Her skin turning blue. Time of the essence, he gave a nod to the group, expressing his gratitude, then brushing his lips against the damp crown of her head, he turned and whispered, “You did it, Bec.”
“I did…” she gasped, her teeth chattering. “I did it…ffffor me.”
He walked them to the lodge, the others trailing them toward shelter and safety and home. “I know you did, sweetheart. You’re so strong and brave.”
“Nnn…not…strong. But I will…b…b…be.”
He cut a straight path across the yard and onto the porch, passing by Cody and Halia, Grant with his arm around Madelyn’s waist to support her weight, and Zander holding the door open, a gateway to the home they shared.
They entered together, a steady progression of family filling the foyer. Wet. Cold. Somber, yet relieved, as they reached for Becca, surrounding her, touching her, offering her their strength and encouragement.
“Th…th…thank…y…you,” she murmured. “For resc…rescuing me.”
“Any time,” Jamie replied, the last to kiss her cheek before Jay made for the stairs.
When he reached the top, he bee-lined for the bedroom that hadn’t felt like his before her arrival. Now it belonged to them. Their haven, their sanctuary, and threshold cleared, he kicked the door closed behind them.
Across the room in a flash, he hustled her into the glass-enclosed shower, and with a quick twist of his wrist, he turned the hot water on. Then back braced against the tile, he slid them to the floor until she sat cradled in his lap.
Bodies pressed together, they shook, his own emotions catching up to hers. Grief for the past they couldn’t change, the daughter they’d lost, and the scars they bore. Coupled with hope, love, and the promise of what could be.
