“And I was too late.”
Through bleary eyes, she blinked. “Maybe time didn’t really exist for us.”
“No, baby, no. It did and it does. Time might have been cruel, but we’re real, and thistime? It’s ours. Fuck thirty days, I’m taking thirty thousand.” Aster smiled a soggy smile. Emotion thick. Her faith finally coming to fruition.
I dove forward, capturing her mouth while this girl captured my soul.
Hell, it’d always been hers. It was time we were finally free to revel in it.
A pounding hammered at my driver’s side window.
Aster yelped and jerked away, and I whirled around to find the threat.
Gifts stacked to the sky, Tessa waved back manically with one hand as she tried to balance them.
Shit.
I drew in a fragmented breath and tried to reel in the violence that had been instant.
“Hello, hey, Merry Christmas. Get your asses out of that car because I’m freezing mine off, and you know this tushy is way too cute for that.”
I scrubbed a palm over my face.
Fucking Tessa.
I glanced at Aster.
On a giggle, she gave me a small shrug. “You’re the one who told me she was only half insane.”
A light chuckle got free, and I leaned forward and gave her a peck to the lips. “Come on, it’s family time.”
Mine.
Hers.
Ours.
This time, I was going to keep it that way.
THIRTY-FOUR
ASTER
Family time.
I guess I never understood quite what that meant. Had never experienced it this way.
Family to me had always meant secrets. Loyalty without question. Submission without opposition.
And here we were, a mess of people piled in Trent and Eden’s little house. The only one we were missing was Gretchen because she was spending the night at her sister’s for the holiday.
We’d eaten and drank and laughed.
Chatted about the mundane that felt like the most important topics in the world because they were the things that mattered to these people.
And the truth of it was that I felt as if I belonged. As if I were a piece of this beauty. A glimmer in the light.
Held in Logan’s tender glances and touches, wrapped in his laughter and teases, the easiness he exuded when he was surrounded by the ones who meant most to him.