And then he lifted me into his arms, carried me up the porch steps…and took me home.
CHAPTER 30
Silas
I wokeup with June in my arms and the rain still falling.
It took me a second to remember where I was—what day it was, even. For a moment, it felt like the whole world had stopped…like I was floating somewhere just outside of time, suspended in the soft grey light of early dawn, June’s breath warm on my chest and the window cracked open to the smell of petrichor and pine.
The sheets were twisted around our legs, birds singing in the distance. It was the kind of morning you didn’t expect after a night like the one we’d had—the kind that should’ve come after a wedding, not a death.
But maybe that was the point.
Something had ended…and something else had begun.
I looked down at her, propping myself on an elbow and trying my best not to disturb her. June was still asleep, her lashes curled against her cheek, mouth parted. She looked…soft.Safe. Like she was somewhere she belonged, and like I was too.
I hadn’t felt that way in a long, long time.
My hand found the curve of her hip beneath the covers, and I just held her for a while…thinking about everything that had come before…what would come after. I’d been locked up in the past for years, and it felt like something had let go of me.
Like the fist that was clenched around my heart had relaxed…like it was just holding me now.
She hadn’t looked sad—Amelia. She hadn’t looked scared, she hadn’t looked bruised like when she died. She was…peaceful.Happy.
In that tent, when everyone else was screamin’…she’d looked at me like I was allowed to forget, at least a little. Maybe to forget the pain, while I remembered the smiles.
June stirred slightly, her hand sliding along my ribs. She didn’t open her eyes right away—just made a small, contented sound in the back of her throat and nuzzled in closer like she’d been waiting on me to hold her tighter.
So I did.
I bent to kiss her hairline, just above her temple, and murmured, “Mornin’, preacher.”
She smiled sleepily against my chest. “Is it still morning?”
I glanced toward the window, where rain clung to the screen like diamonds. “Barely.”
Her fingers flexed against my bare skin, dragging down toward my waist, slow and drowsy. We hadn’t even bothered with clothes last night—just showered and thrown ourselves into bed, immediately falling into a deep sleep. Now, I was well aware of how naked we were…and how she felt against me.
“Is it still today, or is it tomorrow?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I truly have no idea. Why…you got somewhere to be?”
“Oh you know,” she said. “Potlucks to plan, babies to baptize.” She finally tipped her head up to look at me, eyes heavy with sleep. “You okay?”
I reached up to brush the back of my hand across hercheekbone, then tucked a curl behind her ear. She looked so damn beautiful like this—quiet, unguarded, flushed with sleep.
“Yeah,” I said finally. “I’m okay.”
She blinked up at me like she didn’t fully believe it yet. Like she needed proof.
So I gave it to her.
I leaned in and kissed her—soft and slow, the way I hadn’t had the chance to the night before. There hadn’t been room for softness then, not after everything that had happened.
But now?
Now, we had all the time in the world.
