“Okay.”Why is my stomach in knots all of a sudden?
“I had planned to show you right when I got home, but then you jumped into my arms, and I forgot everything but getting you naked as fast as possible.”
He hands me his phone.
I read the file on the screen three times before raising my head.
His brown eyes assess me, and I can feel his emotion.
“What is this?” My voice sounds foreign to my own ears. Like I’ve been living underground for years and am just seeing natural light for the first time.
“The report from the night Aaron died in the house fire.” He points to the line I kept staring at. “The heater was in the living room.”
“But I left it in my bedroom.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time Aaron went into your room uninvited, would it?”
No, it wouldn’t.
My stepfather thought our townhouse was his kingdom and mom and me, his subjects.
Whatever he needed or wanted, he’d look for it anywhere. He used to steal lightbulbs from my bedside table lamps rather than buy new ones for the stove.
He would take my pens I used to write in my journal.
He’d even tried to read my journal until I found a loose floorboard and hid it.
So it’s not hard to believe he would have walked into my bedroom when I was out and taken the space heater.
“How…” I gesture to the report. “Did you…”
“Liam put me in contact with a detective on the force in New Orleans. It took a little digging, but he got me what I was asking for.”
“But what made you decide to ask for it in the first place?”
“Your story didn’t sit right with me. Call it a hunch.”
The tears start fast, and they’re running down my face before I can attempt to blink them away.
“This is everything,” I whisper to him. “Thank you.”
His shoulders relax, and he wipes a tear off my cheek. “You know I’ll do anything for you, Ashley.”
I do know that.
I also know I’m falling in love with him.
But neither of us is ready for that kind of confession.
I lean in and kiss him before straddling his naked body.
We disappear together beneath the sheets as I show him exactly how much he means to me.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Hi, sugar.”
“Hi, Mama. Guess what?”
