More of his baritone.
More of his sincerity.
“For what?” I rushed out through a weighty sigh.
A pile of bricks had fallen onto my chest. I could barely breathe. I could barely function.
My right hand rested against my skin, attempting to keep my heart from falling out of my body.
“My absence. But, especially, how you’ve felt since the last time we saw each other.”
I inhaled as the weights began to lift. Josiah’s kindness would never fail to amaze me.
“Who sent you?” I inquired.
Silence toyed with my head. After a very pregnant pause and a brief lapse in my sanity, his tenor awakened me, again.
“Someone who loves you, baby, and understands that I am a man who is capable of loving you the same… but romantically. And, more fiercely and more attentively and more accurately and more vividly.”
I straightened my back against the wall closest to me and rested my head against the paint. The home that Josiah had built was slowly becoming mine. It was slowly becoming home.
Because I was a woman who fully believed in the separation of personal spaces, I ventured to the dwelling that served as my forever home more often than not. However, when between the walls that Josiah designed, contentment lulled me.
“You fired me,” I reminded him.
“Only because I had to, Sunshine. This shit I have for you in my chest wouldn’t allow me not to.”
“I understand.”
“I know you do. You’re just in your feelings, which is understandable, too.”
“I won’t be able to see you anymore.”
“You’ll see me on the other side. That’s the only side you should’ve ever seen me to begin with.”
A comforting silence dragged my lips backward, resulting in a smile.
“Four more weeks.”
“Four more weeks,” Josiah confirmed. “Where are you?”
“Your ho–”
“Our.”
“Our home,” I corrected.
The inclination that I was combining worlds with someone sent me into overdrive.
“I’ve made arrangements for you to see the natural birthing team we discussed. When you’re ready, Range, please tell me. Because I understand you may be slightly over–”
“Stimulated,” I giggled, attempting to make light of the situation. “I am.”
There was a tightening in my chest that wouldn’t go away. It didn’t matter how much I tried to dissolve it.
“How have you been feeling?”
“Nuasous. Appreciative. Easily overstimulated. Fragile. Sometimes confused. There’s a level of fog I’ve never experienced.”
