Page 136 of The Image of You

Hallelujah. She finally understood.

I caressed her cheek. “No, it wasn’t.”

“No more, Adam. It was an accident. I’m not going to be their scapegoat anymore.”

“Good. You’re done with them. With all that bullshit.”

She looked toward the kitchen. “I shouldn’t have done that, though.”

“I must be a bad influence.” I smirked down at her, trying to get her to smile. “It’s okay. We’ll get more bowls and stuff. You could have spared the coffeepot, though. It never did anything bad. I’d finally broken it in, so the java tasted good.”

“Um, Adam, your coffee is like tar.”

I was quite partial to my strong brew. “Exactly.”

“I’ll replace it. The coffeepot, I mean.”

I shook my head. “We’ll call it even over your mug. They died in acts of bravery.” I kissed her nose. “We’ll add a new one to the list, along with dishes.”

“We’ll pick out different ones.”

“Damn right.” I traced a finger down her damp skin. “New dishes, new coffeepot, and a new life—for both of us.” I hesitated. “You have to forgive her to move on, baby. I do too. We need to. It doesn’t mean what she did was right—Bradley, either. But that’s how closure begins.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to forgive.”

I brushed a kiss to her forehead. “Okay, I can understand that. There isn’t a time limit on any of this. I think maybe you should talk to someone—someone who can help you deal with all this. You’ve been through so much.”

“I can’t talk to you?”

I smiled ruefully. “You can always talk to me. But maybe someone who doesn’t want to push your mother into an oncoming train. A professional who can help you sort through everything and come to terms with it.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Okay.”

“But I want to go away—just get away from here—from all of it.”

“We will. We’ll sort everything out here, and we’ll leave. We can start planning tomorrow.” I brushed my lips across hers. “We’ll get a legal marriage license, then I’ll marry you, and we’ll go.”

“You want to get married here?”

“Here first, then anywhere you want. I’ll marry you a hundred times over. We can renew our vows any place you like. Privately, in front of people, man, or God. I don’t care. But when we leave here, I’ll have a piece of paper that tells the world you’re mine and nothing can come between us or take you away. All right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll go.”

“Where?”

“Fiji first—like we planned. I want you somewhere warm and peaceful. Us, a villa, and nothing but the ocean and sun. We’ll recover from all this and then move forward. England and Scotland next.”

“Ireland?” she asked eagerly, with a small spark in her eye. I had missed that spark.

“Yes. Then we’ll head to mainland Europe.”

I stroked her cheek with the back of my hand. She leaned into my caress with a small smile, then gasped as she pulled my hand down. “Adam! Your knuckles are all bruised!”

I grunted. “Bradley has an incredibly hard jaw. His abs weren’t anything to sneeze at either.” I inspected her palm. “How about you?”