Page 58 of The Right Woman

Emily didn’t come inside the house, but greeted me on the stoop with a warm smile, saying she was glad to see I had moved in.

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Avery and Odin were in the car, she lowered her voice. “It’s not my place to say, but I’m really happy Adon has someone. Especially a person as free as you are.”

She gave me her cell number in case I needed anything, but I was still a bit stunned at her words.

Am I free?

Heat filled my eyes as I thought about it.

Yeah. Now I am.

Maybe all that insight I learned in therapy actually did help. I had been trying to hold myself back because I felt broken. I’d purposefully do things tomakemyself undesirable, just so I could blame it on my damage. But, really, it was my own doing. Having someone to accept me completely has changed that mindset.

It mended the shattered pieces, but like a broken bone, I’m stronger in the spots that were fractured now.

With that in mind, I return to the house with a comfortable grin coating my face and set to work in the kitchen, rearranging things the wayIlike. Making lists of items Adon doesn’t have so I can stock it with baking supplies. Maybe I’ll even be an organized person here. Likely not, but there’s always hope.

Once I’m arranging the bed pillows with some of my more colorful ones, I decide to spend the rest of the evening snuggled up, watching a movie on Adon’s big TV attached to the wall above the dresser. Well, I guess it’s mine, now, too! Weird.

My phone bings with a text message, and I hurriedly check to see if he’s messaging me from the game.

Unknown

Meet me.

Furrowing my brow, I text back.

Me

Who is this?

Unknown

You know who this is.

Part of me wonders if this is a wrong number, and I decide to ignore it. Just as I set the phone down, it bings again.

Unknown

Rosy

With wide eyes, I grab it again and text back. No one really knows that’s what Adon calls me. Maybe Essa, but no one else, I don’t think.

Me

Adon?

Unknown

This is a secure line, baby. Meet me. I’m with Tarin.

She wants to have some fun.

What? We hadn’t discussed this, but maybe he’s trying to be adventurous? My heart races, thinking about sharing Adon with her. I don’t like it. Why wouldn’t he talk with me about that? It seems…notlike Adon to share.

Unknown

I need you.

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