Page 105 of The Woman Left Behind

“W-what’s that?” I asked.

“Remember I mentioned that nature to provide and protect?”

I nodded.

“Well, the protect part goes into overdrive.”

And…

There it was.

I knew.

I knew before.

Way before.

I mean, Harry Moran was gorgeous, but it wasn’t that.

Everyone knew he worked twice as hard when he worked for Dern, because he tried to do good in the face of bad. And everyone knew he still kept working twice as hard to prove the Dern tenure was over and people could trust the sheriff and his team.

Everyone also knew how much he’d loved his wife, even before he was forced to grieve her.

Everyone knew everything about the man who was Harry Moran.

And all of that was why I had a crush on him.

Because…

Because…

He was my dad.

Harry was his own unique version of the man Simon Rainier was.

A simple man, but that didn’t quite cover the facts that he was a good man, a smart man, a noble man, a thoughtful man, a man who had a deep capacity to love.

In other words, my dad.

And the minute I clapped eyes on Harry, just like my mom, I knew he was the man for me.

I just had to wait until he was ready.

And now he was ready.

So now, what he was saying was, like my dad was when he met my mom, Harry was mine.

I’d found it, what I was looking for.

I’d found what they had.

Oh dang.

I was going to cry again.

I shoved my face in his throat.

He wrapped both arms around me, and I felt him lift his head so he could say in my hair, “I don’t want to scare you with that. That’s just where I’m at. We’re still going to go slow.”

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