Page 75 of Finding Home
He pushes himself up and hovers over me as I roll back and look up at him. He tucks my hair behind my ear, and I see it in his eyes before the words leave his lips, and I’m already crying.
“I love you, Chloe Maxwell. It wasn’t planned, but I’m so fucking in love with you I’m not sure how I’d breath if I didn’t have you anymore.”
I smile through my tears as I whisper back, “I love you, Everett. I love you and your adorable little girl and the life we’re sharing. When you walked into Incahoots all those months ago, I never thought we’d be right here, but it feels like fate. Like no matter what, the universe would have found a way to bring us together.”
His smile is bright as he kisses the tip of my nose. “I feel the same way. It may have taken me time to realize it, but you, North, are my north star. My guiding light home. I never truly felt like anywhere felt like home until you. I wasn’t looking for a place, but a person, a feeling. I found that with you.”
I’m not slightly crying or pretty crying right now. I’m chest heaving, ugly crying as I curl into Everett’s chest and he holds me, placing soft kisses where he can. For a man who speaks mainly in grunts, at least to other people, and isn’t a big emotional person, he just reached into my chest and wrapped himself around my heart in a way that taking him out would remove part of myself.
Everett spends the night holding me and whispering soft “I love yous” and “I’m heres” as he kisses my hair and temple. I fall asleep in his arms an emotional wreck but knowing there’s no better gift I could have asked for than those words from Everett.
FORTY-TWO
EVERETT
Christmas morning is a whirlwind. Chloe gave me a heads up about their traditions, but hearing about it and seeing it are two completely different things. Hannah and I both sit on the couch as we take in everything.
“This is so different from how I grew up,” she muses.
I nod, agreeing. She nudges me with her arm, and I look at her.
“I’m glad you’re here with her. Both you and Lila. She seems happy.”
I look at Chloe, who’s trying to put pancake batter on her brother’s face while he fights her off. Lila is trying to help by tickling him, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much. Chloe smiles at me while she still works to beat her brother, and my heart grows in my chest even more. She knew I was watching her and sought me out.
“Don’t let her slip through your fingers,” Hannah says, patting me on the arm before she gets up and joins them, leaning down to whisper something in Grayson’s ear that gets him to stop fighting Chloe for just long enough that she smudges the batter down his cheek from his eye to his jaw.
Chloe and Lila laugh as they grip their stomachs, and Grayson looks at his wife in outrage.
“You chose my sister’s side over mine!” he exclaims.
“I am the better sibling,” Chloe says through her laughter, and Grayson swings his head to look at her.
“This is the second time you’ve gotten me, don’t think either will go unanswered.”
Hannah pats his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it up to you later,” she says with a wink.
“Ewww. I really don’t need that mental image,” Chloe says, and I’m thankful that Lila is still too young to understand.
“Should my payback be in the form of making you very uncomfortable, Chlo? Should I tell you how much I love when Hannah sits—” He’s cut off by Chloe’s hand over his mouth.
“There’s a child here, for God’s sake.”
His eyes flick to Lila, and she watches them before he nods and Chloe removes her hand.
“Sorry, just not used to having kids here.”
Chloe pats his chest. “Better get used to it. She spends more time here than you do.”
He winces slightly.
“You should have heard the scolding he got from Caleb when he said some less than savoury things in front of his daughter.”
“He was!” Grayson says indignantly. “He was able to pick out Taylor Swift song titles in a conversation. You’re really trying to say he wasn’t completely pu—” This time it’s Hannah who cover’s Grayson’s mouth, and I’m grateful, because I have a feeling the words about to leave his mouth werepussy whipped.
I leave the couch and join them in the kitchen as Hannah runs her fingers through Grayson’s hair and says, “I don’t think you’re one to judge. You’d do anything if I told you it would get you a good time.”
“Where’s that batter, you two?” Melanie asks, interrupting the sibling argument.
