54.
(Noah)
I sat with Jude between my legs. My feet touched Ashlynn’s as she sat across from me.
“I had to do that,” I said. “But from now on we’ll manage the money better. We’ll get a life set up for ourselves. You should think about going back to school, too. Chase your dream.”
Ashlynn nodded. She blushed and grinned.
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t have to worry about money anymore.”
“Why not?”
Ashlynn reached behind her and then showed me something dangling from her finger.
“What…”
“I found it,” she said. “The jewel.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“And that’s worth…”
“A couple million.”
“You’d sell it?”
“I have no history to care about,” she said. “Only the present and the future. We’re rich, Noah.”
I lifted Jude and inched toward Ashlynn. I touched her face. “No, sweetheart, we’ve always been rich. You, me, Jude, and the new one in your belly. That’s being rich.”
“But money is nice.”
“Sure, it’s nice.”
I kissed Ashlynn. We both then started to laugh.
Yeah, okay, it was kind of fun to think about being rich…
“Does it all still hurt?” she asked me.
“What?”
“Do you hurt still?”
“Oh, sweetheart, of course I hurt. It hurts to love you as much as I do. It hurts to care about Jude the way I do. It hurts to think about the new baby. If he - or she - will be healthy. How everything will happen in life. It all hurts…”
“Me too,” she whispered.
I wiped my thumb at the corner of her eye, catching a tear. “But the thing is… it’s okay to hurt. It means we feel. And trust me, I feel. You’re worth everything, Ashlynn. The fight, the hurt, the everything.”
I gently brushed my lips to hers. Jude smacked me in the face and made a gibberish sound. If you asked me, I swore he spoke his first word. And no, it wasn’t a swear word.
It was Da-da.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First electronic edition July 2016
Copyright © 2015 by Karolyn James, London Casey, Ana W. Fawkes
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.