I detangled myself from Mouse to fold her into me. “I love you, Phoebe. What a shitty moment to tell you, but I do.”
“Always in the craziest moments.”
“What?” I eased her back to look down at her.
“That’s not the first time you told me, though I am very happy to hear it again. I was beginning to think I imagined it the first time.”
“No I didn’t.”
She laughed and cupped my face. “The day the book clicked in your head.”
I frowned as I tried to remember.
“After you showed me your book for the first time. The wall...” She trailed off with a smile full of all the love she’d offered me that day. The smile and the laughter I’d grown to rely on. “When I redrew the dandelion seeds among your Dutch hieroglyphics.”
I laughed. “I love you, but get out.” I shook my head at the memory filtering back in. The words had tumbled out that day because I’d felt safe for the first time in my life. Not just because she unlocked my creativity again, but because she was the light I needed in every way. “Jesus, how do you even stick around?”
“Because I love you too. You get me on a level no one else ever has. Even if you shoved me out of your office after telling me you love me.”
I knew she loved me. The clues had been there in every generous touch and smile she’d offered me without reservation. Even when I didn’t deserve them. Mouse wiggled out of the weird tangle we were in and licked my cheek before he ambled off to lay on the patchy grass. I stood, all the muscles in my legs protesting at the position we’d been in.
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, folding her against me as I drew in her honey scent. Purpose knit under my skin andsunk into my chest. It was time to stop hiding and to take back my life.
For her.
For me.
For a future that was more than just my career. A life worthy of a woman made of sunshine. I glanced over at the white furball of a dog who’d kept coming back no matter how many times I tried to ignore him. He’d been alone for a long time in those trees and still was brave enough to push his way into our life.
The least I could do was face my demons and make sure I was worthy of both of them.
I stepped back enough to get a good look at Phoebe. My paint splattered pocket of golden sunshine. I lowered my mouth to hers, feeling the smile in her kiss as she wrapped her arms around my waist and leaned into it without reservation.
Always giving all of herself.
I let myself steep in her touch for a little while longer before I stepped back and held my hand out for hers. “Let’s go see what your brother found.”
“Whatever it is, you don’t have to do this alone, okay?”
That was one thing I was sure of in all of this. “Okay.”
We returned to the basement and Lance seemed to have another dozen screens open. One looked like a chat box and another a dark box of code I couldn’t begin to understand.
“You bastard. Thinking you’re so damn clever,” Lance muttered to himself.
“Did you find something?” I asked.
He didn’t turn around. “The security you added used to be one of the best in the market, but I’ve noticed that it has more points of entry than I’m personally comfortable with. I’ve had to upgrade more apps and websites associated with LockSure than any other on the market lately. This one was actually onyour computer before the upgrade. It was hidden in your cloud server.”
“How? Christopher isn’t a tech bro by any means. No offense.”
Lance snorted. “None taken. He probably bought something off the dark web. There’s a lot of shit out there that can do serious damage. If you did more banking on your laptop, it probably could have been worse to be honest. But this little backdoor into your system allowed him to essentially search out one file and destroy it. The good thing is he has to have the exact name of the file.”
“Like the name of my Word document?”
He nodded and tapped his screen. “When you did all your backups, it essentially had the same file name wherever you put it. Most of us just add a date at the end of the name or save over the old file. But you’re right that he’s not tech minded.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You obviously aren’t either.”
I grunted. “Obviously not. Even with what my friend Bastian did, I had specific parameters he gave me. I made sure all of my backups weren’t attached to a cloud server.”
