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Sincerely,
Taylor Ellison
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I choked out a laugh. I had no idea Ray had seen that letter. It was one of a thousand I had written. It was more of a joke for myself, the bitter ramblings of an eighteen-year-old girl whose background couldn’t compare to a majority of those applying. But it was my heart, the truth of who I was, and he wanted to let me know it. Ray had loved me as the penniless girl he took in as well as the woman full of confidence he sent back into the world.
The only thing bad about his heart was that it wouldn’t let him love me.
“Oh, you bastard.” I turned my head and sniffed the shoulder of his shirt and caught a subtle, if not imaginary, whiff of his cologne.
My heart wrenched as I thought of my mirror, a man who had taken the woman Laz and Ray left broken and smashed the pieces of her back together in their wake.
And he loved me anyway.
It was time to mourn.
I’d never given myself a chance. I wrapped myself up in the three men who had, in some form, shaped and ruined me. But I guess that’s what love did. It built you up to believe and broke you if you didn’t get to keep it. And I was comfortably broken as I stared out of Ray’s bedroom window at the falling leaves.
“You’re right, Ray. This isn’t home, but mind if I stay a little while?”
Eight months later
“Oh my GOD!” The speaker of my phone pierced my ears as my sister screamed in excitement.
“Amber, seriously, stop yelling.”
“I’m getting married! MARRIED!”
“I’m on my way.”
“You staying longer this time?” I closed the door to Ray’s house and locked it with a bag in hand. “I don’t know.”
“Okay, but as soon as you get here, I have plans.”
I cradled my phone in the console and turned on the Bluetooth.
“Shopping?” Dread coursed through my veins. “We’ll discuss it.”
But—”
My phone beeped and I smiled.
“Amber, I have to go.”
“But—”
I clicked over. “How’s it going, partner?”
Nina all but growled her reply. “Sometimes I really hate you for leaving me with this mess.”
“I’m doing my part.”
“I know, but it would be easier if we weren’t conferencing every ten damn minutes.”
“I’ll be back soon. I’m on the road now.”
“Thank Christ.”
“Get off the phone,” Devin ordered in the background. “You were the one bitching about date night.”
