Saving Ever After by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

Author:Stephanie Hoffman McManus [McManus, Stephanie Hoffman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00Y29AC6M
Published: 2015-05-20T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Chris

I watched Mia at the edge of the beach, sitting in the sand with Abel in her lap. She was laughing as he enjoyed burying his hands and toes in the sand, squealing and sometimes flinging it. A camera went off beside me and I turned to see Jax with her lens pointed right at me.

“What was that for?” I asked her.

“I haven’t seen you really smile like that in a while. Just wanted to get it on camera,” she said casually, but there was nothing casual about the mischievous glint in her eye.

“Let me see it,” I said walking over to her. She held out the camera and flipped through the pictures she had just taken. There were several of Mia playing with Abel, and then, sure enough, she’d caught me staring off with a wide grin on my face.

Jax looked right out at Mia, “The beach sure is gorgeous here, isn’t it?” I knew what she was doing just as assuredly as Jax knew I had been watching Mia.

“Mmhmm,” I mumbled, turning away.

“I just wonder Chris,” she said, stopping me, “if there’s something at home that makes you smile like that.”

I only paused a moment before continuing on the walkway back toward the hotel, but Jax’s words went with me. All night they were in my head. On the car ride back into Brisbane, during rehearsal, while we were dressed and fitted with mics, and even while we were out on that stage. They were on replay. So was the day I’d had.

And all of it brought me back to a single thought, a single truth. The smile, it was Mia. She put it there, it was for her. She was the reason for it today and so many other times. I could hate it, I could fight it, I could deny it. It didn’t make it less true. She’d made me feel lighter and more carefree today than I had in a very long time. And she did it just by being her.

She was happier and more carefree than I’d ever seen her. Nothing was weighing her down or dimming the life in her, and this wasn’t just a moment or a little glimpse I was seeing. It was just her. Letting go and having fun. And she was bringing it out in me. Even when I’d wanted to strangle her for shaking that bridge today and making me feel like I was going to piss my pants forty feet above the ground, there wasn’t a single moment of the day that I would trade, or anyone else I wanted to share it with.

That was a problem. One that wasn’t going away, but was actually going to get worse. The next morning, after our early wakeup call and quick flight from Brisbane down to Sydney, there was a surprise waiting for me at our hotel there. She was standing in the lobby when we arrived.

Katrina.

I should have been happy to see her. I should have rushed to her and pulled her into my arms.

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