A Thousand Starry Nights by Addison Moore

Author:Addison Moore [Moore, Addison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, contemporary romance, old love, new adult
Publisher: Addison Moore
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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The week tumbles by in a blur with me slaving away all hours at the gallery. My mind swirled in color and light, in the memories each canvas holds like a bookmark to some porthole in the past. Carter shows up and helps me organize my life’s work in groups, my vertebrate years, the dark invertebrate years that followed. He brings Abby, and she paints next to us, content for hours as we hem and haw over what pieces to include in the exhibit. It’s a strange dream being so close to Carter again, serving up my most intimate, personal moments as an offering for all those missing hours swallowed by time. I might as well have stained these canvases with my blood, with my tears. My history with Carter is delicately layered on each one. Carter is like water, a reflection of something transitional, always present in my life, reshaping himself to the surface that destiny chooses to give us, and now here he is full-bodied, light, and pure. But he brought the darkness into my life, as well. Even though we spent four years apart, Carter was inescapable, just as much a part of me as my heartbeat. Together we were light, and then we grew mercilessly dark.

The night of the exhibit flows like an out-of-body experience. My name is strung up on the banner that leads into the main hall, Aspen O’Tool, and I twist my lips looking at the letters that form who I am in symbols. Their angular shapes, the three round o’s that stand out like a warning—it looks hostile, bitter. I resent Henry for so many reasons, but the fact that I’m stuck with his name, that I’ve carved it into the tree of my existence makes me most resentful. Does Nikki worry that there’s a woman out there who took Henry’s name? Does she want it, too? For a moment I envision a new name, Aspen Cannon. In a perfect world, that is what it would be.

Carter said he came to my wedding. I wish he were there as the groom. It would have saved a world of grief.

Stevie and Ford are the first to arrive. Ford looks dapper in a suit, and Stevie is stunning with her volleyball stomach curving out of her tight, black dress. His hand is pressed to her back. They are so loving it gives my heart great relief to know that my baby sister has found true love.

“Do we know what we’re having?” I pull her into an embrace. Stevie holds the scent of lilacs. Stevie has always amazed me. She’s the calm just as easily as she is the storm. A perfect balance of light and dark. I wish I could harness her power, her inner strength. I would have had a much different life if I had her superpowers.

“I refuse to know what we’re having.” She pats her tummy as if her denial to know the sex were somehow keeping the baby safe.

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