Reluctant Hearts by Brighton Walsh

Author:Brighton Walsh [Walsh, Brighton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781685180355
Publisher: Bright Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-08-09T18:30:00+00:00

The sound of deep, rumbling laughter wakes me, and I stretch, reaching back automatically, even though I already know I’ll just come across cold sheets and an empty bed.

After our talk last night, after I exposed the first crack in my armor, Jason proceeded to kiss and lick every inch of my body, as if he was trying to prove his words to me. Prove to me I was the only one. I think he was worried I suddenly felt like that because of the rushed and hurried way he’d taken me on the couch, afraid I’d think I was just like all the others who came before.

Little did he know that was the exact moment I realized I’m in love with him.

I take a deep breath, absorbing my thoughts, smiling when it doesn’t send me headfirst into the panic it did yesterday, though the flutters in my stomach are still there and no doubt will be for a while.

I push back the covers and pull on a pair of leggings under the oversize T-shirt I slipped into last night before finally falling asleep pressed against Jason. When I step into the hallway, I hear the laughter again, only this time I’m aware enough to realize it’s not Jason’s normal laugh, but an exaggerated, deep and haunting one followed closely by a higher-pitched, softer laugh attempting to mimic the original.

“That’s good, but do it deeper. Like this,” Jason says, then proceeds with the maniacal laugh again. “From your belly, shorty. Make ’em think you’re crazy evil.”

My perfect, angelic daughter who dresses up in tutus and has tea parties with her teddy bears does as Jason instructs and lets out a perfect replication of his evil-villain laugh, and I can’t help the smile from spreading across my face.

Quietly, I creep down the hallway and through the living room, peeking around the corner and into the kitchen, where they sit at the island, way more donuts than the three of us could reasonably eat spread out in front of them. Haley’s arms are around the pile perched on the plate in front of her, like she’s protecting them from all the trolls roaming around the house.

“There, now you’ve got it! Make sure everyone knows whose donuts these are.”

She lets loose another laugh, growing louder each time until her head is tossed back, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this sight. This is everything I’ve been striving for for so long—someone to take the occasional early-morning shift so I could sleep in an extra hour. Someone to laugh with Haley, have fun with her, and do things with her I don’t. Someone to take her out at 6 a.m. for a donut run just because she no doubt begged for it…just because it would make her happy.

Jason laughs along with her, both of them cackling like lunatics, and I want to go over and smother them both in kisses, squeeze them until this bubble of euphoria has a way of escaping my body.

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