Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 130275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
He pulled back and joined his forehead to mine. “I would have forever felt you were missing, Peaches. And I would have searched every inch of the world and beyond, trying to find you.” Cael reared back an inch. His face was serious, and searching my eyes, he whispered, “I love you, Savannah Litchfield. I’m so goddamn in love with you.”
My heart fired like a cannon. Butterflies that were solely tied to Cael’s voice swooped and spread their wings so wide I could feel them in my fingertips. “I love you too,” I said, no doubt in my heart. It was full to the walls with Cael. He was in my marrow and blood, my every cell. The smile that spread on his face was blinding. And he kissed me again. He kissed me so softly and thoroughly that I wondered how we would ever come up for air.
Cael wrapped me up in his arms. I fit beside him perfectly, like the universe made us to match. Cael held our joined hands up between us, playing with my fingers. A deep cavern buried within me. Was this what Poppy had felt like with Rune? Is this how Rune felt about her in return? If so, how had they ever survived it? How had Rune managed to carry on with his soulmate being taking away from him?
“I tried to convince myself that it was all a big mistake,” Cael said, never taking his eyes from our moving fingers. “I tried to convince myself that it was an accident and that Cillian didn’t choose to leave us.” He swallowed and I waited patiently for him to continue. “But when I went home that night, I walked into my bedroom and saw an old Bruins game ticket on my desk. It was the first game we’d ever gone to together when we were kids. I’d pinned it to my wall after we’d come back. A memory I wanted to cherish forever.”
My pulse raced faster and faster. “He’d written seven words on the back.” Cael’s voice was briefly stolen by grief before he cleared his throat and said, “I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m sorry.”
As those words sailed into the air between us, I wanted to reach out to them and hold them within my palm. They radiated pain. They radiated such sadness, tears tracked down my cheeks.
I pulled Cael closer and placed our joined hands on my chest, over my heart, and cradled them there instead. “I still have that ticket, Sav. In my wallet. I keep it with me always. But I haven’t looked at it since that night.” Cael sounded exhausted. “When I read it, I knew what the police and paramedics were suspecting was true. What I had seen with my own two eyes was true. He’d taken his own life.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, those words sounding more than inadequate.
“I can’t bring myself to look at it again, Sav.” Cael sounded so tortured.
“You once told me there was no timeline with grief. You need to give yourself that same grace,” I said, kissing his cheek and brushing my nose past his.
“I love you,” he said, and his eyelids began to grow laden with exhaustion.
“I love you too,” I whispered, inviting in the silence of the night.
Cael kissed my forehead and a deep, tired sigh sailed from his lips. He glanced at the open door, and his shoulders lost any remaining tension. He had told Leo all of that too. He had obviously wanted him to hear it.
It was progress.
Cael faced me again, eyelids heavy. In mere minutes he was asleep. But all I could think of was Cillian and the thought of Cael finding him—seeing him pass. Then I thought of Poppy and how peacefully she had died. It hit me then. Just how special that moment was. How her death truly had been special.
I looked at Cael on the bed, sleeping. He was so handsome. So kind and beautiful. And he loved me. Cael Woods loved me. And I loved him too.
I curled into Cael’s chest. And I fell asleep in the arms of the boy I adored.
Love Honored and Serene Sunsets
Savannah
Agra District
India
“WOW,” LILI MURMURED FROM BESIDE ME. THE SIMPLE WORD ECHOED HOW I felt inside, awestruck at the magnitude of this stunning building. One that I had seen thousands of times on TV and in books. That I now stood before. It felt like a dream.
The morning sun cast the white marble under a burnt-orange glow. Cael’s hand tightened on my own as the vast wonder stretched before us.
“The Taj Mahal,” our guide, Fatima, said, “was built to honor a great, lost love.” Goose bumps broke out along my body. “Shah Jahan built this in honor of the wife he adored. Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth in 1631. Shah Jahan was distraught. She had been his entire world, and now she was gone. He wanted to immortalize the woman who had been a constant by his side, so he built this tomb to show the world just how much she was cherished.”