Torn(59)

I fall in step beside her as she walks towards the corner. "I had a good visit with my mom. She loves me a lot. She likes you too."

"My mom will love you." I glance down the street towards a group of people approaching. "She worked things out with Caleb years ago. I can't hold what happened against her, if he doesn't."

"Forgiveness can change your life." She rests her head on my shoulder as we wait for the light.

She has no idea. Caleb was looking for forgiveness tonight. He wanted Gabriel and me to understand why he begged my parents to keep his secret. He didn't want anything between us to change. It can't. My brother went to meetings to understand how to help me. He wanted my recovery as much as I did. He loves me. I love him. That's all that matters.

"Sorry to bother you, man." A hand touches my shoulder. "You wouldn't be Asher Foster by chance, would you?"

I wait for it and right when I think she's going to leave me on my own, she steps around me. She looks into the faces of the man and woman standing next to us. "You're mistaken I'm afraid. This is my David. He's the love of my life."





EPILOGUE


One Year Later




Asher




"If I agreed to go on tour with you, what would be in it for me?"

I take a deep breath. "You would get to spend every hour or every day with your fiancé who loves everything about you."

She purses her lips. "That sounds promising. What else?"

"You can take pictures of London and," I pause to kiss her. "We can look for an apartment there."

"In London?" Her brows pop." For the two of us?"

"For you and me. We can go there sometimes to escape." I stare into her beautiful blue eyes. "We can take your mom and dad there next year if you want, once they hand over the keys of the bakery to your siblings."

"We need to find a place here first." She closes her laptop. "I'm going to miss this apartment, Asher. I've kind of fallen in love with it."

I fell in love with it all over again the day she moved in six months ago. It was the day after I proposed, which just happened to be the same day she got back to New York after spending a full week in Las Vegas photographing the new Bishop Hotel and Casino there.

The year hasn’t been easy. She's traveled one direction, while I've gone off in another. We kept in close contact though, through calls, text messages and the occasional quick trip on the Foster jet.

"Maya thinks she has a buyer." I remind her. "That's going to mean that we have to find another place."

"A place with more bedrooms? Bedrooms for our babies?"

We talk about it all the time. I thought I was ready until I fell in love with Falon. I want her to myself for now. In a year or two after we're married, we'll start trying. It needs to be the right time for us both.

"Lots of bedrooms for our babies."

"Wait." Her hand darts into the air between us. "We're not talking Shaw numbers are we? I don't want thirteen children."

I know she doesn't. It's too much for her to even consider three or four children. We've talked about two, we've settled on two but we'll see where our journey takes us.

"Speaking of Shaw numbers, Elijah is going to get his first royalty check next month."

"No shit?" She turns completely now to look at me. Her hair falls into her eyes before she pushes it back. She's let it grow even longer, it's beautiful, luxurious. It's one of the things that makes her uniquely her.

"That song that he co-wrote with me was a hit, Falon. I told you he'll have enough to set aside for college. He's going to be okay."

Her folks will be too. I invested in the bakery as a silent partner. I didn’t do it to bail them out. I did it to help them flourish. With the weight of two mortgages off their backs, they thrived. Sales are up since Clara took over as the manager. Shirley still splits her time between Falon's studio and the bakery. She's faltered a couple of times this past year, but I'm there for her. Falon is too.

"Do you remember that first day you came into my studio?" She moves from where she's sitting to wrap her arms around my neck. "You were so perfect."

"You didn't think that." I joke as I look down into her face, tracing an imaginary path over those three freckles on her face. "You thought I was showing too much cock."

"I didn't really think it was too much." She looks down. Her eyes rake over my nude body.

"If I remember correctly, you told me to button my jeans back up."

"Oh, I said that." She nods vigorously, as her hand inches its way down my chest. "I wanted this all for myself even then."

"It was yours as soon as I walked through your studio door and saw you."

"This is mine too." She rests her hand on my chest, over my heart. "I want this forever."

"It's yours. You can have it forever. Nothing will ever change that."





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