Juniper Hill

Maybe motherhood wasn’t always being the person your child leaned on, but finding the person they needed when you weren’t enough.

Lost. We were lost in Montana.We’d come all this way and were lost. Maybe we’d been lost since the morning I’d driven out of the city. Maybe I’d been lost for years.

Memphis gave me a whisper of a smile.With an actual smile, she’d be more than trouble. She’d be a hurricane leaving devastation in her wake.

Motherhood, I’d learned in the past two months, was nothing more than a ritual of second-guessing yourself.

Another depressing truth. That apology was all I had to give.

Headache, Knox?” Skip asked.“Yeah.” Her name was Memphis Ward.

“I cook for you because it’s how I show someone I care. I cook for you because I love the look on your face after that first bite. I cook for you because I’d rather cook for you than anyone else.”

“Drake’s father isn’t a good man.”I sat straight. “Did he hurt you?”“Only my heart,” she whispered.And for that, I’d hate the bastard for the rest of my days.

“Let me make this clear. You are mine. Drake is mine. For all of your todays and each of your tomorrows. Mine. Do you not want me?”“Of course I want you.”

“You deserve—”“You.”“I was going to say better.”“No. I deserve you. Because I want you. And damn it, I earned you. All the shit I went through. The hell you endured. Who fucking cares if it’s messy?”