Open Heart Read Free Page A

Annabeth is back with us?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And the thing is, every time I look at her, I feel so bad for her. Losing her husband.”
    “I know. Me too.”
    “And it kind of reminds me that we don’t know how long we’ll be with the people we love. It reminds me to… to tell them how I feel while I still have them.” He stroked her red-gold hair, the curls falling around her sweet face. “What happened with Vicky’s husband a few months ago just made it even clearer, you know. I could so easily have lost you that night and Phil could have lost Vicky.”
    She nodded quietly, remembering Carl beating Vicky almost to death, Carl hitting her.
    He reached in to the bedside table and pulled out a box. Julie stared at it.
    “Jake. Is that… oh, my God.”
    He opened the box and she saw the ring nestled in it. Her mouth dropped open.
    “Julie… I love you and I want to be with you, for real. Will you marry me?”
    She thought about all her years of being alone and lonely, not wanted by anyone and blinked back tears even as she smiled. “You have no idea how many times I want to answer ‘yes’ to that question.”
    He grinned. “Just once will do, baby.”
    “Yes.”
    He took the ring out of the box and gently slid the gold and diamonds on to her hand. His heart pounding, Jake lifted her fingers to his lips. “And now it’s official. Engagement, marriage, babies. All of it, everything. I want it all with you.”
    Julie looked down at the ring glinting on her finger: it was perfect. She looked up at him, saw the tears in Jake’s gray eyes. “I love you. I am going to love being your wife… having your babies… being with you.”
    They kissed, their hands joined. The kiss deepened and Julie felt the fire spark inside of her again. Jake pulled back to look at her.
    “Want to celebrate, baby?”
    She moaned as his fingers traveled up between her thighs, moving towards her hot sex.
    “Oh, you bet, baby.” She gasped as his finger slid inside of her. “You bet.”
    **
    Annabeth stared at the laptop screen in disbelief.
    The book is done.
    She looked at her pages and pages of handwritten notes, at the printed-out e-mails of Catherine’s suggested revisions, at the formal requests from the publisher. Every single thing was checked off. She was done.
    She opened her e-mail account and wrote a short letter to Catherine, telling her it was all finished and thanking her for everything she had done over the past two-and-a-half years. She attached the file, pushed ‘send’.
    And just like that, she was free.
    She got to her feet slowly, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was now almost able to go. She went in to the kitchen and opened the door to the highest cabinet. She stretched up on her toes and took down the bottle of wine that she’d bought for this exact reason. It was the wine that she and Cam had shared in Paris when he had proposed and the wine they had chosen for their wedding. She had drunk it at the two biggest ‘beginning’ moments of her life, and she was going to make sure she drank it at the end.
    Annabeth heard a sound outside and she looked in to the open area outside her cabin. There was Eric and it looked like he was off on a hike. His legs were strong and muscled, his curly black hair was hidden under a baseball cap. He looked so outrageously healthy and tanned and fit, she wanted to burst in to tears. He was just so vibrant, and she was just so close to death and it made her sad for what could have been.
    She went in to her bathroom and got in to the shower. She wrapped her arms around herself and slid down the wall. She sat in the tub, the water coursing down her shoulders and hair, rocking and gasping, and she wept.
    After a few minutes, Annabeth got to her feet, determined now, and ready.
    Stop crying. Get dressed. Go say your goodbyes.
    **
    Mathilda Velasquez gripped Julie’s hand in her own, a smile splitting her face almost in two as she stared down at the ring. She