Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home (The Magnolia Parks Universe, #3)

by Jessa Hastings

Or maybe it doesn’t and I just want it to because that would give all our pain a purpose.

All three of ours. And then my eyes fall down the trunk to the stone we lay to remember the tiny baby girl we lost that no one even knows we had, and there are magnolias laying there and I know he was here. He was here and now he’s gone.

Julian cruises after her, cool as a motherfucking cucumber— pauses in front of me. Squints, cocks a smile. Reaches over, closes my open mouth—smacks me on the face twice—technically playfully, technically hard. “Happy new year, bruv.” Gives me a shit-eating grin. My jaw goes tight.

My mind’s going a million miles an hour trying to work out how to tell her I don’t care. That it doesn’t matter to me even if it does, that I still love her the same, that nothing could undo how much I want her. I want her in an unchangeable way, even if loving her right now feels like a foot pressing down on my throat.

“In another life I reckon I could have loved you.” I tilt my head, looking up at him. “In another life I would have let you.”

“Come on.” Julian grabs Parks, tosses her over his shoulder like a fucking caveman and carries her up the stairs. “I’m going to show you just how well it pays.”