Soul Searching: A Sweetwater Peak Novel

by Lyla Sage

She opened the passenger door, but I reached over her shoulder and pushed it shut before grabbing the handle myself and pulling the door open. “Well, that wasn’t boring,” she muttered before looking back at me and then hopping in the truck.

I kept bouncing around until I was forced to stop, and Brady stayed put until he was encouraged to move.

Brady pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. His chest was heaving. “I forgot to breathe,” he said. “You’re so good that I forgot to breathe.” My lips stretched into a smile. “Careful,” I said. “I might let that go to my head.”

“I started the day with you, and I want to end it that way—maybe try to not think about everything that happened in between. At least for a little while.”

I thought of his caresses, and how they had powered me like my own personal backup generator. It made me think of the ghosts—how they were anchored to places. When Brady’s hands were on me in any way, it felt like he was my anchor—the thing holding me to the ground so I didn’t float away.

I never really saw myself finding a love like Brady’s. I didn’t know if I was built for it—the type of stability and security he gave me—but Brady’s steadiness was different. It was like the trees that bent with the wind only so they wouldn’t break. He kept us firmly planted—our roots deep in the earth—but our branches still had room to sway and move and stretch into the clouds.