Finding You (Chikalu Falls, #1)

by Lena Hendrix

and I held my hand there. I could feel the outline of the letter I kept in my pocket.

But in one package in November, I got the letter that saved my life. I idly touched the letter in my shirt pocket. Six years. For six years, I’d carried that letter with me. After the bombing, it was torn and stained with my blood, and you could hardly read it now, but it was with me.

the letter that saved me.

There were moments in the dark I could imagine her laughter or imagine feeling her breath on my ear as she whisper-sang the lyrics she’d written. Her letters brought me comfort in those dark moments when I doubted I’d ever have my mom’s buttermilk

pie again or hear Finn laugh at a really good joke.

In Norse mythology, Valkyrie were female goddesses who spread their wings and flew over the battlefield, choosing who lived and who died in battle. Warriors chosen by the Valkyrie died with honor and were then taken to the hall of Valhalla in the afterlife. Their souls could finally rest. Reading her words, I felt comfort knowing that if I held my head high and fought with honor, she would come for me.

At my next leave, I’d gotten a tattoo of the Valkyrie wings spread across my right forearm so I could have a visual reminder of her. I could always keep her with me.

My goddess had been with me in battle, and I’d survived.

Pulling into town, I knew I had to find her—the woman who left every letter signed simply: Joanna.

OMG

Looking at her was like seeing a piece of my soul walking around outside my body.

A loud, hard clank had my head whipping up and my eyes springing open to see Joanna in the mirror through the steam of the shower leaned against the sink, eyes wide, staring at me with my dick in my hands.

HAHAHA

The moon illuminated her as she tipped her head up, eyes closed. She stood in total silence and raised her arms at her side, palms up. My Valkyrie.

I had finally found her.

“Lincoln,” she said quietly, “stay with me.”

It’s vacation sex to him. Men like him don’t choose girls like you.

For wondering if the scarred Valkyrie tattoo on his forearm was about me,

I’ll take care of you.

“I only need to know what you want to share.”

“You make me want to tell you everything.”

‘Nothing you could ever do would make me love you any less.’

I love you. I love you. I love you.

“Who the fuck did this to you?”

AHHHHHHHHH

I would find you. You have changed everything. The day I saw you, everything inside of me said “you finally found her.”

I knew in my bones that you were who I had been looking for.

I realize that what I have been doing to myself has gone way beyond what I can handle alone.

I will carry you with me for the rest of my life.

Joanna, my heart beats to the rhythm of yours and the best thing to ever happen to me was finding you.

SOBBING.

“If she didn’t love you back, she wouldn’t still be reading,”

Please don’t leave.

My girl had come home.

I was starved for her.

“I love you. I have always loved you.”

“I love you too, Lincoln.”

I couldn’t get enough of this woman.

“Finding you was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I think we found each other.”

Home.

“Baby, look around. This… all this? It’s yours.” I leaned my head back and nuzzled the scruff on his jaw. “No,” I said. “It’s ours.”

he accepted me for exactly who I was.

Lincoln swore up and down that the best thing to do when he had them was to be there and hold him.

(FiLiJo? Ew. No.)

LOL

her dreams and mine got all tangled up and I really couldn’t separate the two.

I had put the letters away in a lockbox to keep them safe, and every so often, we’d take them out and I would read them with her. I loved to tell her why something made me laugh or what my favorite part of a particular letter had been.

Tonight, I didn’t carry a letter with me. Instead, my hand felt the outline of the ring I had picked out.

OMFG

I was going to marry the fuck out of that girl and everyone was going to know it. I smiled and shook my head at that thought. I might pretend to wear the pants in this relationship, but everyone in three counties knew Joanna had me wrapped around her finger.

That’s one hell of a view.