CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

I wake just like before except now I feel Gavin’s smooth hand along my back and his muffled voice telling me I’m safe now. What he doesn’t know is that I’m not afraid because of Bryce or what he put me through.

I’m afraid that I’ll never get the chance to love a child the way I know I would have loved our baby. I move my head to the crook of his neck and inhale his musky smell.

I love his smell and if I close my eyes, I can remember every time he’s held me like this. I wish to God it was enough to fill the gaping hole inside of me.

“I dreamed of her,” I whisper. It feels as if a secret is told through those words, but I have to say it.

He deserves the whole truth of what I’m feeling. No less.

Gavin leans away slightly at my words and I see the stark pain in his stormy eyes.

“I would have named her Tessa Lynn. After your grandmother. She had your brown hair and my green eyes and she was so beautiful, Gavin. She was our baby.”

Thick tears fill his eyes as he nods. My breath leaves me,