LOGINDear Ink Lovers, 🌸💞 We’ve finally reached the end of this journey, and I honestly don’t know how to put into words how grateful I am to every single one of you who stayed with this story from the very first chapter to the last. This book took so much from me while I was writing it—my emotions, my sleep, my laughter, my tears—and somehow gave me even more in return through all of you. Moana, Dylan, and Mylana became more than characters to me. They became people I carried with me every day. Their pain felt real. Their love felt real. Their healing felt real. There were moments while writing this story where my chest physically hurt for them… and moments where I found myself smiling at my screen like I was right there in the room with them. This was never meant to be an easy love story. It was meant to be messy. It was meant to hurt. It was meant to break. And most importantly… it was meant to heal. Moana’s strength, Dylan’s growth, and Mylana’s beautiful little heart becam
🎀MOANA🎀Dylan Jr. Dickson came into the world screaming.He arrived on a Tuesday morning in early spring, when the garden was just starting to bloom and the sun was warm on the windows and Rosa was already in the kitchen baking bread because she said she needed to keep her hands busy. The labor had been long. Harder than Mylana's, or maybe I had just forgotten how much it hurt. But Dylan was there the whole time, holding my hand, pressing his forehead to mine, telling me I was strong, telling me I could do this, telling me he loved me over and over until the words became a rhythm I could breathe to.When the doctor held him up, small and red and furious, I saw his hair first. Dark. Almost black. Nothing like Dylan's blonde. Nothing like Mylana's. My hair. My father's hair. A carbon copy of me in every feature except for his eyes, which were green, which were Dylan's, which were already staring at the world like he was figuring out how to take it apart."He is perfect," Dylan said.H
🎀MOANA🎀The car pulled up to the private beach house at midnight.I had fallen asleep on Dylan's shoulder somewhere between the wedding reception and the winding coastal road, my head heavy with champagne and exhaustion and the kind of happiness that made my bones feel liquid. He woke me with a kiss to my temple, soft and warm, his lips lingering on my skin."We are here, little flower," he said.I opened my eyes and saw the ocean.The house was built into the cliffs, all glass and stone and soft golden light spilling from the windows. The moon was full and low over the water, painting a silver path across the waves. The only sounds were the crash of the surf and the wind in the palm trees and the steady beat of my heart.I turned to look at my husband.My husband.The word was still new, still strange, still too large for my mouth. Husband. The dickhead who was supposed to be my stepbrother. The father of my daughter. The man who had searched for me for six years and waited for me
🎀MOANA🎀I stood at the entrance of the garden with my father's rosary wrapped around my bouquet and my hands shaking so badly I thought I might drop the flowers.The garden was full of people. People I loved. People who had watched me fall apart and helped me put myself back together. Rosa was in the second row, already crying, a handkerchief pressed to her mouth. My mother was beside her, Rosaline, her hair completely gray now, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes fixed on me like she was afraid I would disappear if she looked away. Lalissa and Octavia were sitting together near the front, both of them already emotional, both of them holding hands like they were the ones getting married.And at the end of the aisle, beneath an arch covered in white roses and lavender, Dylan was waiting for me.I could not believe I was getting married to the dickhead who was supposed to be my stepbrother.The thought made me laugh. It made tears spring to my eyes. It made my chest swell with a fe
🎀MOANA🎀The room was dark except for the firelight from the sitting room, spilling through the open doorway, casting long shadows across the bed. The sheets were white and cool and they rustled under my back as he laid me down.He knelt over me. His hands were on either side of my head. His body was between my legs. He looked at me like I was something sacred and something profane all at once. His green eyes were black in the dim light."Take off your shirt," I said.He pulled his shirt over his head. His chest was bare and I saw it. The tattoo. Over his heart.Little flower. In italics. Delicate and permanent, right over the place where his heartbeat was strongest. The ink was dark against his skin. The skin was raised slightly, the way tattoos were when they were healed.I reached up and touched it. My fingers traced the letters. The L. The I. The T. The T. The L. The E. Little flower. His pet name for me. The name he had whispered in my ear a thousand times. The name my daughter
🎀MOANA🎀Something broke behind his eyes.The restraint. The patience. The careful control he had been holding onto for weeks, for years, for the entire time I had known him in this new iteration. It shattered like glass and his hands came up and his fingers buried themselves in my hair and his mouth crashed into mine and he kissed me like he had been dying of thirst and I was the first water he had tasted in six years.I moaned into his mouth. I could not help it. The sound came from somewhere deep, somewhere I had locked away and forgotten, somewhere that only he knew how to find. It was the sound of a door opening. It was the sound of a wall falling. It was the sound of me giving in completely.His tongue slid against mine. His teeth grazed my lower lip, tugging gently, making me gasp. His hands moved from my hair to my face, cupping my jaw, tilting my head, giving himself better access. Then down to my neck, my shoulders, my waist. He was mapping me, remembering me, claiming me.
🎀MOANA🎀I sat down on the other couch.Not the one where he was lying with his too-long legs hanging over the armrest and his bare feet pale in the moonlight. The other one. Across from him. Far enough that I could breathe. Close enough that I could see his face, the shape of his jaw, the way his
🎀MOANA🎀Rosa called me when I was still ten minutes from the house."He is still here," she said. Her voice was low, like she was standing somewhere she didn't want to be overheard. "She asked him to stay and he has not left yet."I was not surprised. I knew my daughter. I had known, the moment I
❤️🩹DYLAN❤️🩹I left the hotel at three fifteen with three bags from two different shops.Strawberry yogurt tubes, the frozen kind, which I had called ahead about because I needed to know they were available before I walked in and had to have that conversation. Mint chocolate chip ice cream in th
❤️🩹DYLAN❤️🩹I needed to be in control of something, I needed my hands doing something other than punching a wall so I told my driver I'll be driving.I drove back to the hotel with one hand on the wheel.The other hand was flat on my thigh and I kept my eyes on the road and my face straight and







