How I Found You (27 page)

“I still want your half,” she said.

I was crumbling inside. “You can always have my half.”

My remark seemed to quieten both of us. For some minutes we stayed in our own thoughts, separate, but also very much together.

Rose smiled sadly at me. “I had to find you, Oscar,” she said at last. “There were things I needed to say.” 

“And now that you’ve said them?”

“I’ll leave.”

“No,” I murmured. “Don’t go.”

“I have to. You said it yourself, I don’t belong in this world.”

“You belong with me,” I blurted out.

I didn’t wait for her response. I dropped the fractured heart onto the floor and pulled her into me, kissing her with every ounce of my being. A shower of feathery snowflakes sprinkled over us like beads of confetti. Perhaps I took that to be a sign, or perhaps I was merely tired of insisting I knew best, but from that moment on, everything changed.

“Let me come with you,” I said. “Let me stay with you.”

She blinked through her brimming tears. “Okay.”

I grinned. “I’m running away with you,” I declared.

Romantic gesture number fifty-two.

“Where?” she asked.

“Anywhere.”

“Millwood?”

“Millwood,” I agreed, still grinning. Quite frankly, I couldn’t have wished for anywhere else.

She smiled up at me. “Then we should take Caicus with us.”

I returned the smile.

“Rose?” I ventured, brushing a snowflake from her cheek. “How did you find me?”

She winked teasingly. “I have my ways.”

“How?” I persisted.

She took my hands and held them to her. “You, Oscar Valero, are in my heart. You always have been, and you always will be. And
that
is how I found you.”

BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

How I Found You

Secrets in Phoenix

The Witches of the Glass Castle

The Witches of Glass Castle:Uprising

For more information visit:
www.gabriellalepore.com

Or follow on Twitter @GabriellaBooks #SecretsinPhoenix

Thanks for reading!

Huge thanks to Sasha, Greg and Megan, who got out there in sub-zero temperatures to create the perfect Oscar and Rose cover photo. Troopers!

Thanks to the fantastic readers who share and swap! You are amazing and I’m so grateful for your support.

Thanks, as always, to my amazing family and friends: Lepores, Nelsons, Carters, Wynne-Jones/Oystens and the Fabulous Saunders of Whaley Bridge!

Love and thanks to my parents, who’ve followed every step; To my best squirrel Lorna (you don’t), who always shares her food and deviously tricks me into watching way too many episodes of American Horror Story; To Louis, who still holds the record for longest phone call ever.

Special thanks to James, for everything. For fixing kettles and computers, and for thinking things through… because sometimes I don’
t

Last but definitely not least, thanks to my amazing friend Ben, who believes that together we are unstoppable. I believe it too.

Love,

Gabriella xxx