I See...Love (A Different Road Book 1) (29 page)

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Authors: Annalisa Nicole

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Nina gets out of Josh’s lap and we both run into each other, jumping up and down yelling like two idiots.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” River says.

Nina stops jumping up and down, and then looks at Josh. He hasn’t said a word. Does he want Nina to move in with him?

“Pack a bag, we’re going now. We’ll worry about everything else later,” Josh says.

Nina and I start jumping up and down yelling again. We pack a small bag and do just as he says.

That next couple of weeks couldn’t have worked out better. Maddy had gotten behind on rent and was evicted from her apartment. As a side perk of working for California Chef, we asked her to move into our house. We left most of our furniture for Maddy and only took our personal belongings.

As a welcome home gift, River purchased both Nina and I a fabulous storefront in downtown Malibu. California Chef is now a legitimate business with its very own office space. It has a state of the art kitchen that is an absolute dream to cook in. It’s even nicer than River’s. There’s even room for Nina to have her very own office, but she said she wouldn’t dream of getting rid of our two person desk in a million years, so we still share an office. We’re in the process of opening up the front of the store to customers who want to come and assemble their own meals from a preset assembly line of ingredients.

Some may think that it’s weird, the four of us living in a house together, but under the circumstances it’s like it was designed by destiny herself. I get to live with my amazing boyfriend and my best friend forever, who now lives with her fiancé upstairs and River has a dedicated and loyal personal assistant and best friend of his own.

After dinner, Kate is in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes, and I’m leaning against the open wall of doors looking at the glorious beach and the spectacular sunset. I remember the first time I looked out these doors. Never in a million years would I believe the life I have today. Nina walks up next to me and places her head on my shoulder. She elbows me gently on the arm and I elbow her back. As much as my life has changed, our secret way of silently saying I love you will never change. She smiles at me, and then turns around without saying a word, takes Josh’s hand and they go upstairs.

River’s hand slips into mine and he pulls me outside, through the backyard and down the steps to the beach. I love the feel of the sand between my toes, the warm breeze blowing my hair, and River’s warm hand in mine. It’s a beautiful clear sky with not one cloud in the sky. The stars are out and twinkle magically above our heads. I find the first star and smile.

“What do you see?” he asks.

I’ll never get tired of telling him what I see. I’ll never get tired of the look on his face when I describe the things that he cannot see. But tonight, I want to hear what he sees.

“What do you see?” I ask.

River tips his head up toward the night sky and smiles. He pauses for a very long time before he answers.

“I see…love,” he says, tipping his head back down looking at me.

River said that he could never say the three little words to me that I need to hear. Well, he just did. They may not be your traditional I love you, but to me they mean a million times more. Those three words are the most beautiful words, he’s ever said to me.

When I heard Sebastien’s feet slip off the edge of the roof of my building. I heard the whisper silence as his body flew through the air to the ground below. As he got farther and farther away, so did the pain in my heart. I’ll never forget the look in my mother’s eyes as the life drained from them. But for the first time, I also see the love in her eyes. She was turning around to see two of her three greatest blessings in her life before she died. I take comfort knowing that that’s the way she left this earth, seeing what she loved…me.

I made a decision as Joss threw herself into my arms that I wasn’t going to hold on to those demons anymore. I let them all go as Sebastian’s body plummeted toward the ground. I realized that what was in my arms was way more valuable than holding on to the things that cannot be changed from the past.

I wonder if in time my father would have seen the gifts he had before his eyes, had he lived. Holding on to my past clouded the gifts that were being placed in my life.

Never again.

My business isn’t worth letting go of what was in my arms, and to this day I have my priorities straight.

Joss comes first.

After dinner, I find Joss in one of her favorite places in the house, leaning against the back doors. It’s only second to the kitchen. I slip my hand in hers and gently pull her outside. The wind catches her nutmeg scent and makes me smile.

We walk hand-in-hand down to the beach. The sounds of the waves as they crash into the beach are magical. The salty air mixed with Joss is intoxicating. The warm breeze on my skin and her soft hand in mine is overflowing my heart. There is no more grey matter, there’s no more black and white either. My world is filled with color.

As we walk, I just know that her nose is to the stars.

“What do you see?” I ask.

I love her vivid descriptions that continue to color my life on a daily basis. But she doesn’t answer right away.

“What do you see?” she returns, softly.

What do I see? I tip my head to the sky and pull up one of her vivid descriptions. I see millions of stars splattered across the night sky. I see millions of windows open to the ones we’ve lost. I focus on the first cluster of stars that I see. One is my mother smiling down on me, and another right next to her is her sister. I never got the opportunity to meet her, but I like to think that she too is smiling down on me. Another star catches my eye and with the anger and resentment now gone, I see my father. I see my family lovingly looking down on me.

I tip my head back toward Joss and I answer, “I see…love.”

Her quick inhale of breath doesn’t go unnoticed. The three words I swore never to cross my lips run through my mind. I love Joss and she loves me for everything that I am and everything that I was.

Her arms wrap around my back and she pulls me close. I wrap her in my arms and I bring my lips to her ear.

“I see love, Joss Lynn Meyer,” I whisper, again.

“I see love, too,” Joss replies.

A Different Road Series
will continue with Kate Mason and Cooper Sullivan in:

I Hear…Love

A Different Road Book Two

I am an “Indie” adult contemporary romance author. I live in California with my husband and two teenage boys.

I never liked reading as a kid. I only started reading romance novels in the past few years. My Kindle and I are inseparable now. A thought occurred to me in December of 2012 that maybe I could write a romance novel. So I went to work with the encouragement of my husband and my sister-in-law. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I writing is my passion.

Today I am a self-published author and it has been an amazing journey.

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