by Tara Sivec
He stands up, placing a kiss on my belly and then one on my lips. “I’ll meet you up there, Fireball. Do NOT look at that damn tile binder on your way.”
I laugh when he walks inside and take a few moments to relax, rubbing my hand over my belly and staring out into the yard. I can picture myself as a little girl, running out here to hide or to escape from the pain that awaited me inside the house that used to stand in this very same spot. My plan of building a home here wasn’t a way to keep me tied to the past, it was a way for me to look forward to the future and change things for our new generation. I can look at our home and our yard and I can also see our daughter running out there some day, happy and full of life and confident that she will never, ever be hurt by the ones who are supposed to love her.
I will brand her with words of love and encouragement instead of cigarettes and hatred. I will give her the kind of childhood that I always dreamed of having.
It will be perfect and it will be beautiful…
Because I deserve it.
The End
Look for Scorched, the conclusion to the Ignite Trilogy, coming Spring 2015! You don’t want to miss Dax and Harley’s story!
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Thank you, as always, to my publicist Donna Soluri who lets me send a book to her one chapter at a time as well as a billion text messages at all hours of the day and night. Thank you for your friendship and for not wanting to kill me (much) when I send you a chapter that ends on a cliffy and you have to wait for the next one.
Thank you to my editor Nikki Rushbrook, bless your heart for putting up with me and the Tara Fucking Sivec tenses.
A HUGE thank you goes out to Patrick Stork from the Cocoa Beach Fire Department and his wife Suzy for helping me with the paramedic questions. Thank you for the job you do and for taking the time to help me with mine!
Thank you to my sister-in-law, Janet Sivec for answering my nursing questions and for not being offended when I called you a whore in all my text messages. I love you.
Thank you to my beta readers, Michelle Kannan and Stephanie Johnson for loving DJ and Phina as much as I do and for always being excited when I say, “Hey, want to read something?”
Thank you to all the bloggers who take time out of their day to read and promote my books. Your support means the WORLD to me and I love you all!