This one ceremony had been enough. I hadn’t missed out, not even a little bit. I was ready to go home. Ready to continue living my life with these people that I loved with my entire soul.
And it was as we were walking toward the elevators that Am snickered. “You know what I just thought about, Ora?”
I glanced at him. “No, tell me.”
“Hear me out. What would have happened if I wouldn’t have rented the garage apartment out to you? I almost chickened out. Would Dad have ever met you? Would I be going to school for music? Would you own the store?” he asked with a thoughtful expression. “You ever wonder?”
I didn’t have to think about it, so I told him the truth.
I told him that I had before, but it had been a long time since then.
Because I had ended up exactly where I should have, where every decision that had been made before me and made by me had led.
I was one of the lucky ones, I thought as a flicker of a thought brushed through my head; there so effortlessly, it stole my breath away. I grabbed Rhodes’s arm in shock, and he glanced down at me curiously, with so much love it was just one more thing to steal my breath away.
And the thought, the words, came to me again.
I found a place where I belong,
A place with love that feels like home again.
Acknowledgments
This book wouldn’t exist in the first place without you—thank you so much to my incredible readers for your love and continued support.
An enormous thank you to the greatest designer in the world, Letitia at RBA Designs; my wonderful agents Jane Dystel and Lauren Abramo, and everyone at Dystel, Goderich and Bourret.
Judy, I can’t thank you enough for always answering all of my audio questions and for just being wonderful. Thank you to Virginia and Kim at Hot Tree Editing and Ellie with My Brother’s Editor for your editing skills. Kilian, thank you for all your help.
As always, Eva, I don’t know what I’d do without you and your memory. And your suggestions. And your GIFs.
To my friends who have helped me in some way (who I know I’m forgetting): thank you for everything.
To my Zapata, Navarro, and Letchford family, you’re the greatest families a girl could ever ask for.
To Chris, Kai, and my forever editor and angel in the sky, Dorian: I love you guys so much.
About the Author
Mariana Zapata lives in a small town in Colorado with her husband and two oversized children—her beloved Great Danes, Dorian and Kaiser. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, spending time outside, forcing kisses on her boys, or pretending to write.
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