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I’m so proud of you, Fiona, I think

“She heldtime It felt like years So, yeah, that’s the story of crazy Sadie and the song that sets her off”

I smooth more tears from her eyes

“I’m here for you,” I tell her “I’ll always be here for you”

She reaches up and toucheslaugh beneath her voice “But if you don’t let go of ain and ruin my makeup”

“You’re beautiful without it,” I say with passion, truthfully “You’re a picture, Sadie, a gorgeous goddamn picture”

“Why, Saul?” she whispers

“Why what?” I mutter in confusion

She leans back and regards me as if I’ve just asked the stupidest question in the world

It’s so easy to i a similar expression at our children, eyebrow arched, lips pursed Did you really think I wouldn’t know that you sneaked into the treats jar, youngan apron and stea in the air behind her

Or that sa over our child’s shoulder as she helps with their homework

Stern and matronly and fierce and wonderful and, on top of all that, hotter than fucking fire She’s wrong I’m not a Flame She is

“Why me?” she asks now

“Sparkplug,” I sigh “There are a million reasons Your eyes, the way you bite your lip, your shyness, your loving spirit, your passion for ani about you, down to the fucking atoms, that’s why”

I kiss her, grazing her lips instead of sinking into theht here in the car

“Okay, enough orks,” she says, grinning brightly, pushing away the tragedy “Tonight is about us, like you said Let’s let tomorrow take care of itself”

I study her for asure she’s okay, and then pull the car out and drive extra carefully down the winter roadChapter SeventeenSadieWe sit in a private corner booth of the restaurant, the walls the same red as my dress and lined with velvet

As alked over here, I kept cringing inside, thinking that the eyes of the patrons’ were all turned to ust

Does she really think she can get aearing that? I i

But all I have to do now is look into Saul’s eyes and see the effect the dress is having on him, the same effect it’s had on him ever since I put it on

His eyes take on that husky, intense quality I recognize from the racetrack, that I’ll always be able to read now as the beast inside of him tries to break free from its shackles