Give Me a Reason (Redemption Hills 1)

“Whoa there,” I said with a groggy laugh, and he giggled as he landed with a thunk against my chest.

I curled my arms around him.

Somehow, this morning, hugging him this way almost felt like it might hold the power to chase away the memories. Ones that haunted my heart and mind. Ones that kept creeping up. Demons thrashing and flailing and vying to be heard when the only thing I wanted to do was permanently silence the atrocities of the man that I’d been back in LA.

Bury him.

Be someone better.

But how could a man like me earn a second chance?

My chest tightened when I felt that presence at the doorway.

Struck by the lash of energy that I now recognized for what it was.

Goodness.

Grace.

I sat up, still holding onto my son as my attention moved that way.

Eden stood just inside my bedroom. So stunning she knocked the breath clean out of my lungs. So kind and full of belief that she had me believing just a little bit, too.

She was holding a tray and had the sweetest smile dancing all over that mouth. Affection and hope all mixed up with the secrets of the way we’d spent the entirety of last night tangled and tied.

“See, Dad, see? We made you breakfast and it might be even better than Uncle Logan’s! What do you think?” Gage grabbed me by the face and forced me to look at him, caramel eyes wide and full of joy.

Kid so fucking cute another stake pierced through my heart. I hugged him tighter and nuzzled my nose into his neck. “I think it smells delicious.”

Gage giggled then wiggled when I tickled him on the side. “See, Miss Murphy! I told you he was gonna love it so much! My dad says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and since my dad is my most important person, you gotta have both.”

Eden’s smile lifted at the side. Warmth riding out. Filling the room and all those howling places in my soul.

“We definitely have to have both, don’t we?” she said, so tenderly, autumn eyes watching my son like he held a bit of her light. She carried the tray over to the bed, and I scooted Gage off my lap so she could set it on my legs as I sat back against the headboard.

“What’s this about?” I murmured, looking up at the woman who threatened to change everything.

One who I could feel rearranging my insides. A potter reforming all the vile bits.

She reached out and caressed her fingertips down my jaw. Tingles spread. “You deserve for someone to take care of you, too.”

Gage bounced on his knees at my side. “Yup, yup, yup! And you better eat it up way super fast because we gotta go!”

Confused, I swiveled to look at Gage who was grinning like mad, my heart thrumming all over again. “And just where are we going?”

“Church!”

What the fuck?

My attention whipped back to Eden. Eden who just laughed this tinkling sound when she saw the shocked horror scored on my face.

Because no. Just no.

She dipped down and pressed a little kiss to the side of my head, and her mouth came to my ear. “I teach Sunday school, remember?”

Well shit.

“Unless you want me to go by myself?” she asked. Half a tease and one-hundred-percent serious.

“You know I don’t want you going anywhere by yourself.”

“Then you’d better get ready. I don’t want to leave my class waiting or have to explain to my daddy why I didn’t show.”

Then she waltzed across my room toward the bathroom wearing this flowy robe that swished around her gorgeous legs.

While I sat there wondering what the fuck I’d gotten myself into.

I itched. Knee bouncing at warp speed as I incessantly roughed my fingers through my hair where I sat in the last row of chairs at the back of the church sanctuary.

By myself and wondering which second it was gonna be when I caught fire.

Eden and Gage were in the Sunday school class across the hall. A class she’d told me I couldn’t stay in with her. I hadn’t had a background check and any volunteers in the children’s center had to be cleared, not to mention it would draw questions neither of us needed right then.

And I appreciated the effort made to steer the creepers clear of the kids, but what I didn’t appreciate was sitting in a church with Eden’s father at the pulpit and feeling like I was gonna crawl out of my goddamn skin.

Didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

Men like me didn’t belong in a place like this.

Not when Eden’s father was spewing some bullshit about forgiveness. About how everyone deserved it and not one would be refused it. Especially not when the band had played that song my mother used to sing. One that had struck me like a chord. A resonation that I’d long since forgotten.