Dark Hearts (Light in the Dark 3)

I tickle her mercilessly, her laughter filling the air.

It’s a stark difference compared to what happened in here last night.

My anger.

Her tears.

It was fucking awful. I’ve never had to deal with heartbreak before, and last night was only a taste of what it might feel like if I lost Nova. A life without Nova is unimaginable to me now.

“Stop. Stop. Please stop,” she begs. I finally do, and I kiss her, because it’s been too long since I’ve felt her lips on mine. I know it hasn’t even been a day but it feels like forever.

She moans, her body leaning into mine like she can’t help but get closer.

I release her and press my forehead to hers.

“Are we okay?” she asks.

“We’re okay,” I say. “But you need to tell everyone. This isn’t the kind of secret you should keep from any of us. They need to know.”

She sighs and nods. “Yeah, I’ll tell them. You’re right. They deserve to know.” She presses her lips together and kicks her feet back and forth nervously. “Are you sure you’re okay with this whole thing? When you left you were so angry.”

I take her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. “I was caught off guard. I found those letters with our pictures, and I just went off. I was pissed, I’ll be honest. I thought you were writing to your ex and still in love with him and then I was hurt that you’d put our photos with letters to him.” I take a breath. “Then when you said he was your son. I didn’t know how to process that. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.”

She nods. “Understandable.”

“There is one thing that’s bothering me.” I pause, gathering my thoughts, and finally ask, “Would you have ever told me if I hadn’t found those letters?”

“Honestly?” She shrugs, looking down at her lap. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I would have. I haven’t talked about him out loud since he was born. When you go that long without saying anything it becomes kind of easy to brush it away. But I’d like to think I would’ve.”

I nod. That’s answer enough for me.

I hug her to me, breathing in her scent.

It’s crazy that there’s a little boy out there somewhere in the world that’s half of the girl I love. If he’s anything like her then he has to be pretty amazing.

And I’m going to do whatever it takes to find him.

Nova

“I think they’re broken,” I hiss at Jace.

He bumps my shoulder. “I think you’re right.”

Cade, Rae, Thea, Xander, and even Joel, stare at Jace and me.

We called a family meeting—because we didn’t know what else to call it—at the house Cade and Rae share with Xander and Thea. I insisted that Joel come too because he’s become a really good friend and if I was telling the others then I figured I should tell Joel too.

“Y-You have a kid?” Thea stutters, the first to speak. She absentmindedly pets her dog, Prue, who sits between her and Xander.

I nod. “Yes. I have a son.”

Now that I’ve finally admitted the truth I find myself sayin

g it more and more—even out loud to myself, simply because it feels so fucking good to finally admit it, like peeling your bra off after a long day.

Probably a bad analogy.

“How old is he?” Joel asks.