When You Were Mine (Stone Lake 2)

My love for Gavin.

Even when I had reason to hate him, I loved him. We might have met when we were young, but our love is a once in a lifetime kind of thing, and I’m so glad we somehow found our way back to each other. My fingers move to the locket that Gavin gave me all those years ago. I kept it hidden in my dresser drawer, unable to let it go. Now, I’m so glad I didn’t. Inside is still the picture that Jules snapped of Gavin and I together, our youth caught on camera, but the love we felt jumps out at you when you look at us staring at each other. The other side of the locket is now filled with a picture of me, Gavin and Joshua from his awards ceremony before all the chaos hit. The love is still there between us, but both of us have our hands resting on our son’s shoulders and there’s pride shining with the love.

“You alright, Moonbeam?” Gavin asks, squatting down in front of me, surprising me because I was too lost in my thoughts to hear him.

“Perfect,” I tell him. “I’m absolutely perfect.”

“That you are,” he says with a sly grin and memories of all the wicked things he did to me last night are shining in his eyes.

“I love you, Gavin,” I tell him, the emotion in my heart suddenly swelling up so huge I can barely breathe, tears gathering in my eyes.

“Hey now, what’s bringing this on?” Gavin has worry etched in his expression.

“I just… We’ve finally cleared out the past and everything has snapped into place. We’re…”

“Right where we should have been all along, Moonbeam. This is the life we were given the moment we found each other. It just took us a little bit to make it work.”

“I think thirteen years qualifies as more than a little bit,” I laugh.

“Thirteen years of hell is nothing compared to the lifetime of happiness we’re going to share, Luna. I’d go through it all again, if it meant in the end that we’d be right here where we’re at, together, my ring on your finger, our boy laughing over there with Wally and Meghan and you in my bed every night.”

I smile, because he’s right. That’s another thing that has happened in the last three months. I am now Luna Lodge… the name still makes me giggle, but I love it just the same because I’m finally married to my soulmate.

“You’re not upset about the house?” I ask, because I know he wanted to buy a new one, but Joshua was attached to this house and honestly, I am too. It took a lot of years to make it into my house and not the place my parents once owned.

“We’re still in agreement that we’re going to renovate so there’s a nursery downstairs close to our room, right?”

I grin. Gavin wants another child, and I can’t think of anything that would be better than that very thing. He’s adamant that he doesn’t want our child upstairs away from him, and I agree with that. When Joshua was little, I used to sleep upstairs in one of the small bedrooms for that very reason.

“We’re still in agreement,” I murmur.

“Then, I’m more than fine. We’re having another baby, Luna. I want to wait until I have time with Joshua. I never want him to wonder if he comes second to another child. I need him to be secure in the knowledge that I love him.”

“I think he knows that, Gavin.”

“I hope so.”

“He does,” I tell him, completely sure of that.

“You want to come over and join our family and have a burger?” he asks. “Or, are you going to continue sitting over here in those damn shorts, taunting me so my cock is so hard I can’t walk in front of them?”

“I have a third option,” I tell him.

“What’s that?”

“We can sneak into the bedroom while everyone is distracted with food…”

“And this is why I married you, Moonbeam. You’re just so damn smart.”

“I try.” I smile as he picks me up in his arms, cradling me against his chest.

“We’ll be back out in a bit, you guys feed yourselves,” Gavin calls out, and I bury my head in his neck, as Wally and Meghan let out cat calls.

“Gross!” Joshua groans, and that makes Gavin laugh as we go back through the house from the deck.

“What happened to sneaking away?” I taunt him when we’re finally alone.

Gavin stops walking to look down at me, his face still happy, but serious too.

“When you love someone as much as I love you, Luna, you don’t want to hide a damn thing.”

I look up at this wonderful man. I loved him as a boy and it was a love so true that lies, time, distance and pain couldn’t stop it from growing deeper and deeper. I look at him and I know he’s right because when life gives you a miracle you don’t want to hide it…