Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

tastes.

“I’m going to teach you how to bake. How to cook.

Whatever you want to make, we’ll do it together.”

“What if that’s a life together?” She held her breath because

something like that would have been out of the question

before. It would have been so off limits that she never would

have dared to ask it because she wouldn’t have wanted to hear

the denial spoken out loud. She never would have recovered

from it. She knew what her answer would be now. This Claire.

This beautiful, changed woman who was cooking and smiling

and laughing again. Haley was so glad her grandma had

convinced her to stop

wallowing in sorrow and come here to

make a change for herself. It wouldn’t have happened

otherwise.

Claire had been waiting. She was waiting for Haley to let

her know what she wanted. To make the first move. Claire had

promised at the very start of all of this that she wouldn’t

seduce her or hurt her or make this about her in any way other

than the fact that she was here because of her dad. She wanted

to keep her word, even if it now required that she do the very

painful digging down deep inside of her herself to find the

strength and courage to think about going down the path of

forgiveness where Robert was concerned. Not only that, but

she’d have to learn how to forgive the past, forgive herself,

and go back to the kitchen, to where it all started. That

couldn’t have been easy. It would have been so hard and so

heartbreaking, and Claire had done it anyway, and she’d

waited.

She’d waited for Haley.