Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
“Protects you?” Her laugh was brittle as she cut me off. “Poor little girl. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Olivia. His goal isn’t to protect you. He’s not out to rescue a silly little damsel in distress. He’s not interested in pure love and doesn’t give a shit about your soul. He’s not going to put you in some ivory tower. What are you going to do when you discover that your knight’s armor isn’t so shiny, Olivia? When you learn it’s as dirty as the floor beneath your boots!”
I shook my head, my heart truly aching for this woman who was hurting so badly that she felt the need to try to destroy what she couldn’t have. “But that’s just it, Susanne, I’ve lived in all the ivory towers, I’ve been surrounded by all the showy flash, witnessed all the power plays and the people who are so desperate they’ll do anything to reach something they can’t even define. While they see all the money as prestige, all the bowing and ass-kissing as respect, what they refuse to acknowledge is that it’s all nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Look around you, Susanne. This town, these people, they know what makes life worth waking up every single day.” I felt a presence behind me and knew without turning that I was no longer alone, still I kept my eyes on Susanne’s.
“I’ve never wanted a knight and have never been drawn to shiny armor. I much prefer denim. And, as for what I’m going to do”—I turned around and when Lincoln’s lips curled and his dimple appeared, I held out my hand—“I’m gonna dance with my cowboy.”
Epilogue
Six months later
Livvy
I’d known I couldn’t bring back the voices that had filled the rooms of my grandparents’ house. But I could still hear the echo of the laughter that had enveloped us as we’d gathered around the kitchen table for meals and games. I couldn’t bring so much back, but Lincoln, Luther, and Kate had known how much I needed to fix what was repairable.
But it wasn’t until I opened an old trunk that I knew I’d made the right choice. Inside were dozens of journals that contained the story of my Grammie’s life. I’d sat on the floor and wept while reading page after page. The others left me alone yet I knew they were no more than a call away. I learned I shared yet another connection as Grammie had fallen in love with Grandpops when she was a little girl on this very land, the same as I had with Lincoln. The woman who took so much pleasure burying her bare toes in the earth and dancing with bees, had come from a family whose wealth could have her living on any huge estate anywhere in the world she wished with servants to fulfill her every whim. Olivia and her parents had been taking a walk along the river when surveying land for yet another factory, when the sound of a holler had them all looking across the water. Her parents had appeared shocked to see a boy swinging on a rope but Olivia had stood breathless and then had clapped and cheered when he’d done a belly flop as if he’d performed the most perfect swan dive ever witnessed. Before his head had even popped up, she’d informed her mother and father that she was going to be that boy’s wife. From that moment forward, she’d never wavered. She was in love with a man whose roots ran deep within the earth and had wrapped around her heart the moment he’d wrapped his fingers around that rope.
I’d read about her own dreams when she married Grandpops. I read about how terrified she’d been to become a mother and how incredibly blessed she felt when my mother was born. Then I’d sobbed as she wrote about losing the man she’d loved. And kept sobbing as I read about the death of her only child and then the loss of the grandchild who held her heart.
I’d found myself pulled onto my Daddy’s lap as he held and gently rocked me as I cried for all the lost years that had been stolen from me. Then he’d carried me home when exhausted, I’d fallen asleep. I woke to discover he’d also brought that old trunk home with us, the journals always waiting for me to read again and again. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last that I cried over the journals, but I knew with those tears would come laughter and gratitude.
The family that now surrounded me knew how much the thought of leaving the house empty and alone tore me up inside. They understood it had been the only place I’d ever felt truly at home… until I found a new home within Lincoln’s arms. The four of us had tilled the garden and planted seeds. We’d cleared the flowerbeds of weeds and felt a huge sense of pride when flowers began to bloom and fill the air with their sweet aroma. It was a lot of work but was done with love and a great deal of laughter.