Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires #1) - Lucia Jordan Page 0,56

whole forest, and soon, wolves were howling off in the distance as well.

Then he took my hand, and we went inside. Together we laid in the snug bed, wrapped in each other's arms, and staring up at the stars until our eyelids got heavy. As I drifted off to sleep, I felt like I had finally found my home.

I hadn't dreamed in many nights, at least not dreams that I had remembered. But that night, I had a one that was too remarkable to ever forget. I dreamed that I was a star and that I was looking down upon the earth, watching all of the people come and go throughout their days. I felt spectacularly lonely up in the sky, and even though there were other stars, they were silent and distant, and I couldn't seem to talk to anyone except the thoughts in my own mind.

I was watching the people on earth, and I saw Tim. I watched every night as he sat by his bonfire and drank his glass of bourbon. Some nights he was naked, and I shined starlight down upon him to illuminate his body, which I found entrancing. The more nights that I spent watching him, the more lonely I felt, and the more desperately I wanted to be down on the earth with him.

Until one night, I saw him sitting by his fire, and I felt the overwhelming sense that if I couldn't go down to be with him, then I didn't want to exist anymore at all, not as a star nor anything else. So I let myself fall. I didn't really know how a star fell to earth, but I just let myself feel as though I were drifting, and before I knew what had happened, I found myself on the cold, hard ground below.

I felt as though I had shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, and I was cold and broken and afraid. Tim walked over and scooped his hands down to pick me up and carry me inside the tiny house. When we got inside, he gently laid me on the violet bedcovers beneath the skylight, where I looked up and saw where I had fallen from. I didn't know what I was now; if I was a star, or if I was like him. But it turned out that I was neither.

He came to sit with me and picked all of my tiny pieces up to hold in the palms of his hands. His hands felt warm and then hot, like the bonfire, and for a moment, it hurt as if I were going to turn into dust. But I didn't. Instead, I was stronger, more hardened, and more beautiful than before. I watched the reflection in the glass windows as Tim pushed my pieces together and formed me into a small and beautiful thing that looked like a star but wasn't. Then he wrapped a silver band around me and fashioned me into something lovely.

When I woke up from my dream, it was still the middle of the night, and I lifted my hand to look at my glittering ring again. I held it up to my face in the light and saw my splintered reflection on all of its edges. It was truly made of a thousand star-pieces crafted out of a painful and beautiful fall into love. I wrapped my hand closed as I felt the ring around my finger and put my arms against Tim's chest as he slept. Then I curled myself back up against him and fell back asleep with a brilliant smile on my lips and a brilliant piece of a star on my hand.

25

Chapter Nineteen (Tim)

The three of us all rode into work on Monday morning, looking as though we had just won the lottery. Max had agreed to stay until the wedding—which we hadn't quite set yet since we needed to deal with the Spokane project first—and even parked his van closer to the house now so that he could come to enjoy the bonfire with us at night while he was there.

Brooke accepted the position as marketing director, which was just in time because I really needed her help now to get back on track with the Spokane job before the three of us needed to fly out there for the final presentation.

When word got around the office of our engagement, all of the girls ogled over Brooke's beautiful ring, and I caught her glancing at it at