Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,95
marked Aaron’s grave an hour later, Sarah said, “I’ll see you again soon, Baby Boots.”
“Later, kid.” Abe touched his hand to the stone before the three of them rose and walked to the SUV, a sense of peace in the air.
Heading to the beach, they hung out there for two hours, were more than ready for lunch when it rolled around. First, they made sure Flossie was hydrated and fed, then let her out into the fenced backyard. Exhausted from playing in the waves, she went to the spacious outdoor doghouse that was her official abode—not that Abe had ever seen Sarah’s beloved pet spend a night there—and snuggling in, started to snore.
Meanwhile, Sarah threw together a salad and he grilled some chicken and they ate. After they’d sat for a while, relaxing, Abe took a deep breath, said, “There’s a fair in town. You want to go?”
Sarah’s body went motionless. And it felt as if time stopped.
“Okay,” she said softly after an endless instant.
“I have to tell you something first.” He swallowed, blew out a breath. “I have to tell you why I don’t like fairs.”
And he did, hiding nothing. None of the anger that had lived in him for so long. None of the violence of which he was afraid he was capable. None of the pain of that day when his baby sister had ridden the merry-go-round until she couldn’t stay awake any longer.
Sarah cried, but she said, “We have to go. You have to remember the joy she felt that day, hold that in your heart instead of the fury that lives there now.”
Abe wasn’t sure he could do that, wasn’t sure he wouldn’t rage at the world the instant he set foot in the fair, but he would walk into hell itself for Sarah. “Let’s go.”
PART FIVE
CHAPTER 32
TWO MONTHS AFTER THEIR DATE AT THE FAIR, a date that had begun in teeth-clenched control for Abe and ended with him kissing her in the shadow of a Ferris wheel while she held on to a fluffy toy cat he’d won for her, Sarah no longer worried about the media or any other outside pressure when it came to their relationship.
If they messed up the beautiful, precious thing growing ever stronger between them, it would be on her and Abe, no one else.
Today she was about to step out on Abe’s arm and into the full glare of the spotlight. The media intrusion hadn’t been too bad over the past weeks. All thanks to a genius move on Thea’s part right when interest in Sarah and Abe’s relationship had been growing at dangerous speed—she’d told them to stop avoiding the media, to go to certain specific and stultifyingly nonglamorous locations where they were sure to be photographed, and to make no effort to deny the relationship.
Turned out cooperation and easy access to photos of them as a couple soon lowered their monetary value to nil as far as the vast majority of paparazzi were concerned. Why hang out all night at the gate waiting for a photo opportunity when ten other photographers also had shots of them? Thea had effectively flooded the market with so much sheer ordinariness that no one cared.
“As Schoolboy Choir’s publicist,” Thea had said the last time she’d come over for a coffee, “that might have been the worst possible thing I could’ve done, but as your friend, I take a bow.”
Sarah had sent the other woman a huge bunch of flowers after the media interest died down to near zero. So much so that no one had clicked to her pregnancy. Part of it had to do with how careful they were anytime she needed to see Dr. Snyder or had to go for a scan, but mostly it was due to her height and body shape—she was carrying the baby in a way that meant her bump remained small.
Meanwhile, the peanut was developing right on schedule.
She’d worried the dress she’d chosen for tonight’s red-carpet event would give it away, but Kit had been right: the Grecian-inspired gown, the color a frothy and luscious green, cascaded over her body in a joyous fall of color without accentuating her belly. If the crueler elements in the media decided to call her fat for not choosing a formfitting gown, that was fine with her—so long as they left her in privacy. Because while Sarah had toughened up enough to deal with the attention, that didn’t mean she wanted it.