A goodbye that didn’t seem so far off to someone who would live an eternity. I’d received a lot of those looks from my family since I’d taken on this new life. The genuine smiles capped by the sad eyes. I understood it though, because the thought of saying goodbye got to me too.
But it never got to me so much that I regretted my decision. In exchange for a limited number of years, I’d gained a new family. A wife who still looked at me like I was her own personal hero. A son who was so much like me I could predict what he was going to say and do next before even he did. And a daughter that was so beautiful to look at, I found myself just staring at her after we’d tucked her into bed at night.
It was a life worth exchanging an eternity for.
I stayed there, straddling the lawn, for a while. Watching my family flitting past the windows until everyone was seated around the dinner table and eating and laughing with equal fervor. Everyone I loved was sitting inside the house Emma and I’d built—with the help of three Immortal brothers—here on the back forty of the Hayward commune after deciding Montana was the place we wanted to raise our family.
It was the place I’d lived for close to two centuries with my blood family. It was the place I’d raise my children. It would be the place I’d be buried.
It was still a sobering thought, but one I was getting used to.
“Okay, what have you done with my husband?” Emma’s voice called from the porch, smiling at me as she walked down the stairs.
I quirked a brow.
“My husband, the one I married, would be the first one seated at that dinner table, fork in hand,” she replied, her summer dress shifting with the breeze. Ten years hadn’t aged Emma. They’d only made her more beautiful.
“I just wanted a minute to think,” I said, kissing her temple and pulling her under my arm.
She exhaled, rolling her head onto my shoulder, staring through the same window I was. “I need a minute too.”
We stood like this, in silence, for more than a minute. For more than ten even. Just enjoying the moment, the warmth from one another, and the best view in the world.
“Em?” I said as twilight started to make its debut.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
She kissed my neck. “You couldn’t make that clearer if you tried, Doctor,” she said into my ear.
A shiver ran up my back. Ten years together and the woman could still make me tremble with the lightest of touches. “You know it makes me all hot when you call me doctor.”
Swatting my backside, she glanced back at me as she made her way back up the stairs. “I know,” she said, raising a brow. “So let’s rush every one out of here, get the kids tucked into bed, and forget about the dishes until tomorrow.”
“Sounds like my kind of night,” I said as Emma went back through the screen.
“Don’t keep us waiting,” she called out, “birthday boy.”
I groaned my acknowledgment.
I was thirty today, well, sort of.
I’d given up an eternity ten years ago for a woman. For a woman that would give me the family I never imagined I’d have. For the woman who, even in my darkest of nights, could pull me back into the light with one word.
An eternity was nothing when you couldn’t spend it with that person. They were just days unfolding one after the other.
I might have a limited few now, but I was making each one count. Each day spent with her, with them, was worthy of an eternity.
THE END
Thank you for reading FUSION by best-selling author Nicole Williams.
Nicole loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at
[email protected] or:
On her blog: nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com
On Facebook: Author Nicole Williams
On Twitter: nwilliamsbooks
Other Works by Nicole Williams
ETERNAL EDEN
FALLEN EDEN
UNITED EDEN
FISSURE
CRASH
CLASH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I’m still writing because I love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings.
Here’s to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* … care to join me?
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE: (END OF FISSURE)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE: (END OF FISSURE)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Williams, Fusion
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