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ONE
GAVIN Rochester stood in the doorway of his enor as his wife carefully exa it in the box and tucking it back into the plastic basin they used to store Christmas decorations
Her sadness instilled an ache inside his heart that made him physically rub his chest in an effort to alleviate the pain But some wounds were simply too deep Permanent and unable to heal And her pain was unbearable to him because he couldn’t fix this for her His connections, ive his beloved hat she wanted most He felt her pain as keenly as if it were his own—and it was Because he couldn’t stand for her to be unhappy He’d move mountains just to make her smile
She’d changed hiht he could be—never wanted to be But she changed everything—his world—his place in his world Suddenly he’d wanted to be a better man For her Because it hat she deserved And he would never place her in harm’s ith his business practices It was a new experience for hi someone who made him want to feelworthy
Then she turned from her sad perusal of the lone ornament, and when she saw hihts strung around the tree He marveled at hohenever she s that would never go away His love for his as like nothing he’d ever experienced in his life Staggering Yet war Without reservations, strings or conditions
She loved hi him to his knees
“That’s the last one,” she said, her gaze drifting one last ti on the tree Sorrow briefly chased the warmth from her eyes before she appeared to rief filling her features slipped away, but he’d seen it Knew it to be there no matter the effort she made not to let it show
He crossed the rooer able to bear the distance between theers into her long hair and then nuzzled the top of her head, inhaling her scent as his lips pressed to her glossy brunette strands
“We’ll try again,” heto inject confidence and reassurance in his tone And yet he knew he’d failed miserably He sounded as dejected as he knew her to be Not because she’d failed him He could live his life with only her and never suffer a single regret But he’d failed her He was unable to give her a child he knew she wanted with every breath
She wanted thehter, to fill their house armth he’d never experienced before her She knew all of that, knehat his life had been like and she was deterive him a home Not just a house A home with a faainst her His love defied boundaries or para soul the way he loved this woman
She shook her head against his chest, and he carefully pulled her away, gutted by the sheen of tears in her brilliant brown eyes Even in sorrow she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him He couldn’t remember his life before she entered it
He held the singleto hiive her what she wanted most A child