If anyone can find Brooke, it is Jared. I try to take comfort in that. But fear twisted in my gut, slicing through me like a weed that overtakes a garden.

CHAPTER 25

Squeaky Floorboards

Brooke

I close my eyes as my ears fill with the crashing sound of the salty waves. I am sitting on the beach that is now my backyard. My small cottage stand a mere thirty feet from the blue abyss of water. My easel and paints are set up next to me, the blank canvas mocking me. Ireland was beautiful, probably the most beautiful place I have ever been to. A stab of regret pierces my abdomen. I should have traveled more.

I pick up the small photo book I have put together. I flip a couple pages. There are ones of me and Sonia in the tea garden laughing. Landon and I taking a selfie with the sunset behind us. He always went with me to chase the sunset. Then one day, he insisted that I be in one of the photos.

“I think that sunset would be prettier with you in it,” he said, which made me blush as I silently shook my head no. “Don’t you want to be a part of the beauty you capture? Look at that sunset, there will never be another one exactly like this one.” His words almost made me cry because he got it. He did not ask me why I went out night after night to capture the sunset. Or ask me if I had enough sunset pictures yet. He just encouraged me to be a part of them.

I turn the page to a picture of Cahal. His face was scrunched up, but his eyes where wide open as he squawked happily after being feed. They are Landon’s eyes. I realize then that it does not matter what was out in the world I might have missed, I do not regret the last two years of my life. They were perfect, and I would not change a second of them. Not even if it meant I lived.

Landon

My fist plowed through my home office wall as I growled in frustration. Why didn’t Brooke talk to me? Why didn’t she say she was sick? Didn’t she know I owned a research lab dedicated all things liver? We campaigned for donors all the time for the hospital. Of course, she did not know; I made sure she did not know anything about my business. I can hear Cahal starting to fuss through the baby monitor. Mrs. Fanny went shopping while he naps. Guilt stabs at me. My son is not even a month old, and already, I am being a neglecting father, always leaving his care to my housekeeper.

I go to prepare his bottle, knowing he was going to be hungry in about five minutes. Jared comes in as I was heating up the water.

“I found—” he started, but I eagerly cut him off.