Finally Found by Nicole Andrews Moore Read Free Book Online Page A

All the bedrooms are suites with private baths, so you have nothing to worry about. You’ll be completely alone. I’ll see you in the morning for coffee. What time?”

    “You know that I’m off the clock, right? You know that I’m not making it, right? I mean, I just feel like we should establish that before bed so everyone knows where they stand.” Her hands were on her hips.

    He passed her the backpack she had left on the stoop that he had been carrying throughout the house. She reached out to get it, and while she was looking down, he couldn’t resist planting a light kiss on the tip of her nose. “Sleep well. I’ll make you one nasty coffee in the morning.”

    Then he turned on his heels and headed further down the hall. It wouldn’t be easy staying in that room all night, but he had little choice. If he stayed in his old room, she would be in another wing of the house. He hadn’t been in the master bedroom since his mother died in there. She was the center of their family. While his father was the breadwinner, she was the one who made everything right.

    Mom always knew how to handle Father. He was as formal as she was informal. The only time Adam ever knew the old man to relax and smile…it was around her. Once she was officially diagnosed with breast cancer, his father struggled to make things as good and perfect as she had, to take over the role she had played in order to allow her time to recuperate to fight for her life. He tried to create a bond, a closeness that they hadn’t experienced previously. It began with him eating breakfast with his sons every morning. It continued by sharing a car to the agency during the week. As for their mother, Father tried to make all of her dreams come true.

    One last time they came to the Hamptons. Adam remembered that trip so well. He was still living at home because he didn’t feel the need to move out. He never wanted girls to spend the night and since so many of his friends had apartments he rarely slept a night at home. The first night of that last trip, he had stood outside his parents’ bedroom door. He had his fist poised to knock, but instead he stood there listening to them.

    Shocked, he realized Father was crying. Mom was comforting him. She told him how he was going to carry on without her. She thanked him for this amazing life they had together. She praised him for building such a solid advertising agency that would help the family carry on. She told him she appreciated that he had made it possible for her to raise their sons, to pursue her hobbies, to travel and enjoy her life. She had no regrets. She was filled with happy thoughts and oh so much love.

    That was when Adam finally pulled himself away. Everything changed for him in that moment. His father had cried. He never knew the old man to have more than two emotions. He was serious or happy. He had never even seen his father get mad. After dating in college and high school, and college girls while he was in high school…Adam couldn’t even fathom ever loving a woman like his parents clearly loved each other. He loved. It wasn’t an emotion he was incapable of. He loved his brother, like a brother. He loved his parents, like a son should. But this idea of romantic love, of being so completely devoted to another person, he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. How could he ever find this love his parents had? His father had never cheated, never even looked at another woman. This wasn’t a case of a son idealizing his father. Adam had observed and then asked. The words his father spoke stayed with him.

    “Your mother is the most incredible person in the world. I can’t imagine my life without her. I have no interest in anyone else, in ever doing anything that would cheapen what we have. She deserves everything, so I started by giving her and no one else my heart, body, and mind.”

    That is probably why his father died soon after his mother. No one had ever doubted the depth of his devotion