“Thank you so much, Gage.” She turned her head and cupped her hand around the back of mine to kiss me thoroughly.
When she turned back and took the ring from the box to put on her finger, I fingered the necklace under my pillow and draped it onto her chest, connected the clasp, put my hands back on her stomach, and waited.
Her hand flew up to the long necklace and she brought the pendant up to study it. It was a white-gold phoenix, with a diamond on each wing and yellow gold coming from the bottom of its tail. I’d seen it in passing one day and bought it immediately. Cassidy had learned from her mom and Connor that you had to find the beauty from the ashes. It didn’t take long for us to realize it didn’t just apply to actual ashes. Because there were a lot of times in our lives that we’d had to find the light in the dark.
I’d thought I was going to lose her from the scorpion sting, but it’d given us Asher. She’d gone through a rough pregnancy, and God had taken Jax from us momentarily and almost taken Cassidy, just to bring them back, and now Jax was a happy, healthy, and amazing kid. And it was hard knowing she wouldn’t have more kids, but it made the surprise of Emma that much sweeter. The phoenix was everywhere in our lives now. From Asher’s name and Cassidy’s second horse, which she’d named Phoenix, to the only tattoo I’ve gotten or would ever get: the same one she had on her back. It was our symbol, and her mother’s words were now our motto. During hard times, we whispered them to each other to remind ourselves that we would get through whatever was happening and would come out stronger, and when God blessed us with gifts, it was said as a prayer.
Her hand closed tightly around the pendant and she looked up at me; her wide honey eyes were filled with tears. “From ashes?” she asked with my soft smile.
“From ashes,” I confirmed.
Acknowledgments
A big thank-you to my husband for always supporting me and helping me around the house more than I could begin to explain. I love you, Cory!
More thanks to my Beta readers: Amanda, Nikki, Robin, and Teresa! Y’all are amazing and helped give me so much confidence in my writing. I am so lucky to have women like you supporting me and giving me honest feedback about my work!
Thank you to Tessa, my editor; I love working with you and honestly have no idea how I ever did a book without you! And to Kevan, my agent, you have been more than amazing, and I love that both of you are just as excited about this book as I am!
About the Author
MOLLY McADAMS grew up in California but now lives in the oh-so-amazing state of Texas with her husband and furry daughter. Her hobbies include hiking, snowboarding, traveling, and taking long walks on the beach—which roughly translates to being a homebody with her hubby and dishing out movie quotes. When she’s not at work, she can be found hiding out in her bedroom surrounded by her laptop, cell phone, and Kindle, and fighting over the TV remote. She has a weakness for crude-humored movies and fried pickles, and she loves curling up in a fluffy comforter during a thunderstorm . . . or under one in a bathtub if there are tornados. That way she can pretend they aren’t really happening.
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Also by Molly McAdams
Taking Chances
From Ashes
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
FROM ASHES. Copyright © 2012 by Molly Jester. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition December 2012 ISBN 9780062267719
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Table of Contents
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
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Molly McAdams
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher