Quaid played one more year of football. I know he did it because he wanted her in the stands for at least one season of his career. She must have been good luck, because he won the Super Bowl that year. Everyone expected he would keep on playing, he was only 29 after all, but playing that season of football had never been about him. It had been about finally experiencing it with Valentina. Once he did that, he was done.
Logan comes over and swings Taylor up in his arms, patting Eric’s shoulder as he passes by, following Quaid and Valentina back into the house. He’s never away from our girl for long. He quit his firm and started his own investment company out of our house. With his talent for numbers, it grew and grew, rivaling the success of his former firm. He doesn’t work like he used to though. He’s hired people he trusts, only overseeing the accounts so that he can spend the majority of his time with his family. He’s a happy bastard and dotes on Valentina every second he can.
I’ve continued to be a photographer, but I travel rarely now. And if I do have to go on a trip, I make sure it’s a short one where I can always take Valentina with me. It’s our time together, and I’ve taken her to some of my favorite places in the world. I don’t miss the life I used to live at all. Once I reunited with her, I no longer had to search the world for meaning, she was the meaning I had been searching for.
Valentina chose not to return to residency, instead, she does research at a lab nearby that concentrates on finding cures for rare types of cancer. She loves her work, and she loves us. So she’s a pretty happy woman, which is something we aim for every day.
Her life is a gift.
Every single day.
And I’ll never forget that.
Valentina’s laughter rings out from inside and floats towards me. As the sun begins to set, Eric comes to sit next to me, leaning against my shoulder, in awe of the orange and gold streaks dancing in the sky. Like his namesake, he’s a happy and loving kid that always sees the good in others. He’s already my hero, and he’s only six years old.
Valentina’s laughter reaches me once more, and I live in the sound of it. I close my eyes to the beautiful sky above, hugging my son to me as I cherish this moment.
We have our house, we have our family, and we have few, if any, bad days. But then, ordinary moments just like these fill my heart with love and hope. Two things I never thought I’d be blessed with.
It’s a fucking beautiful life.
She’s made it a beautiful life.
I never expected my life to be good, but I’ll never stop being grateful for the miracle it became.
And it all started because once upon a time, a golden-eyed girl moved next door to us.
And saved me.
Saved us.
Just by breathing love into us.
And They Lived Happily Ever After…
The End.
C.R. Jane’s Acknowledgements
And when you are young, they assume you know nothing…
As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of Taylor Swift. Ivy and I even joke that she is the Selena to my Taylor. She happened to come out with a new album as we were finishing the last part of the book. Of course Taylor nailed the essence of this book somehow. The idea a love found when you are young can actually be the love of your lifetime.
These characters shook me to my very core. Their story has haunted my thoughts. I was talking to my PA Caitlin and she told me that after reading this book, she hoped that readers would know that a love like that could exist and that they deserved that kind of love. I love that. We read these stories as a kind of escape a lot of times, but I hope you know that you deserve the kind of can’t eat, can’t breathe, world series kind of love that we tried to capture in this book.
I promise you do.
To Ivy: Writing with you has been a dream. I love how we just got each other, everything flowed so effortlessly it was like we were sharing the same brain. I’m so excited for the future we have planned. You are such a talented, darling, incredible person and I love you to the moon and back.
To Caitlin: Is it getting repetitive to thank you over and over again for being such an amazing person? No? Ok, I’ll continue then. Thanks for being my confidant, and my support. Thanks for always being on my side and watching my back. I adore you.
To Summer: Not sure how I got so lucky that you reached out to me but your friendship has been perfection babe. Thanks for believing in me and supporting me. You are amazing (and you have eyes like a hawk because you find everything haha). A huge thank you to you.
To Heather and Meghan: Thank you as always for the care you put into my book babies. Thanks for meeting my crazy deadlines and never laughing at me to my face that I’ve asked for a 24-48 hour turnaround. Working with you guys is a dream. Love you both!
Lastly to my Fates...thanks for breathing life into my stories and trusting me to break your hearts and put you back together again. You will never know what you have done for my life.
See you soon..
XOXO,
C.R. Jane
Ivy Fox’s Acknowledgements
It’s finished.
It’s freaking finished!
*wipes away happy tears*
I can’t believe C.R and I are finally saying goodbye to these characters; especially after all we put them through. I won’t lie, this duet was an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m so happy Valentina, Logan, Quaid and Carter got their happily ever after, just as they deserved.
I know there were plenty of readers who were fearful at starting this duet, since it wasn’t exactly a feel good kind of book, but to all the ones who took the plunge and trusted us with their hearts, we thank you.
Sometimes we writers need to push the envelope, just to see what we can do if we push ourselves to cross what we believe are our limits. That’s how we grow, how we evolve and hopefully how we become better at our craft. And we can’t thank our readers enough for always being at our side as we take these leaps of faith. We truly hope you enjoyed the Breathe Me duet as much as we enjoyed writing it.
Now I’d like to send out a huge thank you to my partner in crime—the Taylor to my Selena.
C.R…. damn babe, I can’t believe we finished our first duet together. Thank you for making my first experience in co-writing so effortless. It was as easy as breathing working with you. You always got exactly what was in my head, always in sync with my thoughts even before I could put them into words. I’m so grateful to have you in my corner, pushing me to excel in every area of my author journey. I could not ask for a better partner or friend. And this is just the beginning. There are so many other adventures in our future and I can’t wait to get started on them with you.
Love you, hun.
I’d like to send a huge hug to my kiddo and my husband—thank you for always believing in me and loving me. I know sometimes it isn’t always easy, but I thank my lucky stars everyday that I have you both in my life.
To Courtney and Caitlin, our PA’s, thank you for taking care of both CR and mine busy schedules, and taking as much off our plate as possible. We know that we have a tendency to pile a lot on them and your help is invaluable for us not to feel so overwhelmed. So thank you.
Thank you Heather and Meghan for editing and proofed this duet. We know how hard you both worked your butts off to get our words shining. You ladies are rockstars!