Where The Heart Is by Jasinda Wilder

shouldn’t be in love, but baby I am
I know it’s crazy, but I don’t give a damn
shouldn’t want you near me
but you’re inside me, can you hear me
I’m praying you need me, baby say you do
I’m laying in bed, dreaming of you
cuz I remember you moving, gliding
can’t get over you, baby I’m trying
why can’t I have you, why’s it have to be so complicated
the love I feel hasn’t faded

I wrote those lyrics for Jonny after he walked away.

It was never meant to be between us; I knew it, he knew it, we talked about it.

The trouble is, love never listens to logic. And for two people who have never really had a home or known love, logic is all that keeps us going: be smart, survive, do what has to be done. And, in my case, take care of my son. Forget my dreams, forget love…nothing matters but making it day by day.

But then I met Jonny, and everything changed.

* * *

I’m a vagabond. I’ve lived my whole life out on the ocean, surviving by my wits and my knowledge of the sea. I’ve never needed anyone, never stayed in one place long enough to let something like that happen.

Christian, the only person I’ve ever really cared about, goes missing and gives me a box of letters and makes me promise to take it to his wife, Ava. Problem is, when I get to her, Ava is missing too, and their condo is ruined by the same hurricane that claimed Christian. And then I meet Delta, Ava’s sister, Christian’s sister-in-law, and she changes everything.

It wasn’t supposed to be anything. Nothing was supposed to happen. We helped dig out survivors of the hurricane together, and that was it. Only…that wasn’t it. Something happened. And now I can’t get her out of my head, or out of my heart.

Even when I walk away, I can’t escape her. Especially when I hear her voice on the radio, singing a song meant for me:

You walked into my life, with your dark skin and brown eyes
I tried to resist you, tried not to kiss you
you speak soft and you move slow
you’ve got strong hands and few words
but I hear it anyway, everything you don’t say
I tried to resist you, tried not to kiss you
but god, your lips, the way you moved your hips
the way you said my name
and said you felt the same
the way you took my hand
and kissed me in the sand