I need you, Ava. I am desperate. For you. For touch. For a kiss. For the scrape of your hand down my stomach. For the slide of your lips across my hipbone. The sweep of your thigh against mine in the dulcet, drowning darkness. For the warm huff of your breath on my skin and the wet suck of your mouth around me and the building pressure of need reaching releaseโฆI am mad with need. Wild with it. I cannot have you. I have lost you, as I have lost myself. And so I go in search. Of myself, and thus the man who might return to you, and take you in his arms. I loathe each of the thousands of miles between us, but I cannot wish them away, for I hope at the end of my journey I shall find you. Or rather, find myself, and thusโฆyou. Myself, and thus us. I am taking the long way home, Ava. *** Christian, Iโm losing my mind, and I donโt know how to stop it. I shouldnโt be writing to you, but I am. Iโm friendless, loveless, and lifeless. Youโre out there somewhere, and still youโre all I really have. I hate my reliance and dependence on you, emotionally and otherwise, and that reliance is something Iโm coming to recognize. I hate that I canโt hate you as much as I want to. I hate that I still love you so much. I hate that thereโs no clear solution to our conundrum. Even if we could forgive each other, what then? I hate you, Christian. I really do. But most of all, I donโt. Itโs complicated. Complicatedly (still) yours, Ava THE LONG WAY HOME is the story of a married couple, Christian and Ava, both writers, as they cope with the loss of their son and the damage that loss causes to their marriage. This moving story, alternately heartbreaking and heartwarming, is the first in a brand-new contemporary romance series by bestselling author Jasinda Wilder.