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CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. and salt the earth behind you
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WHEN SHE WOKE up the next morning, Nova Van Kirk felt. . . at peace. Sure, the situation she had inserted herself into over the past couple of weeks when she allowed JJ to drag her into the Pogues little treasure hunt, made it almost impossible to find even a single moment of peace. Knowing that the entire island was searching for her friend to arrest him for a murder he didn't even commit was a terrifying thought, and after last night's events, you know, the one when Nova relapsed and stuck a gun in Ward Cameron's face, peace and tranquillity was out of the question.
But waking up the next morning with JJ Maybank lying right beside her, her head resting on his chest whilst she listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, his arm wrapped securely around her body as they slept peacefully all through the chaotic night, that was the first time in a long time where Nova felt truly at peace. And it wasn't just because she was in the arms of the one person who made her feel safe, an unbreakable bond of love and trust withering between the pair, but it was because Nova Van Kirk was lying in the arms of her boyfriend.
Boyfriend. It was such a strange thing to say to herself, almost like a foreign concept for the girl. Maybe it was because she had never really used that label on any of the guys she had been with before. There was that one boy she made out with, but that was never anything serious. Her only other real relationship was with Rafe, but even then, they were breaking up and getting back together every other week. Hell, Rafe only ever told Nova he loved her as an manipulation tactic whenever she contemplated breaking up with him for good. So Nova never really knew what they were to each other. Maybe she never really knew what truth love was.
That was until she met JJ Maybank.
With JJ it was different. It was different because he genuinely and full heartedly loved Nova, and it wasn't the multiple versions of herself Nova pretended so she could fit in perfectly with her Kook life that made JJ fall in love with her. JJ fell in love with her — the real Nova Van Kirk. He saw past her picture perfect life wrapped in bubble wrap and even saw past the facade Nova put on to please others. JJ could touch the coldest parts of the girl, the boy melting the ice around her heart and filling her with warmth, accepting her flaws and he still loved her anyways. He was the glimmer of light in the middle of all her darkness, and day by day, he dragged Nova into that light with him.
