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Chasing Serenity

Page 43

by Ashley, Kristen


  Since he’d stationed himself out there, that moment was the first he felt the sun penetrating the linen of his shirt and pants, the warmth of the rays welcome as the sea threw its breeze.

  He also felt her weight against him.

  It was very heavy, even if she was light.

  She fit there, tucked to him, having reached to him because she watched, she assessed, and even in her little baby brain she knew, above all, he would give her what she needed.

  Corey remained in a Z shape, back up, knees up, cocooning her and holding her close, checking her skin for that first hint of pink that would declare the sunscreen her grandmother slathered on her before they came out wasn’t doing its job.

  And then he felt her little baby sigh as she settled in to knowing it was the sun and the sea and the breeze and her Uncle Corey, she was safe, and all was right in the world.

  As he knew it would happen if she was tossed in his lap, with that sigh, Corey’s worst fears came true.

  He had known love and some of it was harmful, some of it he’d used to cause harm, some of it he’d thrown away before he realized how precious it was, some of it he’d thrown away even knowing that.

  This was something else.

  The realization of his love for this small being.

  And as Marilyn frolicked in the surf, Corey Szabo bent his head so his lips were to a white baby sun hat on a little baby girl who, based on sheer instinct, loved her Uncle Corey, trusted him, and in his arms, she fell asleep.

  And there, his voice raw with feeling, he whispered his vow.

  “You will want for nothing. No one will harm you. You will find great love. I will see to it, my beautiful Chloe. I will see to all of that. You will be happy. And you will be safe. I will see to that too. When there is breath in my body, but even when I’m no longer here, I’ll look after you. I’ll do it forever, Chloe. Forever and ever. Don’t you worry about a thing. Your Uncle Corey’s got you.”

  Chloe Marilyn Pierce slept against her uncle’s chest, not a care in the world.

  And Corey sat in the sand and waited for Marilyn to come in. When she did, with great care he took his feet. He then stood and waited for Marilyn to towel off and put on her coverup.

  And with one of his hands in the hand of the only woman in his life who would ever love him purely and completely, and his arm wrapped around the only girl in his life who would love him for who he truly was, Corey walked his girls up to Genny and Tom’s house.

  Experiencing the only moment he would have in his life when he felt completely at ease.

  Completely content.

  And wholly loved.

  Epilogue

  The Picture

  Judge

  Nine weeks after the funeral…a Tuesday…

  Alex’s head popped in the door to his office just as his phone rang.

  He glanced at the cell first, seeing it was Chloe calling.

  That was weird, because his woman texted, it was rare she called.

  He turned his attention to Alex to tell her to hang on a second, but he saw she was practically coming out of her skin with excitement.

  That was not Alex. She had reactions. She had emotions. She showed them. But it was never too overt.

  “Judge—” she started.

  For him, the decision was a no brainer.

  “Two seconds,” he told her. “Chloe is calling.”

  She was almost hopping foot to foot.

  But she nodded and moved away from the door.

  He picked up the call.

  “Hey, baby, everything okay?”

  “Okay, well, I did something,” she announced.

  Shit, fuck.

  With Chloe, that could mean anything.

  From her presenting him with three suits and accompanying shirts (and fucking ties, not to mention shoes) that he’d find out later she’d spent twelve thousand dollars on (and that was just the suits) because, “You are an Oakley and you’re hanging with the Pierce-Swans and it’s not like you don’t already have several pairs of trousers and sports jackets. And if I can’t spend my trust fund on you, who am I going to spend it on? And youhavetheperfectbody so pleaseletmedressyou.”

  It was that last bit that he gave in on.

  Though, it had to be said, he’d eventually give in anyway, it was just that he would have given her far more shit about it first.

  And then there was Judge coming home on a Thursday evening and finding his deck having two low planters filled with flowers in the outer corners and two potted evergreens by the backdoor with two more flower-filled planters flanking his front door. Plants he had to water because he was there more than she was.

  This because, “You have three highly attractive women that live in your development. They check you out when you’re on your deck, and nothing says, ‘A woman lives here!’ like planters filled with flowers. And I know, a woman doesn’t live here. But these flowers stand in my stead to tell those women to back off when I’m not around.”

  He’d explained that if the unlikely happened, and one of those women made their move, he could tell them he was taken.

  To which she’d replied, “Let’s let the planters do your talking for you, shall we?”

  He didn’t argue further. It was cute, her staking her claim. And she took Thursday duty with watering and deadheading the flowers.

  And then there was the time she floated the idea of, “What do you think about me contacting Rhys and asking him to look into a few lovely ladies the mom of a friend of mine in New York says are attractive, nice and unattached.”

  To that he’d said a firm, “No.”

  And to his surprise, even if she gave him a squinty look, she hadn’t pushed it.

  Though he had no doubt she was biding her time.

  As far as he knew, she had yet to unleash “Rhys.”

  But that was only as far as he knew.

  And he was afraid to ask.

  So with Chloe being Chloe, and this mysterious Rhys guy in the mix, “doing something” could mean just about anything.

  “I don’t need another suit,” he told her. “Seeing as I haven’t worn any of the ones you’ve already given me.”

  “I got a dog,” she blurted.

  He was silent.

  “Okay, listen, I know this is probably something we should discuss,” she said quickly.

  She was right, they should.

  But—

  “And I want you to know, I get that. But Montana is, well, Judge, honey, she has a mohawk.”

  “What?”

  “She’s part pittie and part Rhodesian ridgeback and she is so sweet. There’s a terrible situation with her current family where they’ve learned the baby they’re about to have is going to be significantly special needs. They’re understandably freaked out about that, they need to focus on it and how that will change their lives, and sadly, they’re worried Montana will suffer along the way. Now, they’re being picky because they want to be certain their girl has a good home. Mi told them about me, and I went to go see her today and they liked me, and I left with her and, Judge…you’re just going to fall in love with her. I promise. I swear.”

  “Chlo—”

  “And it was awful, everyone was crying, even me.”

  She insisted she wasn’t a crier, but it was his experience his woman cried all the time.

  “Hon—”

  “And she misses her mommy and daddy already, I can tell. We had the difficult discussion, but we think it needs to be a surgical cut. As awful as it is, and as much as they want to visit her, we all agreed that it would be confusing for her. So we’re going to have to be extra sweet to her for a while.”

  He had visions of her talking on the phone while cooking a skillet of bacon at the same time.

  And maybe frying up a filet mignon.

  “So she’ll know who her new mummy and daddy are and that we’re going to take the best of care of her,” she continued. “Do you think Zeke will be okay with her?”

/>   “Zeke loves everything.”

  “Well then! See!” she cried.

  God, she sounded like a little girl, all scared and excited.

  It was fucking adorable.

  “Chlo—”

  “I promise to do research about introducing new dogs to a family and—”

  “Coco, baby, shut up so I can talk.”

  Silence.

  “I don’t care,” he said.

  And he stopped talking.

  “That’s it, you don’t care?”

  “That’s it. You want her, we’ll figure it out. We’ll give her love. It’s all good.” It was then her story about adopting a dog and three cats hit him, and he added, “Just, now, promise me, no more unless we discuss it. Two is one thing, if Montana will be good with Zeke, Zeke’ll be good with her. We got enough love to go around. But we both do a lot of traveling back and forth and we need to consider who’s staying with who, if they eventually should be separated at all, and what it’s doing to them, all the moving around.”

  “In other words, don’t get a cat…yet.”

  He grinned at the “yet.”

  “Babe,” was all he said.

  “We need to talk about moving in together.”

  Judge went still.

  “Zeke loves the car. Dogs love cars. But humans, all this moving around, it’s not fun,” she declared.

  Leave it to Chloe to throw it right out there.

  He was outrageously thrilled.

  Even so.

  “Let’s talk about that when you come up tomorrow.”

  “I’m moving up there.”

  Judge went rock solid.

  “I can come down for the day once or twice a week, but Mi doesn’t need me. And with recent events, we’ve needed to hire another full-timer anyway.”

  She had.

  The double whammy of Elsa Cohen, with her seventeen million followers (not to mention the public’s sudden highly increased fascination with all things Pierce-Swan-Holloway-Oakley) sent people in droves to Velvet and Fabulous Foot Forward’s donations to stratospheric levels. And unbeknownst to Chloe, she’d impressed a patron who had significant social standing and a shit ton of friends, all of whom, after Chloe plied them with champagne and helped style them, were now regulars.

  This meant, in the last two months, Velvet moved from solid, sustained, but moderate growth to being the It Store in Phoenix, quadrupling her gross, and doing triple that in online sales.

  And with that, including Chloe launching a new marketing scheme where she styled actual clients, promoting that on social media, she’d formed an alliance with big-time stylist to the stars, Wyn Gastineau, who was also stationed in Phoenix.

  Specifically, she was working with Wyn for clients who were beyond the celebrity sizes of -0 to 4. And this came with she and Wyn talking about curating an offshoot of Wyn’s popular subscription boxes for people over size 14.

  Judge was experiencing much the same with Kids and Trails, because the Elsa Cohen mention was followed up with the social media rollout of Duncan and Tom’s outreach and fundraising appeal. The success of that campaign far exceeded their expectations. It was massively popular. And this included several other tennis stars, golfers, football and basketball players who got in touch and wanted to get involved.

  Shit was real for his small staff that included him doing everything but volunteer coordination.

  Which meant it was time for them to grow, one way or another, and Judge knew exactly which way he wanted to take that. It was just finding the time in all the extra work to write a proposal and present it to Duncan.

  “And it’s time to expand,” she continued, speaking his thoughts out loud, but on another subject. “My market research would not scream that there needs to be a Velvet in Prescott, but there’s a lot of money up there. There are art dealerships and jewelry stores on the square that sell pieces of quality at a certain price point. So I think a small shop with perhaps a slightly more casual bent to the stock would fly and it doesn’t have to be another Velvet. It can be something all new. But as I ponder that, and look for space, I need to concentrate on how to expand Triple F. I have so many stores and brands offering in-kind gifts, makeup artists and hair stylists wanting to sign up, I need to buckle down and organize that, or I’ll lose the momentum. And I can do all of that from your living room.”

  When Judge remained speechless, he was so damned happy this was where her mind was going, she kept talking.

  “And I rent, you own. My lease isn’t up for another couple of months, so we have time to plan the move. Obviously, it’ll be difficult to leave Dad, but he seems to be handling things okay, and he won’t be too far away. He’s up there a lot, anyway. And, well, we talked about this, and it’s unusual that it seems his new best friend is Bowie, but that’s just how it’s shaking out. I mean, it’s really no surprise they like each other. They’re both exceptionally likeable. I still want to talk about maybe discussing things with Rhys—”

  “Baby, you do not have to talk me into you moving in with me. I’d go down there tonight with a Mack truck to load up all your clothes and shoes. But let’s take a few weeks to discuss furniture and logistics and let the new member of our family get used to us, make a plan and then get you up here.”

  “Really?” she whispered.

  Shit.

  “All right, I need to throw this out there,” he began. “But even if things are off the hook with Trails, I was going to offer to move down there. I don’t have to do this work here. I don’t need to be at corporate. I can do it anywhere. So we have to have that discussion too. I love you’d consider coming up here, but it makes far more sense for me to come down there.”

  Now, Chloe was speechless.

  But he’d been thinking about it. He was ready. He was prepared. His program could now afford to rent a small space and add additional staff. And it made sense. When the hikes were on, they traveled a lot, and the airport was in Phoenix.

  He just wouldn’t like it.

  That said, it wasn’t an urban jungle. Phoenix sprawled, but there was Papago, Camelback Mountain, Piestewa Peak—

  “I can’t allow that.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I love that you’d offer, I love you, but Judge, you’d hate it here.”

  “I’d cope. It’s not like—”

  “Judge, no. I won’t have it.”

  Judge bent and rested his weight in his hand on his desk, such was the emotion burning through him.

  He’d forgotten.

  Forgotten who he was talking to.

  Forgotten how she was with the people she loved.

  He wasn’t used to it.

  Not yet.

  Maybe he never would be.

  Maybe that was why Chloe was thrown in his path.

  To give him an overabundance of all that he’d lacked all his life.

  To give him someone he could give his love to.

  Someone who gave that in return.

  “Do you think I can abide it if you’re just coping?” she asked.

  “It makes more sense, baby.”

  “It makes no sense at all, darling.”

  “You’re a city girl, Chloe.”

  “I’m your girl, Judge.”

  Christ.

  Christ.

  “We could move to a deserted island, and on the condition I’d be able to have new bikinis air dropped to me on a frequent basis, I’d be fine, as long as you were with me,” she declared.

  “There might be snakes on deserted islands, Coco,” he teased.

  “Well, you’ll have a machete…or something.”

  He started chuckling.

  Through it, he warned her, “You’re taking care of those damned planters.”

  “Whatever. Zeke and Montana can frolic in the water from the hose as I do that. And Burberry makes wellies. I’ll need an entirely new mountain girl section of my wardrobe. It’ll be fabulous.”

  “I love you so fucking much,” he whispered. />
  “And I you,” she whispered back.

  They sat with that a second.

  Then he quipped, “At least, one way or another, I’ll finally get my coat back.”

  And her soft laugh struck him, straight through the heart.

  She didn’t comment on that, instead, she said, “Now, I need to go spend time with Montana. She’s getting antsy. I can’t wait for you to meet her, but remember, she did not come from a bad place. So we’re going to need extra loving care to give her.”

  Then it was good Chloe Pierce came into her life.

  She was going to be just fine.

  “I’m warned. I’ll talk to Zeke tonight. We’ll make her welcome.”

  “All right, letting you go. Love you, Judge Oakley.”

  “Love you too, Cocoroco.”

  He heard her soft chuckle before she disconnected.

  He took a minute with all that just went down before he looked to his door.

  Alex was still gone.

  He’d go find her in a second.

  For now, he engaged his texts, typed one in, and sent it to his dad.

  Chloe is moving to Prescott. Moving in with me.

  That went off and he sent another one.

  And our family is growing, she adopted a dog today.

  Since Texas, he’d made a concerted effort. At first it felt strange, but he did it.

  His father was so receptive to it, it felt strange for about a week.

  Now it was just the way it was.

  Judge started around his desk to go find out what had made Alex so excited, when an indication of why that concerted effort didn’t feel strange for long chimed on his phone.

  Jameson Oakley was a busy guy.

  But Judge wasn’t sure he’d ever had to wait but a few minutes for his father to respond.

  He looked down and read from his dad, Excellent news. I’m happy for you both. Make plans in a few months to fly out and take you both to a celebratory dinner?

  With zero hesitation, Judge replied, Absolutely.

  He then resumed on his way to find Alex but ran into Rix at the door.

  He was in his chair.

  When he’d talked to her about it, Chloe had an explanation for this.

 

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