by Paris Hansen
“I can put it all behind me, the guilt, the grief, but we’re going to have to deal with some of it. We’ll have to talk about what we want for the future and we’re going to have to deal with Valerie if she goes to trial. And I have some news I have to share with you that could change things immensely, but I’m ready to do whatever it takes to be with you. I told you before, you’re my everything and that hasn’t changed. I love you, Savannah, more than I’ve loved anyone or anything in my life and I will continue loving you even after I die.”
Savannah’s eyes filled with tears, one of the huge smiles that he loved so much graced her beautiful lips. She leaped into his arms, nearly catching him off guard. He caught her around the waist, pulling her against him until there was absolutely no space between them. Looking down at her, he wiped a tear from her cheek and smiled. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pushed onto her toes until her lips met his.
The kiss was anything but tentative. It was weeks’ worth of pent up love and sadness. It was all the words that they wanted to say to each other, but hadn’t been able to. Kissing her was something he would never get tired of and he planned on doing it every day, multiple times a day, for the rest of their lives. Slowly, he pulled back, ending the best moment he’d had in nearly a month. Savannah smiled up at him, her lips swollen, her eyes filled with love.
“Let’s go home. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for and some things we need to talk about and I’d rather do all of that somewhere other than my brother’s grave. It’s not really the best place for make-up sex,” Gabriel said with a wink.
Savannah’s laughter filled the silence around them. After being starved for weeks, it was the greatest sound he’d ever heard. Grabbing her hand, he twined his fingers with hers. Together they headed toward the parking lot; toward their future.
Finally, his life was starting to look up even though there were still so many things up in the air. As long as he had Savannah by his side, he knew he could conquer anything…they could conquer anything. With her back in his arms, he just had to get his ring on her finger and he felt like everything else would fall into place. There was nothing else that mattered to him as much as Savannah. He had been restless without her, but now that nothing separated them, a sense of calm filled him. He was finally back where he belonged.
Epilogue
“Dude, what the hell do you have in this box?” Declan yelled from across the lawn where he struggled with one of Gabriel’s overstuffed boxes.
“I think that one might be my box of rocks.”
Declan grumbled as he readjusted his grip on the box. Gabriel smiled at his friend, and then turned to watch Savannah grab a box out of the back of her moving truck. It had taken four months, but they were finally officially moving in together. Once they had discussed the issues that had broken them up, they went over the news of his inheritance and his father wanting a relationship again. When they were on the same page, they decided that they needed to start over and date again for a while. Of course that decision lasted all of a month before he was down on one knee at the opening of the newest Delectable Delight location getting his entire proposal caught on the evening news.
Savannah refused to step foot in his house, which he couldn’t blame her for, so he spent every night at her place because he refused to be away from her even for one night. Early on, they decided that they wanted a fresh start; a house that was new to both of them that wouldn’t be filled with ghosts of the past. A month after the proposal, they started looking at houses to buy using the money that Hank had left him. Savannah decided to let Brooklyn rent her house with a rent-to-own condition while he used Jonathan’s house as another rental property. They hadn’t been too picky when it came to the house, although they knew they had to stay in West Seattle, it had to have a large kitchen for Savannah and it had to have enough room for the litter of children that they planned on raising.
While searching for their perfect home, they got the news that Valerie had decided on a plea bargain which meant there would be no need for a trial. Savannah had been grateful to finally be able to put the entire situation behind them and didn’t care what happened to Valerie. Gabriel’s dad made sure that he was kept up to date, so he knew that she’d been charged with vehicular assault for hitting Savannah. For the baby, she pled down to vehicular manslaughter. Her lawyer had been able to get her sentence down to five years in a women’s minimum security facility, with the condition that if she willing subjected herself to psychiatric treatment there was a chance that her sentence could be reduced further.
All Gabriel really cared about was that Valerie stayed away from him and his family. She tried contacting him, but he ignored her calls. He wanted nothing to do with her and had even talked to his father about getting a restraining order against her. Part of him wondered if she would ever get the help she needed or if he would have to worry about her coming back into their lives somewhere down the road. He never mentioned it to Savannah, but he knew she occasionally worried about the same thing.
“Could you whine a little bit more please? The rest of us aren’t miserable enough already,” Brooklyn said, hefting her own box up a little higher.
“I’m sorry princess. Are you sure you should even be helping out? We wouldn’t want you to break a nail or anything.”
Gabriel tried to hold back a snicker, but ended up snorting instead. Declan grunted as he shifted the box again, the look on his face saying everything he didn’t want to say out loud. Watching Brooklyn and Declan interact was hilarious. The tension between them had gotten worse. It was noticeable to anyone who happened to be around them, even strangers, but they fought it by fighting with each other. Sometimes Gabriel liked to put them together just to see what kind of inane thing they could fight about next. One night, it had been about some TV show neither of them watched, another night it had been about the color of shirt Declan had been wearing. If they were in the same vicinity, they never failed to provide the entertainment.
He was just thankful that Declan was back in his life. After getting Savannah back, Gabriel spent a lot of time mending the relationships with his friends that he had once again damaged because of Valerie. It had taken a lot to get them to forgive him, Declan especially. Gabriel had done the one thing he had promised Declan he would never do again and that was push his friends away. He said things to his best friend that were horrible and to most would have been unforgivable. Gabriel was lucky that Declan understood him enough to know that he didn’t mean any of it. He had been lashing out in the only way he knew how.
“Tell me again why Finley got to get out of helping you guys move?” Brooklyn asked from the porch of his new house.
“She’s down in California at her childhood best friend’s wedding,” Savannah said as she walked by her sister. “Just remember the sooner we get these boxes inside, the sooner we get to eat pizza and get drunk.”
Gabriel laughed at his fiancée before grabbing a box of his own. They had been through a lot in the year that they’d known each other and he knew there was still a lot more that would likely be thrown at them. No matter what, he was even surer now than he had been before that they’d be able to conquer it as long as they were together. This was the start of his forever and he couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book and publishing it has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. The road to get here has been long and winding. It’s been rough and there have been times when I didn’t think I was good enough; that I would never write a book that other people would want to read. Thank you for buying this book and making my dream come true. Thank you for proving me wrong by reading my book. You will never understand how much it means to me.
Thank you to my family, Lori Hansen, Randy Hansen, Desmond Hansen, Melissa Linscott and Izaiah Hansen for being so supportive of my dream and for encouraging me at every turn. Without them, I don’t think I would have gotten this far. Thank you for being my rock, my inspi
ration and my safe haven.
To Christina Ross, Alana Reeves, Sami Jacober and Jennifer Huntington, thank you so much for loving Savannah and Gabriel as much as I do and for all of your amazing feedback on how to make their story better. Thank you for being there for me when I had a ton of questions and when I needed a creative team to help me pick a cover. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without you guys.
To Taracina Zebley, thank you for letting me bounce ideas off of you in the early stages of the book and for giving me your input on the finished product. I appreciate the support you’ve shown me through this journey. It means a lot to know you’ve got my back.
Finding Love Series
Restless (Book 1) – Out Now
Powerless (Book 2) – Coming Soon
Speechless (Book 2.5) – Coming Soon
Breathless (Book 3) – Coming Soon
Priceless (Book 3.5) – Coming Soon
Timeless (Book 4) – Coming Soon
About the Author
Paris Hansen was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She started telling stories at a young age, garnering invitations to writing conferences while in elementary school. Aside from a writer, she also aspired to be a lawyer and an actress as a child, but as a teenager realized she was far better behind the scenes than in front of a crowd. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in English from Washington State University in 2000.
When not writing, Paris devours as many books as she can get her hands on. After a long day at work, unwinding with a good book, a glass of wine and a decent TV show is her idea of a great evening.
She also loves cupcakes, sexy heroes and popcorn, but not always in that order.
To Contact Paris:
E-Mail: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorParisHansen/
Twitter: @ParisAja13