Last Chance (Second Chance Book 3)
Page 14
And Declan, sitting close to the aisle seat so he could encourage Griffin as he carried the rings. Her heart still beat faster when she looked at Declan, her body sparking with the secret knowledge of what it meant to be his in every sense of the word.
What it meant for him to be hers.
The day was unusually warm for November, a gentle breeze lifting her hair as the music started playing from the string quartet at the edge of the ceremony space.
She looked down the aisle as Griffin appeared, looking mature and handsome in his suit, picked out with the help of Aiden and Declan. His hair was freshly cut, and he carried the rings on a white silk cushion, his face somber and flushed with importance as he made his way toward the front of the crowd.
Declan gave him a thumbs up as he passed and Griff flushed deeper. There was nothing he loved more than Declan’s approval, and Kate thought of her dad, wishing he was there to share the occasion.
She was sure he would have approved — of Aiden and Miguel’s wedding and of Kate’s decision to let Declan back into her life. They were all growing and changing. Her father hadn’t gotten that chance, but at some point when she’d been in the hospital, recovering from the gunshot wound, she’d come to realize he would have approved.
He would have asked her if she was happy, and when she said yes, he would have been happy too.
He would have been happy about all of it: that there were no more secrets, that they’d found their way to forgiveness, that they’d learned the truth about Neil, that they were finally safe and surrounded only by love.
Declan never got the satisfaction of ending Connor Ferguson’s life, but one of the men who’d been killed in the Marblehead house the night of the home invasion had a cell phone that was eventually linked back to him. It had been enough to get Ferguson arrested for conspiracy to commit murder, although he’d quickly posted an astronomical bail and retreated to house arrest pending his trial.
The press was having a field day with everything that had been found in the discovery portion of the case — fraud and embezzlement and trading violations and even connections to an arms trafficking ring in Africa and a massive Fentanyl operation in China.
He’d been ousted from the boards of six companies, most of his assets seized pending the investigation. Alexa said her contacts at the Attorney General’s office expected him to go away for decades.
Declan was learning to live with it, focusing on the things they had, the things that mattered.
Griffin came to stand next to her and she rested her arm on his shoulder. “Good job, kiddo.”
There was a pause in the music before it started up again. Then Miguel appeared at the other end of the aisle, his dark hair gleaming under the sun, his trim frame smart and elegant in a white suit.
He smiled at Aiden, and Aiden brushed a tear from his cheek as Miguel started toward him.
She fought her own tears as she watched her brother’s future husband join him in front of the officiant, a pastor from Miguel’s church. She was glad she had such an up-close-and-personal view of the ceremony. No one deserved happiness more than Aiden and Miguel, and she wanted to see every second of it.
Declan had initially suggested she bow out of being Aiden’s best woman, worried the strain would be too much for her so soon after her surgery and with the added stress of her pregnancy. She’d resisted her old impulses: to fight, to hold fast to her position, to view the discussion as a battlefield in which ground given up was victory conceded.
She’d explained how important it was to be there for Aiden, to stand next to him while he got married, something that would have been impossible even a decade before. She’d thanked Declan for loving her so much and asked him to trust her to know what was best for her.
In the end, they’d agreed she would stand for the ceremony but stay off her feet as much as possible the rest of the day, to resist her habit of doing too much.
It wasn’t as hard to live with compromise as she’d thought it might be.
The music tapered off and she found Declan in the crowd, staring at her not with concern, but with love.
So much love.
She thought about her parents, about their marriage, which had been a struggle and a trial, a joy and a triumph. She was finally starting to see it not as a failure, but as the great love story it was.
Because love wasn’t nothing-else-matters euphoria or a lifetime of compromise and commitment.
It was both.
She was under no illusion that things would always be easy with Declan. But they were in it for the long haul, the struggle and the trial, the joy and the triumph.
Together. For real.
Casting a glance at Declan in the crowd, she couldn’t wait. Not just for the happy moments they would have together over the years, but for the tests that would make them stronger too.
If it meant sharing her life with Declan, building a life with him, she would embrace it all.
She turned toward her brother, his face shining with joy and possibility, as the officiant cleared his throat.
“Friends and family, we are gathered here today…”
Epilogue
Elise unhooked John Thomas from the car seat and got out of Ronan and Julia’s Audi Q8. The car was bigger than Ronan’s sedan, and she couldn’t help feeling like a kid piling out of the back seat.
It was just one more thing in a long string of things that had been stoking her dissatisfaction. It was a reality she’d only recently been able to face: she was stuck.
The people around her had careers, they were getting married and having babies while Elise barely managed to finish her GEs at night school and hold down a retail job.
It had been okay at first, even comforting. The trauma she’d experienced while being kept prisoner by Manifest would take a lifetime to heal, and it had been a full-time job managing her feelings in the two years since Ronan and his brothers had rescued her.
But lately she’d been feeling like her time was up. At some point she would have to get on with her life, figure out what that even meant. Otherwise she’d forever be a prisoner to what had happened to her.
“Want me to get the diaper bag?” she asked Julia.
“I got it,” Julia said, pulling it out of the back of the car.
Ronan carried John Thomas, his head lolling as he slept on Ronan’s shoulder.
“It was such a beautiful wedding,” Julia said. “Aiden and Miguel both looked so handsome.”
"It was and they did,” Ronan said. “Although no one will ever be as beautiful on their wedding day as you were on ours.”
“Why Ronan Murphy,” Julia said in a passing southern accent, “are you trying to get in my pants?”
“Well, I did hear weddings make people horny.”
“Hello, I’m still here. I can hear you,” Elise said, heading for the gate as Nick and Alexa pulled up to the curb.
Julia punched the code on the keypad and they entered the courtyard. They only got a few steps before Ronan stopped cold.
A light glowed from inside the house amid a clattering and shuffling that sounded like someone tossing the place.
“What the…” Ronan handed Julia the baby and started for the door.
Julia put a hand on his arm. “I’ll call the police.”
“Give me a second.” He looked at Nick. “You carrying?”
Nick shook his head.
“Me neither,” Ronan said. “Guess we’re doing this the old-fashioned way.”
Nick looked at Alexa. “Stay here.”
He and Ronan moved cautiously toward the front door while Elise hovered in the courtyard with Julia, John Thomas, and Alexa. Her pulse felt like it was on steroids, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead as the men got closer to the door.
It was something she’d learned to recognize —thank you, therapy — as a trauma response from her abduction, and she forced herself to breathe through it.
You’re okay… everything is okay… you’re s
afe.
She repeated the words as Ronan flung open the kitchen door.
He stood, frozen in the doorway for what felt like forever, before he spoke again. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
He and Nick moved into the house, the rest of their conversation lost in a jumble of voices and exclamations.
Julia looked from Alexa to Elise and shrugged, then started for the door.
They filed inside, the sound of Ronan and Nick — and someone else, someone whose voice Elise didn’t recognize — growing louder.
She stepped into the kitchen and took stock of the scene: Alexa and Julia standing off to the side, smiling, while Ronan and Nick clapped their hands on the back of a tall, athletically built man.
He wore faded jeans and a gray Henley, tattoos creeping out of the shirt and up his neck. A cluster of leather and rope congregated around his throat, a Buddha pendant nestled together with something that looked like the deity Ganesha. His wrists were ringed with the same combination of rope and leather, his hands rough and calloused.
Her eyes traveled to his face, his chin obscured by a beard, his skin tan. Her heart stuttered when his eyes met hers — blue like Ronan and Declan’s, but lighter somehow, like the things they’d seen had clarified his vision.
His eyes locked on hers for what felt like a long time.
Too long.
Ronan turned to Julia. “This is my wife, Julia, and our son, John Thomas. Julia, this is my brother, Finn.”
Thanks so much for reading Declan and Kate’s love story. If you’ve enjoyed reading about the Murphy brothers, stay tuned for the final series featuring Finn, the prodigal Murphy brother, and Elise Berenger, a woman who’s more than due a happily ever after of her own.
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