Thank God.
I shoved my face in her neck and inhaled as deeply as I could.
Aurora was home.
“Let’s get in the house,” Alec suggested, and with his hand on my lower back, he started to guide me to the porch.
I vaguely noted that Nixon was driving away but didn’t ask why he wasn’t coming in. Truth be told, I just wanted to take my kids upstairs, crawl into Alec’s big bed, and cuddle them close. That was all I needed, and at this point, that was all I could handle.
“Rory,” my mom cried and my dad cleared his throat.
My daughter didn’t so much as lift her head and mom stopped her approach. Our eyes locked and she mouthed the words, she needs her mama.
“I’m taking the kids upstairs,” I announced.
My mom had rocked Joss to sleep not too long ago and I debated whether or not to get her from her crib for a family snuggle session but decided against it. She was safe and tucked into her bed. Tomorrow. We had tomorrow to cuddle on the couch all day. Me, Alec, and the kids.
My parents didn’t protest my departure.
Caleb and I silently walked up the stairs and into the bedroom I shared with Alec.
“Climb up, Caleb.”
I waited until he was situated and crawled in next to him with Rory still clinging to me.
Worry and anguish clawed at my insides as my daughter burrowed so close there wasn’t a nanometer of space between us.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Caleb muttered, his concern for his sister palpable.
“Yeah, son, she’ll be okay.”
“Daddy killed him.”
Flat. Lost. Devoid.
“I know, baby, I’m so sorry.”
The quiet stretched and Caleb leaned closer.
Where was Alec, dammit? I needed him.
Alec
“Thanks for—”
“You never have to thank me for protecting my family,” Alec cut Ron off.
His nerves were raw and he was hanging on by the barest of threads.
“Jonny say what made Doug snap?” Ron inquired.
“Doug came up to ask his parents for money. He got in deep down in Florida. Fifty-thousand. Jonny had the day off and just happened to stop by his parents. He walked in, heard them arguing, and it went downhill from there.”
“And the kids? Why would he take them?”
“Jonny thinks because Doug knew his parents have a soft spot for their grandkids. He wanted them as leverage.”
Alec knew he sounded like a robot, knew that he was emotionally spent. Ron Hartley deserved answers, but all Alec wanted was to go upstairs and be with his family. His body physically ached to be near them.
“How bad?”
“Can you handle the truth? Respect, but I got nothing left, so you either get honesty or we have this conversation tomorrow.”
Alec noticed June was wandering out of the room toward the kitchen and he thought that was a good idea.
“I want the truth.”
“She saw that piece of shit shoot her uncle and kill her grandfather. Doug did both right in front of her. She also heard that fucker threaten to kill her so Macy wouldn’t have her. I basically tackled her so she wouldn’t see Jonny shoot the bastard in the head. The scene was so fucked-up I don’t know how I’m gonna stop reliving it. Which means I’m not sure how to guide them,” Alec motioned to the stairs, “through this. I don’t know how to make this right for Rory. Caleb was finally letting go, he was happy. Macy was settled in. Rory always laughing and smiling. Now this? Fuck, Ron, how much can the three of them take?”
“I suspect my daughter can take as much as she needs to as long as she has you by her side. Rory and Caleb will get through this, you’ll make sure of it. And I know by tomorrow you’ll have a plan on how you’re gonna make that happen because you love them and you know they’re counting on you. I knew you were the man I’d been waiting for. The man I should’ve walked my daughter down the aisle to. Now your family’s upstairs waiting for you. June and I will see ourselves out.”
“Stay here. I don’t want you driving home after—”
“We’ll be fine.”
Alec reached out, grabbed Ron’s shoulder, and held his eyes.
“Please stay here. Tomorrow morning when they wake up, they’re gonna need us all. They’re gonna need their grandparents close.”
“Right.” Ron’s voice cracked and that was Alec’s cue to leave the man to his wife.
With a nod, he jogged up the stairs, poked his head in Jocelyn’s room, and made his way to her crib. Once he double-checked she was safely tucked in, he went in search of Macy and the kids.
He found them piled in the middle of his and Macy’s bed.
Macy’s wounded eyes came to his and he vowed to repair the gaping laceration Doug’s actions had caused. It didn’t matter how long it took, he would make her beautiful chocolate eyes sparkle again.
Alec went into the large walk-in closet and quickly changed his clothes, not wanting to contaminate their bed with the merest scent of Doug’s poison.
“Alec,” Rory whispered.
“Yeah, baby?”
“You’re not leaving, are you?”
“No sweetheart.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, Aurora, I promise.”
“Never? You’re never gonna leave us?”
“Never, Rory.”
“Did you hear that, Caleb? Alec promised.”
“I heard, Rory.”
“Alec never breaks a promise.”
Alec’s gaze left mother and daughter nearly fused together they were holding onto each other so tight, and slide over to Caleb.
“Nope,” Caleb said holding his stare. “If Alec makes a promise he keeps it no matter what.”
Fuck. Alec felt it happen, his eyes stung, his throat clogged, his nose tingled. Moisture started to pool before a single droplet rolled down his cheek, burning his flesh as it went.
Too fucking close.
“There room enough for me?” He sniffed holding back the emotion that was threatening to unman him.
“Always.” Macy’s tear soaked answer hit him square in the chest.
Always.
Alec didn’t move he couldn’t instead he savored the moment. Everything he ever wanted was under his roof. The family he’d stopped dreaming he have. Three of the four people he loved most in this world cuddled together in his bed.
His.
All of them his.
Macy
The kids had fallen asleep. Rory still half on top of me, her precious weight blanketed me. Caleb was tucked close to Alec but his hand was in mine.
“Alec?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I was so scared.”
“So was I.”
“You were?”
“Paralyzed with it.” His words were gruff and choked full of pain. “Never been so scared in my life.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“I’m the one that should be thanking you, babe. Without you, I wouldn’t have this. I wouldn’t have Caleb and Aurora. Joss wouldn’t have you and them. I don’t think you understand how much I needed you, how long I waited. You were the one I dreamed about, the one that I never thought I’d find. Caleb and Rory are a bonus.”
I let Alec’s word wash over me, fill me, smother the fear that still lingered. He loved us. My perfect, strong, handsome, good dad, Alec Hall loved us.
“I seriously love you.”
“I seriously love you, too.”
“You promised Rory you were never leaving.”
“And I’m not.”
He was never leaving! My heart was pounding so hard in my chest it was a wonder Rory didn’t rouse.
“You ready for a truth bomb, babe?”
“A truth bomb?” It was hard to hold back my laugh, something earlier that day I wasn’t sure I’d ever do again. The words sounded silly coming from Alec.
“Isn’t that what you call it when I give it
to you straight?”
“Yeah, but if it’s bad news or something that’s gonna freak me out I might not be able to take it.”
“Honey, I’m beginning to understand that there’s nothing you can’t take. Shit comes your way and you roll with it. You absorb what you can so the kids don’t feel it and what they do feel, you work your ass off to make it better for them. So I know even if I had bad news, you’d deal.”
That felt nice.
As far as compliments went—it was a good one.
“But this isn’t bad. The truth is, I knew the first day I met you we’d end up right here. I didn’t know the journey we’d take. I just knew where the path would end. So, yeah, Macy I promised Aurora I was never leaving. Something else you should know, when all over this is settled, I’m slipping a hug ass diamond on your finger, I’m adopting Caleb and Rory, and we’re having more kids—at least two more.”
“That’s a lot of kids,” I chocked out because if I thought about anything else Alec said, I would burst into tears, and I’d cried enough for one night.
“At least two,” he repeated.
“I want to adopt Jocelyn,” I whispered.
“She’s already yours. If you want that legal, then we’ll do it when I get Rory and Caleb.”
“I want it.”
“Try to get some sleep. Your parents are sleeping over. I figure your mom will be up with the sun fussin’ in the kitchen, making sure her grandkids wake up to love in the form of pancakes. And your dad will have had time to mull over what happened, which means I need to carve out some time to talk to him alone. After they leave, the five of us are not leaving this house, we’re turning off our phones, and not answering the door.”
“Okay,” I agreed, because that sounded like the perfect plan. “My dad likes you.”
“Got that the first time he was over and he told me as much. But he proved it when he left you and the kids in my care.”
“Mom thinks you’re hot.” Alec’s deep rumbling chuckle filled my ears. “She’s not wrong.”
“We got kids in this bed with us, babe.”
I knew that tone, it was the one that sent shivers down my spine and made me tremble in all the good places.
“Never thought I’d have it all, yet here I am—three great kids and a smokin’ hot man in bed.”
“Macy—”
“What? It’s true. Not only are you smokin’ hot, strong, loyal, protective, you’re quite talented too. The whole package and all mine.”
“Did you hear me when I said we got two kids in this bed?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you saying that shit when I can’t do something about it?”
“Do something about it?”
Alec growled.
I smiled.
“Remind you just how talented I am.”
“Oh,” I giggled.
“Go to sleep, Macy.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
And he did.
Alec Hall loved me.
His love lived and breathed, it filled the room. I couldn’t help but to feel it—absorb it. It filled me up.
Now and always.
37
Chasin Murray
“Uncle Chasin?”
“Hey, Rory,” Chasin answered Rory as the call transferred from the SUV’s Bluetooth to his cell.
“What are you doing today?”
“Going kayaking,” he answered, scanning the empty marina.
“Bummer.”
Chasin smiled at the disgruntled response from the little girl who’d stolen his heart.
“What are you doing today?”
“We’re taking the Pooper Cooper to Aunt Kennedy’s. Alec said we were gonna barbeque,” Rory announced in her sweet, singsong voice.
Chasin snorted. Pooper Cooper was Alec, Macy, Caleb, Rory, and Jocelyn’s new puppy—his name was Cooper, but Pooper Cooper was of the tamer nicknames Alec had given the pup.
“Don’t think I’ll make it out this time, doll.”
“Total bummer. I wanted another ride in your race car.”
“Sports car,” he corrected. “Besides, I’m not driving it today. My kayak doesn’t fit on the roof, silly.”
“Oh, right.”
Rory was silent a beat and Chasin patiently waited. This was something that had started after the little girl had been taken and was forced to witness the murder of her grandfather, made worse by the killer being her biological father. Aurora now clung to those she loved. She called Nixon, Jameson, Weston, Holden, and Chasin often. She also called McKenna, Kennedy, Silver, and her Aunt Becky with great frequency.
None of them minded, even when she grew silent thinking of something else she could say just to keep them on the phone. In the months since she’d been taken, Rory was making progress, she was nearly back to her old six-year-old fun self. Something Chasin knew Alec took great pains to make happen.
“School’s out next week,” Chasin reminded her, breaking the silence so she didn’t have to. “Wanna go bowling then have lunch after?”
“Yes! But you can’t be a sore loser when I bet you again.”
Damn, but, he loved the little girl.
“Deal. Now I’m gonna let you go so you can get over to Aunt Kennedy’s. Tell your mom and brother I said hello.”
“Jossy, too?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, Jocelyn, too.”
“Okay. See you next week.”
“Next week, sweetheart.”
Chasin disconnected and tossed his phone in the cup holder.
Ten minutes later, he was paddling down the Chester River. The air temperature had started to warm but the water still felt chilly.
Silence.
This was what he needed.
Chasin Murry knew himself well enough to know he hated change. He liked steady, uniformed, controlled. It had been part of why he’d been a good SEAL.
Even when he and his team had to improvise and adapt, they did it with great care—controlled. Outcomes weighed.
Life was a chess game. He liked to understand his opponent’s next three moves before he made his.
But over the last year, so much had changed. Nix found McKenna. The unbelievable happened and Jameson had fallen in love. Weston and Silver got together and now they had Dylan. Alec found his family. Even Holden had changed.
And there Chasin was, looking in from the outside, living in the big farmhouse all by himself, watching his friends live their lives.
It wasn’t jealousy or loneliness that ate away at his insides—it was more than that. It felt like loss. Something was missing. His chest ached with it.
Goddamn, I’m a pansy-assed idiot.
Chasin was deep in thought, deliberating the direction of his life, when he heard the scream.
His head snapped to the right just in time to see a woman fall off a dock and splash into the chilly water.
Without thought he abandoned his kayak, dove in, and quickly made his way to the splashing woman. He wrapped his arm around her waist as he treaded water and he heard her gasp in surprise. Her unusual golden eyes widened in…fear.
“Can you swim?” he asked.
“W-what?” the woman sputtered.
“Swim? Do you know how?”
“Yeah.”
Chasin released his hold and immediately felt the loss.
What the fuck?
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“Um…just my pride.”
Chasin smiled at her quip and allowed himself to take in her features. Even with her brown hair wet and in disarray, she was stunning. And those golden eyes had him hypnotized.
“I was trying to rearrange the furniture on the dock. I got too close to the edge and fell in,” she explained.
Chasin glanced over at the dock. The planks were only a foot or two above the water.
“High tide.”
“Huh?”
“It’s high tide, you didn’t have far to fall.”<
br />
“Oh. Well, thanks for coming to my rescue…”
Was that an invitation to introduce himself?
“Chasin Murray.”
“Chasin,” she repeated and smiled. “A Hebrew name meaning strong and mighty.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m full of useless information.” The woman shrugged her shoulder.
“You have a name?” Chasin grinned, enjoying their easy banter while bobbing in the water.
Her head tilted to the side and she stared at him expectantly. “You don’t know who I am?”
Chasin’s body tensed at her question. There was no chance he would’ve forgotten this woman, but the way she asked told him he was missing something. A feeling he didn’t like.
“Should I know who you are?”
His unease grew as she continued to study him. “No. I…um…figured with a town as small as this, rumors would’ve made the rounds.”
“I don’t pay attention to rumors. There a reason rumors would be going around about you?”
“I’m new around here.” She lifted her shoulder, trying but failing to look casual. “Just figured people would talk.” That was a lie. “I’m Genevieve Ellison. I’d shake your hand but mine are both in use keeping me from drowning.”
“I wouldn’t let you drown. But we should get out of the water.”
“Yeah. Thanks for your help.”
Chasin wasn’t done helping just yet. Or maybe he wasn’t ready to leave the beautiful Genevieve.
She didn’t swim to the dock. Instead, she moved to the shore, found her feet, and that was when Chasin got his first look.
Soaked cut-off jean shorts clung to the sweetest ass he’d ever seen. Long, tanned legs seemed to go on forever—thighs that were strong and thick. Thank Christ the water was cold—it helped combat the erection threatening to give him away.
“I lost my flip-flops,” she noted, picking up her foot to show him.
Chasin quickly yanked the Velcro cuff from his wrist and pulled his kayak to the shore.
“You’re wet,” Genevieve blurted, then covered her outburst with a groan. “Well, that sounded stupid, of course you’re wet.”
Damn, she was cute as fuck.
“Wanna come up to the house? I’ll get you a towel.”
Chasin glanced across the green expanse of her yard and found a three-story brick house—more like a three-story mansion. Then he looked back to Genevieve. She had to be around his age—early thirties. Maybe the house belonged to her family. Such was a lot of waterfront property in Kent County.
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