Now, she was back on his island, her island, and she couldn’t wait to get started on her new life. She walked down to the beach with a brand-new pep in her step. She was alive, and she was happy. Thane was absolutely beaming with happiness and that made her heart hiccup. It seemed to beat at a rapid pace. Nerves hit her, but in a good way. She was definitely not backing out of this.
She took her time getting to him, dragging the moment out for as long as she could, since getting married wasn’t something she planned to ever do again. Juan Diego was the one leading the ceremony. How he’d gotten licensed to do so was a mystery to her, but he was there, and he was dressed in a suit and tie. He smiled even harder than Thane.
She’d just found her way into Thane’s arms when the sputtering of a boat engine sounded off in the distance.
“Who’s this?” Kino asked.
“Did you invite any guests?” Ruby asked.
“None,” Thane said.
He wrapped his arms around Penny as they waited to see who was approaching. The boat pulled up onto the beach, and none other than the QBFP officer Keelan Kane hopped out of the boat. This time he didn’t have a gun in his hand, nor did he have one on his hip.
“I come in peace,” he said, holding his hands up in the air to show they were empty.
“You’re interrupting something important,” Thane said.
“Are you…you’re not…are you getting hitched?” Keelan asked.
“Attempting to,” Penny called out.
“Well hell, I’m sorry,” he said. “Talk about bad timing. I only came out to say thank you.”
“Thank you?” Thane asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “For helping me out with that party barge mess. Look, I know your secret. I know about you all. That two-timing tramp, Evelyn, told me all about it. I had no idea she was one of you too. Seems she tried to pit us against each other. So…thanks for your help. We lost a lot of kids that day, but we saved a lot too, and we wouldn’t have saved any of them if you hadn’t jumped in the water.”
Penny watched the interaction between Keelan and her soon to be husband, and she didn’t like it. Keelan was never this nice. Was it possible that he truly felt that he’d been wrong?
“So that’s all,” Keelan said. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for interrupting the wedding.”
“No problem, Officer Kane,” Thane said, addressing the man by his title for the first time.
It seemed the two had cleared up the bad blood between them. Penny watched as Keelan walked back out into the water and toward his boat. He turned once more to wave, and Penny focused on his facial scar. Something about it bothered her. She couldn’t quite figure out why, but it did.
Once the officer sped away from the island, they carried on with their wedding. Penny smiled so hard her mouth hurt as Juan Diego said all the right words to join them in holy matrimony.
“I do,” Thane said.
Penny’s eyes welled up with tears and the world around her fell into perfect harmony as her disease-free body breathed a breath of new life. She was about to be a married woman, wed to the most stunning man she’d ever laid eyes on.
“I do,” she answered.
When they kissed, she felt a spark between them that ignited a feeling of loyalty, trust, and undying love inside her. She would kiss him this way forever. To the sound of their friends’ applause, she and Thane finally separated.
“Are you ready?” Thane asked.
“For what?” she said. “For you to whisk me off to your bed? Hell yeah.”
“Not yet,” he said. “We hit the water together, shark and shark, when we wed.”
Her heart fluttered as she realized this was the moment she had to tell him. It couldn’t wait any longer.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she said.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Are you afraid?”
“Something like that,” she said. “But no, I mean I can’t physically touch the water.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Kalina said, instantly catching on and running to her side. “You’re not…”
“I’m pregnant,” Penny said.
Thane’s mouth fell open. Then it turned upward in the biggest grin she’d ever seen.
“You’re pregnant?” he asked.
“Definitely,” she said.
He threw his arms around her, picked her up in the air, and spun her around before finally cradling her in his arms and walking toward the cabin with her.
“I’m the happiest man in the world right now,” he said. “And you’re about to be the happiest woman.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked. “How is that?”
He looked into her face, winked, and then pressed down on that bite mark on her shoulder.
“Holy shit,” she cried into his shoulder.
He was right, she was about to be the happiest woman in the world. She had Geraldine Wilder and her Paranormal Dating Agency to thank for that.
The end…for now.
Oh, Bite Me: Paranormal Dating Agency Page 15