Keep Healing (Fighting For Tomorrow #2)

EPILOGUE

EVIE

ONE MONTH LATER

“Kailan, put that down!” I yelled as I walked into the house and found him picking up the huge box that had just been delivered. “You’re not supposed to lift anything!” I reminded him.

“Relax, darlin’,” he scoffed. “I’m fine. All healed up now. You have to stop worrying.” Maybe he was right that I worried too much, especially about his bullet wound, but I had been so terrified when that gun went off. I thought I had lost him, so yes – maybe I had been a little too much ever since.

Asher and Eli had very kindly arranged for us to fly home just a few days after the incident at mom and dad’s place. We stayed in Chicago just long enough to assure my family that I really was okay, and to see that they were all okay too. The police had found evidence in the attic of mom and dad’s house, that Soloman had in fact been hiding out there for some time. He had his laptop up there, food, water, and even a sleeping bag. He’d been listening to us all via the bugs that he had planted, and who knew what else? It had been a terrifying realization that he could have been creeping around as my family slept. The FBI believed that he knew the game was up once I realized who he was, so he tried to take me out with him. Thankfully Nick had stopped that from happening.

Nick had been cleared for the shooting, which had been a relief to me, but he was still on suspension from work for not coming forward about me as soon as he met me. I felt guilty about it, but he didn’t seem to care. In fact I was pretty sure he was going to quit his role as a detective when the investigation was over. He’d spoken with me and the others about it, and he just didn’t seem to want to do it anymore. He wanted a job that would allow him to be there for Zack more, and I completely got that. He had devoted himself to his son in recent weeks, and Zack was thriving because of it.

“Come on. Let’s get this in Zack’s room. Is this the final thing?” Kailan asked.

“Yeah, I think so. At least let me help you,” I said as I tried to grab the box. Kailan just turned, snatching it out of my reach, then smirked as he landed a kiss right on my lips.

“I got it.” He threw me a wink that always made my heart flutter. “Lead the way.”

I huffed, annoyed, but started through the house and up the stairs, towards the room the guys and I had been working on for the last week – Zack’s room. It had always been his and before it had everything he needed in it, but Nick and I decided it needed decorating properly now that the little guy was stuck with us permanently.

We had painted the whole room in shades of soft green, then I had added decals of dinosaurs, creating a whole scene around the room. We’d bought him a ton of new toys, all neatly stored in a shelving unit with colorful boxes and made a small area with a cute table and chairs he could sit at to play. The last addition, which Kailan was lugging behind me, was a small armchair which I knew would fit perfectly in the corner. Nick loved to sit in Zack’s room and just watch him sleep, so I wanted somewhere for him to do that. The old armchair, which the guys had in there before, had definitely seen better days, and it had been the first thing to go when we started the redecoration.

“Jesus babe! What have you bought now?” Nick laughed as we walked into the bedroom and found him laid out on the floor while Zack played cars over his chest.

“This is the last thing,” I assured him.

“You’re not supposed to be carrying shit,” Aleks grumbled as he appeared in the door way and glared at Kailan.

“Thank you! That’s what I said!” I cried.

“I’m fine. The wound is healed and my shoulder is good. Just a little stiff.” Kailan put down the box then rolled his shoulder around to illustrate his point. “Stop worrying Evie. She’s freaked out enough over one little through and through,” he added as he stepped forward and wrapped both of his arms around me.

“You were shot, Kailan! I think I’m allowed to worry,” I defended myself.

“I think you need to relax. Don’t worry I can help you with that later, while also illustrating just how fine my shoulder is,” he told me with a mischievous wink that had me clenching my thighs together.

In the weeks we had been home, things between the guys and I had only gotten more and more passionate and we had become closer and closer. We all started therapy the week before. I was seeing a trauma counsellor who had come highly recommended by one of Xander’s colleagues. The first couple of sessions had been tough, but I liked the doctor I was seeing and I felt a new confidence that she could help me to find a way to cope with my past.

The guys were seeing counsellors at the VA. Harris, Kailan, and Nick were all now taking medications for help with their night terrors, and they were all attending therapy sessions weekly. We knew there would be no instant miracle that made us all magically fixed, but we were doing all we could to keep on healing. It was all we could do. We had long roads ahead of us, but we all had this confidence we’d make it to the end if we just kept on fighting and relied on our strongest resource – each other and the love we had between us.

“You’re such a tease!” I laughed as I gave Kailan a gentle shove, but I was definitely going to be holding him to what he had just said, later that night.

“When’s Harris back?” Aleks asked as he looked to me. He had his glasses on that day instead of his contacts, and they made him look so sexy and adorable.

“Soon. His meeting should be about finished,” I replied. “Let’s go and make some lunch. You hungry, little guy?” I asked as I moved from Kailan’s hold and crouched to Zack’s level.

“Vee!” he squealed as he held his hands out to me excitedly. I scooped him up, still choked up every damned time he said my name. He’d done it for the first time just a few days before and it had brought me to tears.

“That’s a yes,” Nick chuckled as he sat up and moved aside all of the cars Zack had been playing with.

“I could definitely eat,” Kailan told me as he and Aleks headed out of the room together. I held my hand out to Nick and tried to help him up. Really he just got himself up, but I appreciated that he let me pretend.

“Come on, babe. Let’s make lunch,” he said as he wrapped his arm around me and the three of us headed down stairs together.

When we got to the kitchen, I handed Zack off to Aleks, who instantly started trying to coax the little guy to say his name for the hundredth time in recent weeks.

Kailan sat at the counter too, while Nick went to the refrigerator and started pulling out ingredients to make something.

“Mexican?” I asked as I looked down over the chicken, vegetables and spices he’d pulled out.

“Quesadillas. That okay?” he asked.

“Definitely,” I agreed eagerly. My appetite was slowly starting to return and I had even gained a couple of pounds back. Nick knew I loved spicy food, hence why he’d been making so much Mexican cuisine lately. I think he knew it was a taste of my childhood for me.

I spoke with my family once a week on a video call when they were all together for dinner at mom and dad’s on a Sunday. I spoke with most of them on separate calls through the week too, especially my mom and my brothers, all of whom were still worried about me after all that had happened.

At first my brothers had not been happy about me moving away so far from them, but I think they were beginning to come around now they could see how happy I was there and how much better I was feeling. My mom and dad were happy for all of us, and kept on threatening to visit. I had patched things up with Kyle and he had calmed down a lot about the guys. I knew it would take time and probably several family holidays for my brothers and the men I loved to find some peace between them, but I was confident they would, because they were all good, honest men. My brothers just needed to realize I was a grown ass woman. I was sure they still saw a five year old in bunches when they looked at me.

“What smells so good?” Harris asked as he walked into the kitchen a short while later. He was dressed in a navy button down with his jeans, having just finished a big client meeting at the office, and he looked delicious in it.

“Quesadillas for lunch,” Nick told him. I dropped the tomato I was cutting and hurried over to Harris, desperate to be in his arms.

It was always the same when one of them went to work, or even just to the store. I missed them and couldn’t wait for them to come back home. Then they’d walk in and my heart rate sped up as a huge smile I couldn’t contain crossed my face. I loved them and I wanted to be near them always. It was a heady feeling and I hoped it would last forever. I wanted to feel that exact same way when one of my guys came home even when I was a wrinkled old woman.

“Hey sweetheart,” Harris greeted me as he wrapped me in his arms and picked me up enough for us to share a kiss I had been desperate for.

“Missed you,” I told him as I leaned in to peck his lips once more before he put me back down. “How was the meeting?”

“Great. The guy loved what we do and he wants us to cover all of his clubs. It’s a huge contract,” Harris explained.

“That’s great.”

“It is, but it means a ton more work. We’re gonna need another set of hands, if you’re still interested, Nick?”

“I am,” Nick nodded.

“You’re leaving the police then?” I asked.

“Yeah. The hours suck for Zack and I don’t like doing it anymore. I just want a job where I can be home at a reasonable hour, and not stressed the whole damned time,” he explained.

“I think that’s amazing, Nick,” I told him happily. “I definitely want you home more.”

“Alright! The team’s all back together!” Kailan declared animatedly, and we all chuckled at his antics.

I stood back and watched as Harris left me to go to the kitchen and grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He and Nick were chatting about the contract as Nick worked to finish making lunch. Aleks and Kailan were seated at the counter with Zack, building a tower with wooden blocks as they both tried to persuade him to say their names.

I sighed contentedly as I took in how relaxed we all were. No one was stressing or worrying about anything. We were all happy and at ease. The situation was so domestic and normal, just a family together making lunch and talking about work, and yet it was all so perfect. It wasn’t the future I used to envision for myself. It was so much better.

Before Soloman took me, all I ever thought about was my career and making it to District Attorney one day. Then I was taken and my whole life changed.

I still wanted to be a lawyer. I was a lawyer, but it would take time before I was ready to practice. I’d get there, I knew I would, but my career wasn’t the main focus of my life any longer. This was – this scene before me. This peaceful, relaxed life, filled with love and happiness was what mattered to me. It was what was really important and I knew that now. The biggest lesson I had learned through all I had endured was that you had to cherish the people you loved while you had them, and I loved these four incredible men and that adorable little boy more than I could say. Separately we were all a little fractured and messed up, but together we were strong. We would keep fighting, keep healing, and keep loving each other for all of our days to come.