Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
McBride accepted the deal in negative zero-point-two seconds, surprising no one.
Vivienne yo-yoed between relief and outrage when she found out our real identities.
She punched me in the arm, surprisingly strong for someone so small.
Ultimately, though, relief won out, and she collapsed into a heap on the bathroom floor of the coffee shop, crying for the better life baby Matisse could have now.
Even I got misty-eyed, which I promptly blamed on fake-pregnancy hormones.
Colt was understandably miffed about how I’d handled revealing our identities to Gavin.
I did something I’ve slowly gotten better at since starting this assignment: I apologized.
He’d admitted that he understood why I’d done it and that I couldn’t warn him at the time even if I’d tried.
I’m starting to think Vivienne was right about this whole apologizing thing.
Charles was definitely right about how sweet making up is.
Three days before Charles was supposed to hand off the latest cocktail to his “customers,” he and Vivienne went out to lunch at a steakhouse.
Her water conveniently “broke” after they finished eating.
On their way out of the restaurant, two strangers who looked exactly like Isaiah and Max conveniently distracted and distanced the bodyguards from Charles and Vivienne.
In the parking lot, a car driven by a stranger who looked exactly like my squadmate Rowan conveniently kept the guards from catching up to the Gauthiers sooner.
To all onlookers, it appeared as if the Gauthiers got into their car, only for it to explode seconds later with them still inside.
Only a select few know that Charles and Vivienne were already en route to meet with the US Marshals by the time McBride and I, the decoys, got into the Gauthiers’ SUV.
Charles and Vivienne are already elsewhere in the country with new identities and a fresh start.
“YOU KNOW” —I taped the moving box shut, grimacing at the ripping sound— “I think I’m going to miss this house.”
Colt looked up from organizing the last of the kitchen’s contents into our respective boxes and quirked an eyebrow. “Just the house?”
I blushed, hefting the box into my haphazard cluster of boxes in the living room before returning to fill another box in the kitchen.
Tonight was our last night in the house before the moving truck came tomorrow.
We’d go back to our real lives. Our real, separate lives, where the relationship we’d started could fizzle out or implode under the change in circumstances.
Where, if it did, I’d still have to see him every day.
Sit across from him and pretend I hadn’t fallen in love with him.
I was petrified .
“I mean, I’ll miss having all this space and home-cooked meals that don’t taste like charcoal.” I sent him a coy smile. “And spending all my free time with you, too, I guess.”
He chuckled before returning to his meticulous packing. Even though we’d destroyed the listening devices after Charles and Vivienne’s great escape, when Colt broke the silence, his voice was nearly a whisper. “I’m… not sure I want to go back. Not to the way things were before.”
“Like constantly pestering and trying to one-up each other?” I teased, even while my chest ached at the reality facing us. “It’s okay to admit you didn’t hate my pranks as much as you let on. I won’t tell anyone.”
The utensils clinked together as he packed them. He sent me an unimpressed look, though his lips twitched. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“And yet, you don’t deny it. Interesting.”
“I most definitely do deny it. You are an agent of chaos.” He smiled softly and met my eyes, his own radiating warmth. “My very own thunderstorm.”
My heartrate picked up in that pure, innocent way he managed to elicit. I unfolded another box and set to packing my DVD collection. “Do you think you’ll still like the lightning—messiness and all? When the storm follows you back to the real world?”
He studied me in that quiet, calculating way of his. I toyed with the idea of pretending I didn’t notice or maybe changing the topic. But I didn’t. I studied him in return, with all the vulnerability written in my features. No more masks with him.
As much practice as I’d gotten wearing my heart on my sleeve for him lately, as much as I knew I wanted to love him so much that I’d risk losing myself if I lost him, it didn’t make it easy .
It took effort. But if he could spontaneously cook chicken on a Tuesday simply because he knew it was my favorite, then I could take a page out of his playbook, too. I could love with intention.
He set the spatulas in his hand aside and closed the distance to reach me, extending his hands to help me off the floor. I gladly accepted, even if I easily could’ve done it myself now that I didn’t have the belly strapped to me anymore.
He tugged on a loose curl before tucking it behind my ear, his expression soft as he held me in his arms. “I do. I want everything that comes with the storm. Thunder. Rain. Hail. And, yes. Lightning. You’re the fries to my milkshake, Lex. Opposites, but?—”
“So much better together,” I finished, a grin spreading across my face.
I kissed his cheek, and he eagerly turned to meet my lips with his instead. The delicious push and pull I’d never tire of, whether deep and passionate or a quick check-in peck in passing. I wanted it all.
Unfortunately, this particular kiss got cut short by a knock on the door.
I groaned as Colt pulled away, mentally cursing whoever it was with a lifetime of uneven chair legs and wet socks. “Who could that be?”
His brow furrowed, a frown pulling at his lips. It wasn’t likely that one of the bodyguards was here. But it wasn’t impossible.
I followed him to the door as he opened it, tensed and ready to act. Until I caught sight of Colleen’s wrinkled face glowering at us from the other side.
She didn’t wait for a greeting. “What’s this about you two moving out?
You just moved in! And right before you’re due, too—” She stopped short, eying my very not-pregnant midsection.
Her voice rose to a higher pitch with each question.
“What on earth—did you already have the baby? And you didn’t tell me? And now you’re moving?”
Oh, boy. Were we going to give her a heart attack?
“Slow down, Colleen.” I held out a hand, though it did little to calm her down. “We didn’t have the baby and then not tell you.”
“So, then what . . .” She trailed off, her skin lightening a shade.
“Why don’t you come in and sit down?” Colt offered, holding out an arm for her to grab as he guided her inside and through the piles of boxes.
“I just… I don’t understand,” Colleen mumbled. “Where did the baby go? Where are you going?”
What in the world could I tell her? Oh, by the way, we’re actually FBI agents who were under cover this whole time to catch a drug mastermind, but we didn’t catch him and instead he’s now living a new life elsewhere? Yeah, that would go over well.
Actually, it just might. Colleen loved being in the know. About everything. E-ver-y-thing. I wasn’t about to tell her the truth, but I wouldn’t leave her empty handed, either.
I sobered, putting the most gravely serious expression on my face that I could muster. “Colleen, what I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. You cannot tell anyone , understand?”
She perked up at this, old eyes sparkling amidst her weathered skin. I’d bet my pair of flying pig socks that the first thing she’d do after this was go tell someone. But I digress.
Colt, on the other hand, sent me a warning look. I squeezed his hand, sending him a wink that Colleen couldn’t see.
Was it wrong to lie to the elderly? Maybe. But we’d have to lie to her either way, so I might as well make it good.
“I was never pregnant.”
Colt sent another warning my way, which I ignored.
“But you?—”
“I know.” I nodded, trying my hardest not to smile. “It was all a ruse.”
“But” —she paused, gray brows furrowing— “why?”
“We were sent undercover by the neighborhood’s homeowners association.”
Why not, right? At least she’d have a good story to tell, and it might make sure whoever moved in next was treated extra nicely. You’re welcome, future strangers.
“The HOA? But why?”
Colt sat quietly, probably without the faintest idea where I was going with this. Which was fair.
I schooled my features back into submission, leaning toward her conspiratorially. “They hired us to see how well everyone was living up to their guidelines, as well as how friendly the neighborhood is.”
She gasped softly.
“We’ve since concluded our investigation,” Colt added, apparently going with my hair-brained idea for now, “so we’re moving out.”
Colleen nodded slowly, her mouth opening and closing with silent words. Finally, she exchanged wary looks between me and Colt. “And what did you decide?”
I clasped my hands together, pretending to consider the answer. “Well, your illegal landscaping activities in the backyard didn’t escape our notice.”
She paled again.
“But ,” I continued, “in light of your friendliness and the delicious pound cake and dinner you shared with us, we’ve chosen to waive all charges.”
She grinned in relief. “Oh, good.” She paused, brows furrowing once more in thought. “Wait, so if you were undercover, were you two ever” —she waved a finger between us suggestively— “ together ?”
“Not initially,” I hedged, intertwining his fingers with mine. “But now . . .”
Colleen clapped, bobbing up and down in her seat. “It’s love! I knew it!”
“Yeah,” I admitted sheepishly, face aflame.
Colt perked up, squeezing my hand tighter and searching my face with those beautiful brown eyes of his. “Really?”
I’d never actually told him I was in love with him before now.
You know, the big L-word . It was still a new realization for me, honestly, and the last thing I wanted was to scare him off when I’d just barely gotten him.
Most guys would run for the hills. I mean, we hadn’t even been officially dating for a whole month yet.
That wasn’t much. Even counting the two months we knew each other before the assignment, it might not have been long enough by most peoples’ standards.
And yet, I knew. Colt was it for me. He really was the milkshake to my French fries and getting to know him every way I could just solidified that for me.
I wasn’t blinded by my rose-colored glasses, though. I didn’t think I could change him, and I didn’t want to anyway. His strengths were my weaknesses, and vice versa. He brought out the best in me just as I hoped I did the same for him.
If loving him meant I’d lose myself if I lost him, then it would be worth the risk.
But I didn’t think I would. My existence and happiness didn’t depend on him, but they were severely elevated while with him.
Losing him would be like losing a part of me, but I wouldn't be entirely gone. Because, strange as it sounds, I felt like there’s more of me now than there was before, and I think that came from loving him.
Which was insane , right? And precisely why I hadn’t told him any of this.
Until now.
“Yeah,” I answered, swallowing hard. “I… I love you.” And, in case there was any doubt left in his mind, I invoked our code word and whispered, “Like daffodils.”
A wide grin lit up his handsome face, accelerating my already frantic heartbeat. His voice was gentle and low. A treat for me alone. “I love you, too, Lex. Like daffodils.”
I’ll admit it. I squealed with happiness and launched myself into his arms. I snuggled against Colt’s chest, warmth radiating from my core like a sunbeam.
How could I have wasted so much of my time hating the best thing to ever happen to me?
Whatever the future held for us, I wanted it with him. Starched shirts, apple juice, and all.
Three thirty-two on the afternoon of June eighteenth. That was the exact moment I knew I loved Colt Dixon with every fiber of my being, and he loved me in return.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a soulmate, and even fewer have the origins of their love story memorized so thoroughly. But for me, it’s impossible to forget. After all, June eighteenth would consistently become the best day of my life.