Epilogues
Theo
“ Wook it, my Feo . I got dis one and dis one!” Finn giggled from where he squatted in front of the Christmas tree, pointing out his presents. Kid’s eyes alight as he was swept up in the magic of Christmas Eve.
“Oh, whoa. You sure have a bunch of presents, don’t you?”
“I open?” He bobbed that head.
I started to tell him yes because I’d give this kid anything he wanted, but Nelly hollered from the kitchen, “Only one tonight, then the rest in the morning.”
“Oh-kay, my Newwy Bewwy .”
A light chuckle rolled out of me, and I ran my hand down the back of Finn’s white hair.
I lay on my side on the rug next to him. Soaking up his joy. The child possessing his own healing magic that glided through my being.
It was all of them, though. This little family that I never believed I could be given.
They were the ones who soothed the pain.
The physical kind that had nearly taken my life. Two days of barely clinging to it, then two more before I was released, though it would have been my honor to give my life if it meant they were finally free.
That bastard put in the ground where he’d always belonged.
But it was the deeper kind of pain that had been assuaged in the middle of it.
The scars of my past that I thought had already written the ending to my story.
Yeah, I’d forever bear guilt and grief. It was carved in me. But I finally got that I couldn’t change the way I’d felt for Scarlett. It didn’t mean I wasn’t capable of it. I realized now that I did love her. Just not in the way that she’d needed me to.
Piper came around the kitchen counter, carefully balancing a charcuterie board that she placed on the coffee table. “There we go.”
“What can I do to help?” I asked as I peeked up at her.
She gave me the cutest little scowl. “You’re not supposed to be doing anything but sitting on the couch resting.”
“Then how am I supposed to check out all the awesome presents with my Finn if I’m all the way up there?”
Tenderness swept through her features. This woman who hadn’t left my side since I woke up in the hospital.
This woman who had been meant for me.
Drawn to me.
Our destinies colliding at the exact moment in time they were supposed to.
The only one to hold the power to spark to life what I thought was dead.
“I don’t want you to reinjure yourself,” she fretted.
I sent her a salacious, seductive grin. “I’m good as new, Pipes.”
I shifted around and climbed to standing.
Going for her.
Hands sliding to her hips so I could grip on. I leaned in close to her mouth and grated low, “And more than ready to get back to my favorite activity.”
Couldn’t wait to get back in her tight, delicious body.
Redness flushed her cheeks, heat rippling off her flesh. Her fingertips tapped across my collarbone. “I think Dr. Reynolds would have something to say about that.”
“Dr. Reynolds learned years ago we can’t be kept down. Someone tries to take us out, we come back ten times stronger.”
“Because you all are magnets for trouble.” It was a soft, adoring tease, and those fingertips fluttered up to my lips.
I kissed across them. “Told you I was the exact kind of trouble you needed.”
“And you were.” She glanced at the tree then back at me. Those arctic eyes flashed their warmth. “The best kind of gift I could ever be given.”
A sudden clatter echoed from outside, a faint, “Ho, ho, ho,” coming from the other side of the door as a fist banged against it.
I edged back, sending Piper a knowing grin before I turned my attention to Finn.
“Who in the world could that be?” I drew out as I moved for the door, still hobbling a bit. I opened it to Otto who was fully dressed in a Santa outfit, a fake beard on his face.
“Ho, ho, ho!” he called even louder as he came stomping into the cabin with a giant bag slung over his shoulder.
“Santa?!” Finn popped onto his feet. Excitement blazed from him as he bounced in the air. “You come see me?”
“That’s right. I heard there was a good little boy staying here. Wait, are you a good boy?” he asked, blue eyes glinting as he glanced at me and Piper.
“I a good boy.” Finn bobbed that precious head.
So fuckin’ cute it felt like my chest was going to implode.
Could feel Nelly’s grin radiating from the kitchen.
Happiness spilling out of Piper.
The fact that they got to share a real Christmas with Finn for the very first time.
No longer having to run because they were free.
“Ah, sounds like I came to the right place,” Otto said as he moved around the couch to Finn. He knelt on a knee and pulled out two big presents and set them under the tree before he wrangled a red trike from the bag. It had a giant red bow on the handlebars.
Finn squealed. “I got a bike wike my Feo ?”
Fucking joy, man.
Didn’t really know what that was until right then.
This shimmery peace coming over me.
“Ah, yeah…had a hunch that you might like a bike like your Theo.”
“You ride wif me, my Feo ?” Finn patted his chest.
“Absolutely, little man. I’ll definitely ride with you.”
Would spend my life beside this kid. Teaching him every good thing I could. Loving him. Protecting him.
Otto looked up at me.
A deep knowing flowed out of him.
The triumph that came with finding what was meant to be.
He rose, and he reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Looks like you’ve been a good boy, too, but you’ve already got everything you need.”
Then he turned and slung the bag back over his shoulder. “I’ll be on my way, I’ve got a couple more kids on my list, Maci and Nolan.”
He sent me and Piper a wink before he strode for the door, singing, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.”
The door clattered shut behind him.
And as I curled my arm around Piper’s waist and looked down at Finn who climbed onto his trike, jerking at the handlebars without going anywhere, Nelly in the kitchen making what she said was her famous clam chowder, I knew Otto was right.
I had every single thing I needed.
Piper – One Week Later
“This is it.” Theo grumbled in that low voice as he glanced at me. He squeezed my hand as we stood in front of his cabin. Finn was in his other arm, hooked to his hip.
I peered up at him.
Taking in the severe, foreboding angles of his striking face. Intensity rolled off him. His presence more commanding than anything or anyone I’d stumbled upon in all my life.
In it, I’d found the greatest peace.
Sanctuary and joy and ecstasy.
I inhaled a shaky breath. The only thing it served to do was drag his aura in.
Mossy woods and crisp snow and the faint vestiges of warm, smokey leather.
And there would never be any mistaking that undercurrent of sex.
But it was what was bound within it that held me.
Secured me.
His love and his loyalty.
That stark ferocity that promised he would forever stand at our sides. Fight for us the same way as I would forever stand for him.
“This is it,” I whispered.
“You getting cold feet?” Theo let go of the tease. The man smirking my way as we stood at the threshold of our new home.
Our forever home.
Whether it was within the walls or not, that’s what this represented.
“I got co-wed feet,” Finn said in his adorable drawl, kicking out one of his snow boots.
Theo chuckled.
Low and dark and deep.
It sent a soothing rush of calm over me.
“Well, we’d better get inside before we stand out here freezing to death, yeah?” he said.
“Thank the lord. Thought I was gonna turn into a popsicle standing out here in the cold,” Nelly muttered under her breath as she shuffled around us, carrying her overnight bag.
The rest of our belongings had already been brought over by Kane and Theo.
She went right for the door and tossed it open.
“Make yourself at home,” Theo called behind her, a hint of sarcasm coloring his voice.
“Plan to, and this time you’re really not going to be able to drag me out of here,” she tossed out from over her shoulder before she disappeared inside.
Light laughter vibrated in my chest, and Theo chuckled. “We have our hands full with her, don’t we?”
“No, wif me, my Feo .” Finn bounced in Theo’s hold.
Warmth skated from Theo. “Definitely have my hands full with you. All of you.”
Then he squeezed my hand tighter before he gave it a tug. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
He led us in.
It wasn’t like it was the first time I’d been there, but it felt like it.
Like wonder and awe as I stepped through the door and took in the surroundings.
The kitchen and living room. The insane view of the lake that stole my breath.
Tingles rolled through me when I glanced at the flames lapping in the fireplace where Theo had me for the first time.
As if he heard my thoughts, he pressed his mouth to my ear. “Prepare yourself, Pipes. Gonna have you in every spot of this house.”
Need raced, and I tucked it down for later as Theo started up the stairs.
Baby gates had been installed on both the bottom and top, and Theo walked directly into the room that we’d prepared for Finn.
Together, we’d picked out the bedding and decorations, and Raven, Charleigh, and Emery had helped me paint it.
Finn squealed and squirmed the second we stepped inside. “Finn’s room?”
“That’s right, little man.” Theo set him down, and he knelt in front of him, holding onto his tiny shoulders with those massive hands. “This is your room. A place where you know you’re always safe.”
I knew that Finn didn’t quite get it, but the only thing that mattered was that he did feel safe as he nodded again and turned and raced into the room. He darted from one area to the next, going through the toys in the toybox and the books that had been placed on a built-in bookshelf.
“You like it?” Theo asked.
Finn jumped onto his toddler bed that was covered in owl bedding. “I wuv it, my Feo .”
Theo crossed the room and pressed a kiss to his head. “And I love you.”
Finn beamed up at him and patted his chest. “I got a happy heart.”
Theo cupped Finn’s cheek and murmured, “Yeah. Me, too, little man. I’ve got the happiest heart there could ever be.”
Hours later, I was in the massive closet, hanging my clothes on hangers.