Epilogue
EPILOGUE
One Year Later
Suzanne puttered about her kitchen, patiently waiting for the kettle to boil. It would be another hour before the nurse showed up to do the usual checks. She preferred having her tea before the interfering nurse or the young woman tried to make it instead. It was sweet of her, but the young girl didn’t know the first thing about making tea. Plus, Suzanne might be damn near ninety years old, but she could make her own tea.
Her thoughts were broken by the sound of her door’s buzzer. Once, the noise might have sent a dose of worry into her chest. It might have been over a decade since she’d been forced to live in that ramshackle apartment building, but she had spent over ten years living there. In that neighborhood, the arrival of guests could easily mean trouble.
Chiding herself for the dark thought, she went to the door. That had been so long ago, and Suzanne’s new home was far safer. Were she a different woman, she might have been bitter that it had taken so long for her husband’s money to start coming in. But she knew the world wasn’t always a neat and orderly place, and not everything worked out exactly as it was supposed to. She had the money now, and she could live comfortably. That was all that mattered.
She opened the door. A small gasp escaped her at the two men waiting for her outside. It was the larger man at the back who startled her the most. He was an absolute bear of a man, towering over her by nearly two feet. She might have slammed the door as fast as she could from the fright alone, but the kindness in his eyes made her pause.
It was the smaller of the two who spoke. “Suzanne Collins?”
She finally managed to pull her eyes away from the tall man. “I...yes. How can I...wait.”
She stopped, gazing at the smaller of the two men, well and truly looking at him. The years had added quite a few inches and thinned his face from the chubby-faced boy who showed up at her door daily all those years ago. But those eyes were as striking in their brilliant blue as in the soft sadness they always seemed to hold.
Her hand rose to her chest. “Cole?”
He smiled. “Hello, Mrs. Collins, it’s been a while.”
Her hand dropped, and she hobbled forward. She didn’t care that she had to reach up to pull him down into a hug. Suzanne had never forgotten the little boy, locked in a house of hate, surrounded by the desperate and angry. The little boy who had so desperately sought love and drank up what she could give him.
And now he was a man grown.
“It’s so good to see you, oh, my boy, look at you,” she said, pulling back to examine him.
His eyes shimmered. “I didn’t know if?—”
“If I was alive or dead?” she asked with a smile.
“Not until Elliot found you,” he said, looking over his shoulder.
The larger man raised his hand. “Afternoon, Mrs. Collins.”
“And just who might this extremely handsome behemoth of a man be?” she asked with an attempt at a wagged brow.
“Uh, the love of my life.”
Suzanne clapped her hands together. “Well, then, why don’t you and the love of your life come in? I was just making tea.”
* * *
For his part, Elliot stayed out of the conversation between them. This meeting hadn’t been about him, and Clay was enraptured as he listened to Mrs. Collins. Elliot also noticed that Clay hadn’t corrected the woman on the name. Elliot had never asked what Clay’s original name had been, though he supposed he finally knew. For him, Clay would always be Clay, the man he chose to be.
For her part, the older woman seemed to understand almost instantly that there was much Clay wouldn’t tell her. Instead, she focused on his life in general, knowing there had been quite a dark period after Clay disappeared.
“But it’s no longer so dark,” Mrs. Collins said, her light eyes twinkling in Elliot’s direction.
Clay reached over, squeezing Elliot’s knee as they sat on the couch. “It’s this one’s fault.”
“Don’t blame me. You did the work,” Elliot told him softly.
Mrs. Collins beamed. “I can’t tell you how much I thought of you over the years. I always wondered what happened to you, and I prayed for you. I prayed you would find love and happiness.”
Clay beamed at her, winking at Elliot. Oh yes, Clay had found plenty of that. There had been moments when Clay became distant and tense, but he always returned. The man wasn’t always the best at expressing his emotions and not always the best at dealing with problems. Yet Elliot still shared every night with him and knew how to pull Clay close when the man was too scared to ask.
“Yes, I found plenty of love,” Clay promised her.
“Isn’t it everything I told you it would be?” she asked.
Clay smiled. “And more.”