Epilogue
Dallas TX
Many years later
Charlotte Taggart loved that the kids club was full again. She couldn’t help but smile, watching her grandkids run around and swing from places they shouldn’t swing from and remembering how they were all the products of the amazing love her kids had managed to find.
Well, Colton had been the product of a spectacularly awful relationship, but it all worked out in the end and now Colton had the best mom and a couple of adorable younger siblings.
They were all happy.
“She’s talking about redecorating my office,” a familiar, deeply grumpy voice said behind her right before she felt big hands on her hips and a kiss to her ear.
Oh, how she loved this man. “It’s not your office anymore. It’s hers, and you know she’s going to have opinions.”
“Tasha’s not changing yours,” Ian pointed out.
She turned and put her hands on his broad shoulders. “She’ll be sneaky about it. She’ll keep it the same for a couple of months and then you just watch. She’ll have it painted that sky blue she loves so much and she’ll get a bigger desk, and I’m so happy to give it to her.”
His lips curled up slightly. “Kala will probably paint the whole thing black.”
“Which is why Tash and Cooper handle the clients. You sure you want to do this?”
“Retire?” her husband asked. “Are you asking me if I want to stop working so I can spend my golden years playing with my dogs, napping, letting my grandkids treat me like a jungle gym, and seeing the world with my gorgeous wife and our best friends? You bet I do.”
McKay-Taggart was under new management. Which was a bit like the old management as there was a McKay and a Taggart in the manager’s offices.
It was a family company in a way it hadn’t been when they started it.
Oh, they were found family, and that had been everything.
They’d been people out in the world looking for something to believe in, and they found it not truly in a business. They found it in each other.
Tasha was taking over Charlotte’s role dealing with the office and handling most of the client relationships. Cooper and Kala were taking over the company. Dare had been in charge of sales for years. Seth was happily making his music with his family, and Travis was settled.
Kenzie wouldn’t ever truly settle down. Not when she could roam the world having adventures with her gorgeous husband.
“Hey, we have cake.” Speak of the devil and she appeared.
Kenzie shook her head. “Please tell me you’re not planning some intimate time before you go.
If you are, I suggest Kala’s office. She’s already had it mystically cleansed.
She’ll be super pissed if she has to call Lucy again because she doesn’t know any shaman who can cleanse a space of what she calls geriatric sex magic. Her words, not mine.”
Her husband’s hand was suddenly in hers. “Oh, we’re doing something truly nasty on her desk.”
She chuckled but held her place. “Babe, we need to leave in about twenty minutes. Did you forget the flight to Miami? Alex and Eve will be surprised to go on our ridiculously expensive cruise all alone.”
Her bags were packed, and they had two weeks of sun and sand and all the lemon tarts her hubby could eat. They had a suite with a private balcony and no reports or responsibilities at all.
It was going to be glorious.
Her husband frowned.
Kenzie gave her dad a side hug. “It’s okay, Dad. You’ll be up here all the time. You can sneak in. I’ll get you a key.”
Ian snorted and hugged her. “Will you now? And when is that? I thought you and Ben were going on assignment. You know he’s been the shittiest employee. The only one who’s as bad as you. Half the time you two are off on some classified mission, and I’m paying all the bills.”
“Uh, that’s my job now.” Kala was in what she liked to call her big-girl uniform.
Since she’d left the Agency and taken over the company, she started wearing the corporate equivalent of tactical wear.
Black slacks, a crisp shirt, and some kind of blazer.
But her hair…was still a glorious pink. Like her twin’s.
“And they’re both fired. I don’t think we should keep paying for Agency upkeep. ”
“Like you can fire me.” Kenzie obviously wasn’t worried. “You like going with me every now and then. We just got a call, and we’re supposed to hop over to Macao to catch an international arms dealer at a celebrity poker event. I can get a contractor rate.”
Kala frowned. “Damn it. Cady has the league championship game next week. Maybe I could send Coop and take Zach with me. Devi won’t mind.”
“Oh, they will all mind. You’re stuck. You decided to have kids,” her husband pointed out. “Your sister was smart.”
Kenzie grinned. “We’re happy being everyone’s auntie and uncle for now. Who also travel the globe solving international security issues. Now we need to get to that cake because TJ is hovering, and he’s not the only one.”
“Little Boomer can only be held off for so long,” Kala said with a sigh. “I’m still not sure how that kid came out with none of Lou’s genes. He’s all TJ. Hey, Alex, do not use that as a weapon.” Kala sighed. “And that one is too much like me.”
She ran into the kids club to save the day, her twin following along because it looked like Tash and Dare’s youngest was going to try her hand at climbing the bookshelves.
Charlotte leaned against her husband, so grateful for all the years they’d had and those that were left to come.
“We did good, baby,” Ian whispered.
“Hey, let’s get some cake and get this party started.” Alex McKay was dressed for the trip. He already had a Cuban shirt on and casual slacks. “If we hang around too long, they’ll try to put us back to work, and that’s the last thing I want.”
Eve was beside him. “Yes, Ben already asked if I would give him some advice on how to approach the new bad guy he and Kenz are hunting. I told him to call my daughter. That’s her job now.
Mine is to find the best beach in St. John’s.
And we need to talk about Christmas. Avery wants to do a Christmas market cruise.
Theo and Erin are in, but I’ve had to promise Boomer the best buffet because you know he gets seasick. ”
Ian took her hand in his and started for the conference room where their retirement party was set up.
“That’s because Serena moneybags had us on a small yacht.
The big cruise ship you can barely feel it.
And I don’t think he’s allowed on a yacht anymore.
No chef will feed him. I’ve never seen a grown man cry like that. ”
“Only because you didn’t see the poor stewardess who tried to unpack Erin’s bags. You would think she’d never seen a gun before,” Eve said.
They were going to be menaces. And it would be the best time.
They had done good. So good.
“Are you ready?” Ian asked, opening the door.
Ready to spend her golden years with the man of her dreams? Ready to live out some more fantasies with him? Ready to watch her children and grandchildren thrive?
“I am.” She tilted her chin up and was rewarded with a kiss.
She was ready for all of it.
* * * *