Epilogue Lee
EPILOGUE: LEE
Ten months later…
“Chance, you’re burning the hot dogs!” I yelled, closing the back door to my childhood home. I grabbed a cold beer from the cooler, still balancing a glass of wine in my other hand.
My oldest brother glanced up from snuggling his three-month-old niece in the middle of the backyard. Jennifer (in honor of our mother) Ava McCallister had every single McCallister wrapped around her tiny fingers, and none of us minded a bit.
“He’s going to be demanding kids soon. I just know it,” Mandy, Chance’s wife, chuckled. “I swear, with those two, the competition is off the charts—one of them does something, the other’s got to outdo him.” She skipped down the deck’s steps, onto the freshly mown grass, and joined in the cooing. Chance and Mandy had held a simple wedding ceremony three months ago, then a huge party afterward, the whole town to cram into the Lunar Brewing Company.
“It’s my fault,” Harris shouted, emerging from the house at a run. His fiancée, Rachel, lagged behind him, straightening her tank top and denim shorts. “I told Chance I’d take over, then, uh…” He cleared his throat, grinning unrepentantly as he jogged up the steps. “We got sidetracked.”
Harris popped up the grill top and got to worked flipping the hot dogs and hamburgers. Rachel bent to kiss her daughter, who was currently laughing at Uncle Chance’s funny faces.
“You couldn’t have waited thirty seconds, Lee?” she muttered, her brand-new solitaire diamond engagement ring sparkling in the sunlight. “Or hump it over there and flip your burgers yourself?”
I only grinned at her. I’d liked Rachel from the moment we’d met. With her wild rainbow hair—freshly dyed all shades of pink, purple, and teal—and her skin painted with colorful tattoos, she wasn’t the type of woman Harris used to date, but after five seconds in her presence, I understood why Harris had fallen so hopelessly in love. She was perfect for him. Harris had started asking Rachel to marry him the day Jenny was born, but she’d kept saying no. I wasn’t sure of the whole story, but it had something to do with Harris once accusing her of trying to trap him into marriage. Then, yesterday, on their way to the McCallisters’ family reunion in Springwell, Georgia, she’d finally said yes. To say the couple had been celebrating every chance they got ever since was an understatement.
I smiled as Rachel tickled her daughter. I hadn’t known what to expect from my soon-to-be sister-in-law, but, yeah, I loved her. And so did Viktoria. The two women looked like polar opposites, between Rachel’s punk appearance and Viktoria’s ultra-chic, expensive clothes, but they had bonded instantly upon meeting.
Viktoria swung her feet off the chaise lounge and moved to Rachel’s side, but her vivid blue eyes landed on me as she spoke, “I love how you drive your fiancé so wild. He can’t think of anything but you, and he wants the world to know it.” Viktoria tapped Rachel’s left hand.
I stopped at the top of the steps, cocked an eyebrow, then leaned my hip against the railing. “Something you want to say to me?”
“I think I just did.” Viktoria’s expression stayed neutral, but I saw the challenge dancing in her eyes.
“Come here and say it again.”
“How about you come here, and I’ll say it to your face?” Viktoria crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up in a way that made me salivate.
“The sparks flying off you two are going to ignite the house if you don’t cool it.” Chance laughed, then handed Rachel the baby and bounded up the steps. He clapped me on the back, then leaned in to whisper, “When are you going to ask Viktoria to marry you?”
I peered at my brother and murmured, “The second the trial is over.”
Viktoria had taken over as CEO for her family’s company shortly after I helped free her from Katrin. Brady had driven us to the closest FBI office, and we’d spent the rest of the day giving statements—then most of that evening being treated for our injuries. The police had arrived at the mansion and arrested everyone on sight. Aleta, Katrin, and her thugs had woken up in holding cells and found themselves charged with a long list of offenses, including kidnapping and murder. Jon Aronsson was also arrested, along with Katrin’s father, but Aronsson had taken a plea bargain that had him avoiding jail time in exchange for testifying against Katrin and her family. Not surprisingly, the scandal had forced his retirement, effective immediately.
Viktoria took over, but the fallout had hurt the company’s image. She’d been working hard ever since to restore the public’s trust in her and to rebuild the company with me at her side. I’d followed her to Iceland the second the FBI released her to travel, though I’d returned to the US to accept my Valorous Unit Award commendation. The second Viktoria found out about the ceremony, she’d insisted we go. We’d also flown in for Chance’s wedding and Jenny’s birth, and whenever Viktoria had meetings with her US partners.
As the head of her company’s security, and the lead on her personal security—because her safety was my top priority and always came first—my life had taken a turn I’d never expected. When I’d left the Rangers, I’d thought I’d left my best years behind me, but these months with Viktoria had been amazing. I’d found where I belonged, and it had been richly rewarding, not only financially, but emotionally as well. Viktoria completed me…as corny as that sounded.
“Katrin’s trial is ending next week,” I said with a frown.
“How’s it going?” Chance said.
“Everyone’s saying she’ll get consecutive life sentences. She’ll die behind bars, and her father will, too. And probably Aleta.” I stood for a moment, letting that news sink in, then I nudged Chance square in the ribs. “So you’ll be getting a call soon, with our engagement announcement. I hope.”
“Just what I want to hear.”
“Meat’s done,” Harris called. “Who wants what?”
A line started to form at the grill, but before anyone could push their way to the front, we were interrupted by someone coming around the side of the house. A man with dark hair and blue eyes who looked familiar, though it took me a second to place him.
“Zach, right?” I asked, stepping forward. I hadn’t seen Zach Vane since high school, but he’d only been a year behind me, and the school hadn’t been that big. Our paths had crossed plenty of times even if we hadn’t been close personally. We hadn’t kept in touch, but he’d been on my mind on and off for the past year, ever since my brothers and I found out about our dad and his mysterious, estranged brother. That brother, Admiral Peter Anderson, had fostered and raised the three Vane brothers. It was strange to think that the boys I’d known in passing back in school could have grown up as my cousins, if we’d only known about the family tie.
“Hi, Lee,” he replied, running a hand through his hair and looking a little awkward. “Harris. And you’re Chance, right?” He nodded at my brothers. “Sorry, I didn’t know I was going to be interrupting?—”
“You’re not,” Chance insisted, stepping forward and holding out a hand. “We’re glad to have you. And yeah, I’m Chance.” They shook hands, and then Chance introduced the ladies, including little Jenny. “We were just about to dive into lunch. You’re welcome to join us, if you’d like?”
Zach smiled, looking relieved. “Yeah, that would be great.”
There were a couple of minutes of bustle as everyone loaded up their plates, and then we trooped inside to take a break from the heavy August heat and humidity.
“I’ve been in touch with your brother Colin a bit,” Chance said to Zach once we were all settled in the kitchen. “I don’t know if he mentioned it?”
“He did,” Zach confirmed. “That’s actually why I came by. He told me what you shared about the admiral and your dad.”
“Did you know any of it before?” Harris asked. “Did the admiral ever mention our dad?”
I wasn’t surprised that he’d been the one to ask—of the three of us, he’d been the closest to Dad, and I got the sense that he was still a little hurt that Dad had kept such a big secret from him.
“Not directly, no,” Zach admitted. “But I decided recently to leave the SEALs, which means I’ve had some time to really look into things. The admiral died very suddenly four years ago, when my brothers and I were all deployed. It was a scramble to get home and take care of the funeral, and then to settle the estate. There wasn’t really time to go through everything, so a lot of boxes just got shoved into a storage unit. It’s only in the past week that I’ve gotten a chance to finally start sorting everything out. And I…well, I found this.”
This turned out to be one of those accordion file folders, stuffed full almost to bursting. Zach handed it over to Chance, who opened it carefully and started pulling things out.
“There are some letters,” Zach explained. “I didn’t read them all, but they look like ones your dad sent the admiral while he was posted overseas. There are other mementos, too—the program from your dad’s high school graduation, a newspaper announcement about his wedding, clippings from times when the three of you were mentioned in the paper. Looks like he kept up with what you all were up to, even after he and your dad had their falling out. There are some pictures, too.”
Just as he said that, Chance pulled a photo out, staring at it with wide eyes. “Would you look at that…” he said, his voice soft and a little awed. He passed the picture over to Harris who stared at it for a beat before handing it to me. It showed a little boy with Dad’s eyes and nose and hair—but with a wide, mischievous smile I’d never seen on his face. The kid was seated on a teenager’s shoulders, the older boy grinning up at him. They looked so happy.
“I know just where we should put this,” I said, rising to my feet.
The others trailed after me as I headed to the hallway where we had a big display of family pictures. Our parents’ wedding photo had pride of place, still in its fancy white-and-gold frame. Underneath hung a line of candid shots of the three of us at various stages of growing up—skinned knees, football pads, missing front teeth. Caps and gowns, graduations. Some kind of fair.
“We’ll get a proper frame for it later,” I said, “but for now…” I tucked the photo of Dad and his brother into the corner of one of the other frames. It looked right there, and it felt good to see it, like we’d gotten a small piece of our dad back. “Looks perfect, don’t you think?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Chance said, and I heard Harris agree as well. “But…well, I guess we’ll have to take it back down soon, won’t we? Since we’re selling the house.”
None of us had known what to do with our parents’ house. Chance had moved into Mandy’s. Harris lived in South Carolina with Rachel, and I had set up residency in Viktoria’s mansion in Iceland.
When my brothers and I had talked last month, we’d agreed to put the house up for sale. Since our father had used all his savings on our mother’s medical bills, the house had become our primary inheritance, with the proceeds of the sale to be split among us equally.
“Harris, Chance?” I said. “Are you sure selling this place is the right thing to do?”
Silence descended. “We just talked about this,” Chance answered. “We agreed on it.”
“I know. But…now that we’re rebuilding and having families of our own, maybe it’s time to start adding new memories to this place. I’d kind of like to keep it in the family.”
“In the family…” Chance repeated before looking over at Zach. “Speaking of which, did you say you’d just left the SEALs? Where have you been staying?”
“Um…in the motel downtown so far,” Zach replied. “I’ve only been back for about a week, haven’t had time to find a permanent place yet. We sold the admiral’s house years ago.”
Chance threw a look at Harris and me, a question in his eyes, and we both nodded. “Any interest in staying here?” he said, turning back to Zach. “It’s not fancy, but it’s fully furnished and all the appliances work. You’d be in charge of covering the utilities, but that’s it.”
Zach’s eyes went wide, but it only took him a second to table his surprise and give us a firm nod. “Staying here would be great, but you’re being way too generous. I’ve got plenty of back pay saved, and I’m happy to pay rent?—”
“Absolutely not.” Chance cut him off. “We’re not charging our cousin rent.”
“…Cousin?” Zach repeated.
“The McCallisters have never had much,” Harris interjected, “but we’ve always had each other. Family comes first, and you’re part of that now.”
“But I never even met your dad,” Zach protested. “And it’s not like I’m a blood relative, anyway. My brothers and I are just the kids the admiral took in.”
“The admiral who was our uncle,” I pointed out, “and who we never got to know.” I gestured to the picture on the wall. “We may never find out what happened that made those brothers break their ties, but we can do better than them. We can be the family we should have been all along. All of us, and your brothers, too. You’re our family now.”
Zach’s eyes shot from me to Harris to Chance, as if he was checking to see if we all meant it.
I didn’t have to look. I knew my brothers, and I knew we were on the same page with this. After a minute, that seemed to sink in for Zach, too. He straightened up, his shoulders relaxing a little. “Okay,” he said. “In that case, I accept…cousins.”
Harris plucked the old Polaroid camera off the mantel and jiggled it. “How about we start with a new family shot?”
We all trooped out the front door, murmuring with excitement.
I waved to the older couple sitting on rocking chairs across the street. “Can I ask a favor?” I snatched the camera from Harris and waltzed down the driveway. “We just welcomed our cousin into the family,” I said, gesturing at Zach, “and we want to commemorate the moment. Could you take our picture?”
Mrs. Landry rose from the seat and beamed. “I’d love to. It’s so nice to see you boys smiling again. Finding love, too, I see.” She took the camera. “Your parents would be so proud.”
Yes, they would.
Harris and Chance had pulled up the for sale sign, and we all elbowed and jostled, settling into place. I held Viktoria tight as I smiled for the camera. I couldn’t help feeling wherever I ended up, we all had a bright future ahead of us.