Epilogue
T ucker leaned back in the chair on Jackson’s front porch, watching Jeremy play with the two dogs, one golden as a sunrise, one black as night.
Now and then he shifted his gaze to look out over the hills beyond, usually to watch the red-tailed hawk he’d spotted a while ago make another circle high above.
Just watching the raptor gave him a feeling he couldn’t quite describe, as if he somehow knew what it felt like.
“What are you grinning at?”
Emily’s teasing tone seemed to tickle at his ear as she sat down in the chair beside him.
He kept his eyes on the bird, and how the sun shining through its tail feathers showed the red that gave the hawk its name. “Just thinking how I used to wonder what it would feel like to soar like one of those guys.” He turned his head to meet her gaze and said softly, “And now I know.”
He knew he’d said the right thing when she smiled and blushed at the same time. “Even after that horrible pun I made?”
He let out a laugh that made Lobo stop and look at him as he remembered her joking this morning, after a long, luscious night of multiple close encounters, that she was “all Tucker’d out.” He’d warned her she’d better recover before tonight, because he had a rerun in mind.
The door of the house opened, and Tris stepped outside, followed by Logan, who was carrying a large pitcher. He walked over to the bowls outside the door and refilled them with water then called out, “Jeremy, those boys are playing pretty hard. You’d better bring them over for some fresh water.”
“And you,” Tris added, “probably need some of that nice cold lemonade Nic is whipping up inside.”
The boy didn’t hesitate, just turned to the dogs and yelped, “C’mon, guys, it’s thirsty out!”
The couple took the chairs beside Tucker’s. He looked at his best friend’s sister, saw the quiet glow of happiness that had been absent for so long.
“You look like I feel,” he said to her.
“Back at you, boyo,” Tris said with a wide smile.
“Where’s Jackson?” he asked.
She grimaced slightly. “On the phone. Somebody from L.A.”
“Uh-oh.”
Tris shook her head. “He’ll never go back. But that doesn’t mean he likes the pressure they keep putting on him.”
The door swung open again, and Nic came out with a tray loaded with glasses of iced lemonade that looked delightfully cooling. Tucker took a sip, savored it for a moment, and when Nic had taken her own chair gave her a slightly concerned look.
“It’s not Swiffer, is it?”
Nic shook her head, one corner of her mouth quirking upward. “I don’t think he’ll even talk to him anymore. It’s Miles.”
“Oh.” Tucker grimaced. “He’s the one I feel bad about. He’s a good guy.”
“Jackson said if it hadn’t been for him, there wouldn’t have been a Stonewall in the first place,” Nic said.
Tucker nodded. “He’s the one who sold it, because he had faith in Jackson, and the idea. He beat down a lot of walls to get us going.” He let out a long breath. “And he became a good friend in the process, which made what Jackson had to do even harder.”
“But he did it,” Emily said, and there was respect in her tone. She’d come to know Jackson better in the last few weeks, and he knew it was genuine.
The door opened one more time. Jeremy and the dogs barreled out, down the steps, and went back to playing. Jackson followed, more slowly. He sat in the last of the chairs, next to Nic. She reached out and took his hand.
“Okay?” she asked.
Jackson gave a half-shrug. “I think so. But he’s coming back out. For a visit, he says.”
“But you think he’s going to push again?” Tucker asked.
“It wouldn’t be like him,” Jackson said. “I told him the last time it came up that it was the last time I’d talk about it.”
“You gave up so much,” Tris said.
Jackson looked out at Jeremy and the romping dogs. “It was worth it.”
“And that,” Logan said, “is why Last Stand is happy to claim you.” He shifted his gaze to Tucker. “And you.”
Tucker smiled. “It really does feel like home.”
He heard Emily catch her breath. Remembered the night when, lying in the dark delightfully exhausted, she’d told him her refusal to leave this place she’d always called home was what had driven her one-time fiancé to break it off.
“And,” he added, looking at her pointedly now, “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
Those amazing golden-brown eyes locked on to his in understanding, and he knew just how lucky he was to have found her, and worked through to this.
He was definitely home at last.
The End