Epilogue
Paige
“Hollis, this is my mother …”
My brother’s eyes go wide when she pulls him into a very personal hug for a woman that just met someone—even if it is her daughter’s brother.
“Sorry. She’s a hugger,” I say.
His grin makes my heart warm.
Mom pulls back and cups his cheek. “It is wonderful to meet you, Hollis.”
“It’s very nice to meet you too.” He smiles like a little boy meeting an aunt that lives across the country for the first time. “I’ve heard a lot of things about you.”
Mom loops her elbow through Hollis’s and leads him across the room.
“Oh, I bet you have and I’ve heard a lot about you too. Tell me about yourself. We’re family now,” she says.
Hollis looks at me over his shoulder, amusement written all over his face. I shrug, making him laugh.
I venture into the kitchen where Nate is talking to my dad. And Ryder.
“Well, I like the ’67 Yenko Camaros the best,” Ryder says like he’s a middle-aged man holding his Capri Sun. “There are 450 horses in that thing.”
Dad looks at Nate. He shrugs.
“You’re going to have to come to my house,” Dad tells Ryder. “We have lots of car shows down there. I have a buddy that has a ’67 Camaro Z28. Bet he’d take you for a ride in it.”
Ryder’s eyes grow wide. “Really? Can I go, Dad?”
Nate chuckles, looking a bit out of his element. I slide up beside him and rest my head on his shoulder.
Dad beams. When Ryder bebops off to find my mom, whom he’s already nicknamed Nanna Banana—which made my mother’s life, Nate turns to face me. Dad gives me a thumbs up.
I might cry.
“I need to call and make sure Murray showed up,” Nate says before kissing the top of my head. “I’ll be right back.”
“No rush,” Dad says. He waits until Nate is gone before he turns his attention on me. “Well, I’ll be honest—I came here with my thumb on Banks’s number.”
I giggle.
“But you’ve really impressed me, Paige. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I kinda like the guy.”
“Dad,” I say, swatting his shoulder.
His glass of tea sloshes in his hand as he chuckles.
“I’m very proud of you, Paige. You’ve turned into a hell of a young woman.”
His compliment, which doesn’t necessarily come easily, brings me a joy and comfort that I didn’t know I needed.
The house is alive with voices and laughter. Ryder’s giggle streams over the top of the rest. It’s not quite as chaotic as my parents’ house in Florida, but it’s full of love just the same.
Mom and Dad have loved me through my best and my worst moments. They’ve shown up when I needed them every single time. They’ve brought me in and loved me when no one else did. And now I have Hollis, Nate, and Ryder, filling places I hadn’t known needed filling.
I am so incredibly happy. So wonderfully blessed.
Sometimes things like fear can be a habit more than anything else. You’re scared because that’s what you do. You are fearful because, at some point, someone told you that you should always look over your shoulder. Or that you weren’t good enough. Or that your happiness will end.
It took a grumpy bar owner and his adorable little boy to show me that I’m more than my fear. I have love to give. I’m worthy of receiving their affection. And if you believe in yourself enough, life can be pretty sweet.
“Should we go rescue Hollis from Mom?” I ask Dad.
He makes a face. “Don’t rob her of her moment. She’s been talking about this for weeks.”
I laugh.
“Come on,” he says, nodding towards the door. “Let’s step outside so I can tell you about this shit with Maddox. I can’t tell anyone else.”
“Ooh. Gossip. I love getting dirt on my brothers.”
Nate
“Hello?”
I smile at the sound of Dominic’s voice. I don’t know why I called him—I don’t need anything.
The evening air is crisp and cool as the sun dips behind the trees. It’s calm and peaceful, just like me.
“Nate? I know this is you. I have you programmed into my phone.”
I laugh. “Hey, what’s happening?”
“Ah, not much. I’m currently trying to convince Cam to let me put a baby inside—”
“Dom!” Cam yells, cutting Dom off. He laughs.
“We’re getting ready to go to Barrett’s winery. Want to go?”
“I have a houseful of people or I absolutely would.”
“Oh, that’s right. Paige’s people are there.”
“Her family. But, yes, they are.”
“How is that going?”
I walk around the backyard, sidestepping a baseball bat and tennis ball. That’s a window waiting to be broken.
“It’s actually going really well,” I say. “Paige’s mom is kinda huggy. Her Dad is pretty cool. We talked cars and just kinda shot the shit, I guess you could say.”
“Are they still there?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re calling me why?”
Good question.
I make my way back towards the house and stop on the stoop.
Dominic and I started life in a world of chaos. We fought hard to come out of it—sometimes literally—on top. We banded together when our mother took her life shortly after Dad died. We’ve relied on each other, pulled each other up when we were down, and encouraged each other to keep going.
And we did. We came out on top.
Dom now has Camilla, the only woman in the world that would be right for him, and she fucking adores him. He also has the Landry family at his back. They’ve enveloped him as one of their own.
I always knew I wanted a family for Ryder, mostly. But I never dared to want this. The woman of my dreams, a decent house, the best little boy in the world. And maybe, just maybe, an extended family that might welcome Ryder and me too.
It gets better. Life gets better. You have to scratch and claw your way sometimes and roll with the punches—that never goes away. But if you keep moving, remain hopeful, and never stop believing, you can overcome anything.
Dom and I are proof.
This feeling—I hope it never goes away.
“You know what?” I ask. “We did all right, didn’t we?”
He must hear something in my voice. That, or he’s a bit thrown by the question because he clears his throat.
“I don’t think we did too bad,” he says. “Not too bad at all.”
“Yeah. Well, okay, I was just calling to say hello.”
“You okay, Nate? You’re good, right?”
I grin. “I’m the best I’ve ever been. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later.”
Just as I hang up, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I don’t have to look to see that it’s Paige.
“Hey,” she says softly. “I wondered where you went.”
“Just needed a bit of air.”
She wraps her arms around my shoulders and nestles her face against my neck.
“Do you know what’s funny?” I ask.
She hums against my skin.
“I always thought I needed to find someone to share my life with. But it was the opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
I twist my head and kiss the side of her cheek.
“I needed to find someone that I couldn’t live without.”
She grins.
We stand together for a long while, watching the sun set over the horizon. Finally, as the golden hour ends and the sun drifts away, Paige releases me.
“If we don’t get in there, Hollis might disown me,” she says. “My mom won’t leave him alone.”
I take her hand and follow her inside.
“She keeps peppering him with questions and showing him pictures on her phone,” she says, sighing. “He doesn’t know who these people are. Why would he care?”
I tug her hand and stop her before we get through the mudroom. She gives me an inquisitive look.
“He cares because he cares about you,” I tell her. “That’s why I listened to her tell me her recipe for meatloaf step by excruciating step.”
Paige giggles. “And, for that, I will always love you.”
“Last night you said it was for the way I eat your pussy.”
Her cheeks flush the prettiest shade of pink. “Well, that too. Now come on. Let’s go see our family.”
Our family.
I could get used to that.
Continue on with Sienna Landry’s story in CRANK, the first book in the Gibson Boys Series. The first chapter is next!