82. Daisy
Chapter 82
Daisy
I dumped my bag by the front door — newly returned from the carpenter who’d managed to restore it after Gray and Arlo shot their way into the house — and called out. “I’m home!”
“Back here!”
I passed the living room, the Christmas tree we’d decorated winking in front of the window, and followed Wolf’s voice. I found him standing in the kitchen with Otis, Jace bent over to inspect the marble countertops that had been installed that morning.
Cat sat in a patch of sun by the glass doors, licking his paws like he’d won the lottery, which he kind of had. Jace adored him, feeding him the most expensive food and refusing to give him a collar because he “needed to be free.”
“You!” I said, looking at all of them.
“What did we do?” Jace looked worried as he straightened to look at me.
“You contacted Decor about the house!”
“I hope it’s okay,” Wolf said.
“Okay? It’s amazing!”
“So you’re happy?” Otis asked.
“Happy? I can’t believe it! They want to send a photographer out and everything,” I said, pulling a bottle of water from the fridge.
“You deserve it,” Jace said. “This place is incredible. You did an amazing job.”
I couldn’t disagree. The old wood floors were polished to a shine, the moldings intact, the ceilings dripping with chandeliers and period lighting. The Mercer family antiques had pride of place among more modern furnishings, all of it coming together exactly like I’d imagined it.
But I hadn’t done it alone.
“ We did an amazing job,” I said, reaching for Jace’s hand.
He winced and tried to cover it with a smile, but I’d already noticed the bandage on his finger.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I’d gotten good at knowing when he was lying, which thankfully was only about little stuff now, like whether he’d made Cat scrambled eggs or yelled at a contractor, not whether he was really dead.
I tipped my head, which was all it took for him to sigh and start removing the bandage on his ring finger.
When he’d removed the gauze, I saw that there was a dark ring around his finger. It took me a second to realize it was a tattoo.
“I don’t get it,” I said, picking up his hand. “What’s this?”
“It’s a ring,” Jace said. “A tattoo. Wolf and Otis have them too.”
I looked at Wolf and Otis and sure enough, they had bandages around their ring fingers.
“I’m still confused.”
Jace stepped toward me. “We know things are still complicated with Ruth and your dad, but we love you.” He swallowed hard. “ I love you.”
“And we love you,” Otis said. “All of us. Not just Jace.”
Jace sighed. “I said that. But princess…” He looked into my eyes. “I need you to know that I love you .”
I smiled up at him. “I love you too.”
“You do?”
I laughed even though tears stung my eyes. “I do.”
I didn’t know Jace could beam with happiness, but right then, he was pretty close.
“We need you to know something else too,” he said. “We’re here for good.”
“Unless you don’t want us to be here for good,” Otis said. “Which would make me… sad. But we would leave if you wanted us to.”
“I don’t want you to leave,” I said.
“You don’t?”
I shook my head. “But you’re right… it’s complicated with Ruth and my dad.
It had gotten better. Ruth came to the house now. She was still careful around the Beasts, but they’d saved her life and were slowly earning her trust.
My dad still hadn’t spent any time with them, but he had gotten them the attorney, and he asked about them from time to time. I knew it was hard for him, reconciling the image he’d had of Blake with who Blake had really been, what Blake had wanted to do to me.
I wanted to give my dad time to deal with all that before I sprang something else on him.
Still, there were some things I knew.
“I’m here for good too.” I looked down at Jace’s hand, the tattooed wedding band a shadow on his finger. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“It’s just the beginning of all the things we want to do for you,” Wolf said.
“Which is everything,” Otis said.
“Which is everything,” Jace echoed. “So until you’re ready to make it official, these tattoos are our promise. Does that work?”
I threw my arms around his waist and leaned against his chest, then felt Wolf and Otis close their arms around me too.
“It works.” And standing there in the kitchen, the last piece of the puzzle we’d started together, I knew I was even luckier than my mom.
I didn’t have one great love. I had three.
And I loved them the most.
Thanks so much for reading the Blackwell Beasts!