Epilogue
SADIE
The safe house feels different when we all return. The air carries the same salty breeze off the ocean, but everything else has shifted. Jace’s brothers fill the living room with low voices and tense shoulders.
Jace keeps his hand on the small of my back as he steers me into the kitchen. The others give us space without being asked. He turns to face me, and for once the easy, arrogant charm is tempered by something heavier.
“Sadie,” he says, voice low. “We’ve got to move fast on my father.
The leads are hot, but they’re dangerous.
To keep you safe while we hunt him down and clean this up, we’re flying you and my mother out to West Texas.
Delaney’s got you covered at the Coleman Ranch.
Anniston’s there. You’ll be protected. Out of the crossfire. ”
My stomach drops. I don’t want to leave him.
Not now. Not after every wall between us has come down and every night has shown me exactly how real this has become.
The thought of being hundreds of miles away while he walks into whatever storm is waiting makes my chest ache.
But the pull to see my sister, to wrap my arms around her and know she’s truly okay, is just as strong.
I meet his eyes and keep my voice steady. “I don’t want to leave you. But I do want to see my sister.”
Jace steps in close, one hand sliding up to cup my cheek. The touch is gentle, but the look in his eyes is pure possession and promise. “I know, Wells. It’s temporary. I’ll finish this and come get you. I’m not letting you slip away now that I have you.”
I lean into his palm, the words I have been circling for days finally finding their way out.
“Jace, I love you. This whole hot bodyguard summer started with me trying to keep my distance and you charming your way past every single rule I set. But somewhere between the fake dating and the real danger, I fell. Hard. I can’t imagine going back to my quiet classroom life without you in it. ”
His grin breaks through, slow and devastating, the fun loving spark returning even in the middle of all this weight.
“I love you too, Sadie. I can’t really imagine my life without you in it.
You turned my temporary assignment into the one thing I never saw coming. And I’m not fighting it. Not anymore.”
My throat tightens. I won’t cry. Not when he needs to stay sharp. “Then be safe. Please. Come back to me.”
“I promise,” he says, rough and certain.
He pulls me in and kisses me like the world might end and start again in the same breath. It’s fierce and tender and everything we have become. When we break apart, footsteps sound in the hall.
One of Sloane’s men stands in the doorway, professional and ready. “Miss Wells, the transport to the airport is here.”
Jace rests his forehead against mine for one last second. “Go. I’ll see you soon.”
I nod, my fingers lingering on his chest over his heart. “Be safe, Jace Hawthorne.”
I follow the man out into the humid night.
The car waits under the carport, engine already running.
The drive to the small private airstrip is quiet.
I stare out at the dark water and the distant lights of Sunbreak Harbor, my mind spinning with everything we have survived and everything still ahead.
The flight to West Texas is long. I sleep in fitful stretches, waking to the steady hum of the engines and the ache of missing him already.
When we land the next morning, the air is dry and vast, the sky so big it feels like it could swallow every worry.
A ranch truck meets me at the small terminal.
The driver is polite and quiet, and soon we’re bumping along a dirt road lined with fences that stretch forever.
The Coleman Ranch rises out of the plains like something out of a dream. Wide porch, weathered wood, horses grazing in the distance under a sky painted in soft morning gold. It feels like safety wrapped in open space.
The truck stops. Before I can even reach for my bag, the front door flies open and Anniston comes running down the steps, her dark hair flying, that wild, wonderful grin splitting her face.
“Sadie!”
I drop everything and run straight into her. We collide in a hug that knocks the air from my lungs. She smells like home and sunshine and every late-night secret we ever shared. We laugh and cry at the same time.
“You’re really here,” she says, voice thick. “I was so worried. But you look… happy. Even with everything. Is it him? Jace?”
I laugh through the happy tears, the sound light and real for the first time in days. “It’s him. It’s the whole crazy summer. He drove me insane and then he stole my heart when I wasn’t looking. But I’m here now. And you’re safe. That’s what matters.”
Anniston loops her arm through mine and tugs me toward the house. “Delaney has your room ready. We’re locked down tight here. And you’re telling me every single detail about falling for a Hawthorne brother. Every. Single. One.”
I let her pull me up the porch steps, glancing once over my shoulder at the endless horizon. Somewhere out there, Jace is hunting ghosts and keeping his promise. The danger isn’t gone. The story isn’t finished.
But standing here with my sister, the ranch stretching wide and safe around us, I feel the first real breath of peace I’ve had in weeks.
This hot bodyguard summer might be ending, but what we started together is only the beginning. And I can’t wait for him to come home to me.