EPILOGUE Tatum Barker
Snap Decision
Nearly every moment of every day is riddled with decisions to make. Some are made in the blink of an eye, and some require a lot more effort. Some are easy, and some are hard.
It may have been a snap decision to marry Ford Bradley, but even if it hadn’t been, it would have been an easy choice. And now that I’m standing at the front door to the Bradley Mansion a week after we figured our shit out in Vegas, I have this sense that I’m home again.
Chicago has always been home, and because I had such a crush on Archer Bradley, I probably spent more time at the Bradley Mansion than I did at my own home back when I was in high school.
It laid the groundwork for the foundation of friendship for Ford and me even though I had no idea that’s what I was doing.
I thought I was just being friendly with the older brother of the guy I was destined to be with.
I had no clue at the time that he was the one I was actually going to end up with.
I look over at him, and his eyes are on me. He’s always looking at me with adoration in his eyes, something I never noticed before.
It makes me feel safe and loved.
In the last week, I paid one million dollars for this mansion, and he transferred that cash to Liam.
We cleaned out my office, looked at venues in Vegas, and also shopped for homes in Vegas.
We agreed that Tampa Bay is home for now while he continues to play for the Beasts, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a home base in each city that feels like home.
We didn’t buy anything in Vegas yet, but we have some stuff on our radar. I cleaned out my belongings from Kenzie’s casita, too, and all my stuff is in storage…for now. We’ll be back, and maybe once Ford retires, that’s where we’ll land.
Or maybe it’ll be here in Chicago, the hometown we both hail from.
Maybe it’ll be somewhere in the Caribbean.
Ford confessed that he’s been looking at investment properties for destination weddings, and he’s found a few located directly on the beach with plenty of rental properties nearby—and he even mentioned acquiring a handful of those, too, so all the profits for these destination weddings go directly into our pockets.
We’ve agreed that it doesn’t really matter where our home base is as long as we’re together.
And then there was this morning when we met with the title company to officially close on the transfer of ownership. Who would’ve thought one snap decision would land us here on the doorstep of the Bradley Mansion?
“You go first,” he says softly.
“Will your father be here?”
He shakes his head. “I told him I sold it. I didn’t say it was to us. But it’s not like I left him homeless. Madden’s letting him stay at his condo for now. We’ll reevaluate in a few months when the trial starts.”
“Madden’s okay with that?” I ask, sort of surprised given what I know of their relationship.
“Not really. Our father has managed to hurt all of his kids in one form or another, but he’s still our father, and for as much as he’s hurt us, there have also been times when he hasn’t.” He lifts a shoulder.
“I get that. Family’s important, and if not for him, you wouldn’t be here. Or Madden or the rest of your crew.”
He presses his lips together and nods. “I think all that’s what gave me so many reservations about keeping this place.”
I tilt my head as a stab of guilt lances through me. “I’m sorry. I was so caught up in my own shit that I didn’t give you a chance to unload any of that.”
He lifts a shoulder. “It’s okay. You had a right to be upset with me. I never should’ve kept any of it from you. Regardless, now it’s ours, and I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with it.” He holds the key out in his hand.
I grin at him, and I lift onto my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.
And then I take that key and unlock our destiny.
Before I know what he’s doing, Ford lifts me up into his arms and carries me over the threshold to my laughter.
“I’m not tempting fate,” he declares as we walk in that way.
My breath catches in my throat as I survey the foyer, and he sets me down. We walk around as ideas form in my mind about what we can do in here. We’ve only been here for maybe five minutes or so when the doorbell rings.
My brows dip as I glance over at Ford, and he just shrugs as we walk together to open the door to see who’s there.
I’m shocked when I come face-to-face with Madden Bradley.
“I heard you’re looking for a construction crew to gut and reno this place to turn it into Chicago’s best new event venue, and I’m here to bid on the job,” he says.
“Oh my God!” I say, and I flap my hands up and down as I try to be cool, which is definitely impossible in this situation. “You’re hired!”
“Now, wait a second, Tate,” Ford warns. “We should really take a look at some other companies—”
“You shush!” I say to him, and I turn back to Madden. “As I was saying, you’re hired. Come on in.”
The brothers both laugh, and the three of us walk through the house as we exchange ideas. Madden takes some notes, assures me he’ll work with the city to rezone this place from residential, and even comes up with a plan for guest parking.
He leaves to meet his wife for lunch, promising that he’ll have plans to me by the end of the week, and then it’s just Ford and me in here.
I can’t help it. I lift myself up onto the kitchen counter and sit there swinging my heels for a beat, and then I stand. Ford just laughs at me. Instead of yelling at me to get down this time, though, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and turns on the first song we danced to at our wedding.
He hops up onto the counter more gracefully than I did, takes me in his arms, and we dance right there on the counter.
He kisses me, and then he dips me down low as I laugh.
It’s the laughter and the joy I feel with this man that tell me this one’s going to last. Sometimes we think we’re in the right situation, the right place, the right time, but it turns out we’re really not.
And when it comes down to it, sometimes those snap decisions that come from trusting our gut even when there are risks involved turn out to be better than we ever could have imagined.
And that’s what life with Ford Bradley is to me. Better than I ever could have imagined.
* * *
Flip the page to read the first chapter in LEFT FIELD, the fifth book in THE brADLEY LEGACY series from Lisa Suzanne.