Page 104 of Keep You Close

It was a whole thing.

And as much as it was a lot of fucking work, it was a lot more fucking fun.

Damn if I didn’t have AJ to thank for that.

Well, AJ… and falling down a mountain.

That part was pretty integral to, well, everything.

I guess fate sometimes acted in your best interest.

Making you miss your alarm which just so happened to prevent you from ending up in a massive accident on the parkway.

Having you screw up a job interview for a position you really wanted, because you were about to fall face-first into a brand new passion instead.

And, yeah, making you collide with another skier on a dangerous mountain, breaking your body in lots of interesting ways… just so you could go home to reconnect with your family.

And fall in love with the woman you didn’t even know you were looking for.

AJ - 8 months

“Well well well, look what the tide washed in,” Ella said as I walked through the doors of The Paw Palace for the first time in three weeks. “Looking all tan and happy. I’m so happy for you and not at all jealous,” she added with a big smile as I put down the box I was carrying, and accepting the hug she was holding out toward me.

I was actually surprised just how much I missed her. And Tucker. And work in general.

I guess you didn’t realize how attached you became to people—and, let’s face it, dogs—until you were suddenly away from them for a long period of time.

“So I want to hear all about your travels to all these fun, exotic places. But, first… what’s in the box? Is it presents? Because… it better be presents.”

“Of course, it’s presents,” I said, beaming at her as I lowered the box to the floor, then reached inside to set three tropical-themed gift bags on the top of the desk. “One for you. And one for each of your girls.”

It wasn’t actually one for any of them. Each bag was stuffed to the brim.

I learned a lot of things about myself on vacation with Atlas.

One, while I was a girl born in a landlocked state, I was a woman meant for the beach.

Two, I was a lot braver than I ever realized. Because in just short of three weeks, I’d crossed a lot of firsts off of my bucket list. Paddle boarding, parasailing, scuba diving, and several failed attempts at surfing.

And, three, I was like a kid in a candy store with a fist full of cash when you put me in a foreign country, then let me wander one of the local markets.

I sure hoped all the Rivers and Mallicks enjoyed gifts. Because I’d bought so much stuff that we’d needed to ship most of it home ahead of us.

“Awww,” Ella said, face lighting up at remembering her girls. As if they weren’t practically my nieces at this point. “They’re going to be so happy. The little one has had a rough go of it this week. She could use the pick-me-up. So, how was it? And by it, I mean the loads of beachy vacation sex.”

A laugh escaped me at that.

“It was… perfect,” I admitted. “You would think with all the classes Atlas wanted to take that we wouldn’t have time for anything else, but we squeezed so much into it. I mean, I don’t think I’ve slept more than four hours a night in three weeks, which I’m sure is going to catch up to me. But it was so worth it.”

“I love this for you,” she said, beaming at me. “You so deserve it.”

Several months back, when the girls had to go see their father for the weekend—because he had a new girlfriend he wanted to show off, which no one was excited about but him—I’d taken Ella out to distract her.

It ended up coming out.

All of it with her ex. And my own.

And while we’d always been good work-friends, from that night on, we’d become best friends.

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