Page 97 of Synced to Us

“May.” I reach for her hand, and she allows me to take it. “I’m the last person with notions on what a family should be. I’ll be happy if you invite me to dinner.”

May smiles. “My dear, you’ll be welcome. As for Lucy…” May glances up at the house. “She’ll really need a friend right about now. She lost a lot of them when they married.”

“I can always use more friends,” I say.

May gives a small laugh in understanding. “Don’t we all.”

Wyn, quiet throughout the conversation, steps closer to the both of us. “We ruined the cookout.”

All three of us eye the mess on the ground.

“I’m tired, anyway,” May says. “I’m going to go lie down.”

“Do you want me to take you up?”

“No, dear.” May pats Wyn’s arm. “Stay here with Dee. Salvage what you can. I love you, you know.”

He kisses the top of her forehead. May flutters a hand at me and heads inside.

“Well,” Wyn says once we’re alone. “What other fresh hell can I dole out now that I’ve made you my girlfriend? Wanna see me dropkick my nephew? Strangle the pet cat?”

I huff out a laugh. “It wasn’t that bad. I don’t scare so easily, Wyn. Also, there’s a cat?”

Wyn scans the backyard and shrugs. “Somewhere. Ma loves him.”

“This is family,” I say to him. “It’s not perfect, and Brad has a ton to answer for and I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him, but this is what it’s like. Love hurts.”

“Loving you doesn’t.”

He quiets, assessing me with that intense, powerful gaze of his. The blue of his eyes rival the afternoon sky. If it’s even possible, I fall for him a second time, deeper than the first.

I whisper, “Loving you feels good, too.”

“You love me?” His face cracks into a grin. “After all this fuckery, you love me?”

I laugh, nodding. The sound of my laughter surprises to both of us in the deserted backyard. Dandelion seeds have made it to our spot, floating into the space between us and a few dotting his hair.

“I want the hell,” I say. “And the heaven. I want everything you’ve got, Wyn Riley, because I can’t think of a more exciting way to live.”

Wyn replies in a rough voice, “You provide the brains, and I’ll provide the soundtrack.”

He closes the gap, picks me up and hooks my legs around his waist. He catches my squeal with his mouth, and in the floating cloud of dandelion seeds, he kisses me.

And Deonne Sorenson kisses him back.

Epilogue

Dee

Two Months Later

I sit in the middle of the stadium, listening to Nocturne Court’s final soundcheck. Wyn’s in his sweats, his matted, damp hair pulled back as he tests his keys on the riser on the stage. He looks up just as I lean forward, and though it’s easier to see him on the giant monitors hung throughout the arena, I catch his gaze and wave.

He blows a kiss at the same time Mason shouts something, and his attention goes back to the band.

“Aren’t they cute?” McKenna asks as she sways in the chair next to mine, her newborn boy in her arms. “Look at them down there, working together and having fun.”

“Not as cute as that baby.” I sit back in my seat.

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