Page 146 of Offside Angel

I don’t have the words to explain what Zane means to me. To tell him the lengths I’d go to to make sure I never lose him.

So I do the next best thing: I cry on his chest until I run out of tears. Then I wash off the terrible day and let Zane bundle me up in a robe and lead me to our bed.

We lie there together, crying and dozing and whispering, until our door opens and a shock of blonde hair pokes through the crack.

“You can go in,” Taylor urges from the hall. “Just be gentle with them. They have owies.”

Hearing my best friend say the word “owies” warms my heart in a way I didn’t know was possible. Then Aiden bursts through the door, half in tears before he can even make it to our bed, and my heart disintegrates.

It’s eviscerated. It’s dust in the wind.

I haul Aiden onto the bed, nestling him carefully between us so he can hug his dad without hurting him.

“Everything is okay,” Zane murmurs again and again, smoothing Aiden’s hair back. “We’re all safe.”

“Because you’re here now?” Aiden whimpers.

Something breaks behind Zane’s eyes, but he nods and kisses Aiden’s forehead. “Exactly, buddy. You’re safe because I’m here.”

Because Zane is the kind of dad every kid deserves. The kind of husband any woman would be lucky to have—me, most of all.

I didn’t think a life like this was possible for me, but now, it’s here, and I am never going to let it go.

Aiden eventually drifts to sleep, and Zane and I watch each other over the top of his head. He needs to remind himself that this is real as much as I do.

“What are you thinking about?” I whisper after a long time.

“Europe.”

I bite back my first real laugh in way too long. “What?”

“I was thinking about Europe,” he continues. “Southern Italy, maybe. Or the Maldives. You’d make a cute ski bunny, but selfishly, I’d like you in a bikini as much as possible.”

I shake my head, grinning. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

He reaches over Aiden and links our fingers together. “I’m talking about our honeymoon.”

“Oh.” I blink. “Oh.”

“We said we’d talk about once everything was over, and—” He shrugs. “—everything is over.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I blink them back. I don’t want to cry anymore. “I never actually thought this would happen. I don’t actually know what comes next.”

Zane brings our hands to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “Luckily for you, I have nothing but ideas.”

EPILOGUE: MIRA

TWO MONTHS LATER

“There should be a circle of hell dedicated to children’s birthday parties,” Taylor grumbles as a train of children chug through the kitchen, loudly blowing party horns. Aiden is at the lead, grinning from ear to ear. Once they turn down the hall for Aiden’s room, Taylor sags against the countertop. “No offense.”

I toss a pile of cake-covered paper plates in the trash with a shrug. “Why would I be offended? You’re just saying the party I planned for the last three weeks and executed perfectly belongs in Dante’s Inferno. What’s offensive about that?”

To be fair, this party could’ve been done in only a few days. Zane’s new assistant offered to help by calling vendors, ordering the cake, and sourcing invitations, but I told Gavin I would handle it all myself.

Honestly, I needed the distraction.

It’s been almost two months since the night everything happened, and we’re all slowly getting back to form. I sleep a little more each night. Aiden asks fewer and fewer questions about bad guys breaking in. Zane isn’t compulsively checking the security cameras quite as often.

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