Page 126 of The Au Pair Affair

“Excuse me,” she said, forcing her legs to carry her across the dining room.

Burgess had walked down to the edge of the patio and sat down on one of the lounge chairs, a nearby fire pit highlighting the planes and shadows of his face. There was so much noise from the dining room, he must not have heard her approaching and it took her several steps before she could make out what he was saying into the phone, but she finally did.

“I know, Liss.” He massaged the center of his forehead. “I did. I tried.”

Tallulah abruptly stopped walking, hands pressed to her chest to keep her heart from leaping out.

“Of course, I told her that I love her. Believe me, she knows.” He listened. “It’s not that easy. There’s not always a way to fix something when it breaks.” Whatever his daughter said nextcaused him to tip his head back and exhale at the night sky. “Yes, of course, I’ll tell her you love her. But maybe—”

“Maybe she can tell me herself.”

Burgess went still, a beat passing before he turned his head. His eyes were guarded and God, that tore her up. She didn’t ever want him to guard himself around her again. Not ever.

“Do you want to speak to Lissa?”

More than anything, she did. But... “I was kind of hoping she could tell me in person?” Those words flooded her with so much hope and faith in the future, it almost hurt too much to say them out loud. “Back in Boston?”

A section of the barrier Burgess had erected around himself slipped, a comet of hope streaking across his expression, before it winked out. “You’re more than welcome to come over—”

“Burgess,” she blurted, heartsick and exasperated. “I’m trying to tell you I want to come back permanently.” She took another step forward. And another, until her knee bumped up against the side of his thigh. “I want to come home.”

The hand holding the phone dropped like a stone and he struggled bringing it back to his ear, almost like he suddenly lacked the strength. Once he got it there, he listened for a moment, a lump bobbing up and down in his throat as an excited twelve-year-old voice screeched down the line. “She heard you,” he said, looking at Tallulah, still slightly guarded but getting closer, getting closer. “Lissa, I’ll call you back.” He paused. “Wewill call you back.”

And then he dropped the phone and lunged off the lounge chair, catching Tallulah in a bear hug and lifting her off the ground with a choked sound, his hands raking all over her, down the back of her head, continuing down to her spine and drawing her impossibly closer, his breath loud in her ear. “I thought you were done with me. I thought you were done.”

“I’m not. I never would have been.” She wrapped her armstighter around his neck, absorbing the homecoming and safety and completion he’d come to represent. That he would always represent to her. “I would have walked around my whole life loving you.”

His knees dipped. “You love me. You still love me.”

“Of course, I do.” Tears ran down her face. “You don’t think I’d use just anyone’s sweatshirt as a pillow, do you?”

He pulled back slightly, his hand alternating between affectionate strokes of her hair and brushes of his knuckles down the curve of her cheekbone. “I will never make you cry again, Tallulah. I swear to God. I’ve been half alive since you walked out of that hospital room—”

“Burgess...” She searched for the right words, the ones that would put them on the right path. Thesamepath. Words that were overflowing from her heart now, like they’d just been waiting for something to knock them free. “Maybe I will cry again. Maybe we’ll shout and get angry or push each other’s buttons. But our love is going to be bigger than the bad moments. And we know what it’s like now. To walk away. To be without each other. So next time we’re going to fight together, instead of apart. Next time we’ll remember our love comes out on top and we’ll skip the indecision... and get to making up.”

“Sign me up, Tallulah. I never want to be without you again,” Burgess said thickly, shaking his head while cataloguing her features, appreciating them one by one. “My God, I don’t deserve another chance, but wait until you see what I’m going to do with it.” His lips coasted over hers, drawing her into a slow, winding kiss. “I’m going to take you on adventures, because I live to see you happy. And because you taught me to enjoy them, too. But hear me when I tell you, there will never be an adventure that lives up to you.” He looked her in the eye. “I want to stay on it forever.”

“Sign me up,” she whispered. “But I amnotcooking.”

Epilogue

Burgess adjusted the AirPod in his ear as his playlist transitioned to the next song. When the familiar whine of Raskulls came on, he rolled his eyes, but he didn’t skip. No way. He’d enjoy every minute of the playlist Tallulah and Lissa had made for him together. They’d giggled over it for two hours, huddled on the couch with Tallulah’s laptop, and he’d been listening to it on repeat ever since. It reminded him of them. It reminded him of home.

Textbooks on the table. Three people bumping into one another in the kitchen while making ice cream sundaes. The crinkle of a paper bag full of bagels on Sunday morning. A jumble of winter boots by the front door. Mint, sumac, and cumin scenting the air.

Lying on their backs outside on the roof garden and looking up at the night sky, talking about everything and nothing.

Laughter. Music. Dancing.

That was his home now.

And the person who’d come along and created his bright, colorful new world was currently in the brick building to his right, taking her final exam before earning her master’s in marine biology, after which they were going to meet Lissa for brunch at a restaurant adjacent to her high school. Having nearly completed her freshman year, his daughter was now fiercely independent and flourishing. She still preferred reading to socializing, but a couple of times this season, he’d returnedfrom practice to find Tallulah kneeling in front of their coffee table, giving manicures to a handful of high school students.

Yeah, his kid had friends now, but more importantly, she had good judgment. A backbone. A way of looking at the bigger picture, instead of sweating the small setbacks. A lot of that came from her mother, of course—who now came over regularly for dinner with her new husband—but a huge helping of Tallulah’s influence was there, too. And who knew... maybe he’d helped Lissa come into herself by transforming at the same time. Becoming someone who embraced change and new experiences, instead of turning his back on them.

A growling rap song drifted into his ears—one Tallulah swore would get him hyped for games—and he sighed into a smile, looking at the entrance to the building. His girlfriend was definitely a hockey fan now. Through and through. Burgess was almost tempted to tack on one more year to his career, just so he could watch her cheering in the family section a little longer, dressed in his jersey. But... no. This one would be his last. He’d come back from his back injury and proven himself resilient, a vital member of the Bearcats, but it was time to pass the captain’s torch to Sig.

There were adventures waiting for him, after all. Him and his family.

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