Page 116 of Redeeming Melodies

My kid. My home. My family. Still felt surreal sometimes, like I'd wake up back in that empty hotel room, everything gone.

But then Jake's hand would find mine, or Tommy's laugh would carry across the yard, and reality would hit harder than any checkered flag ever had.

"Dad!" Tommy's voice rang from his fortress in the sky. "Sheriff Jake! Watch this!"

My heart stopped for a second watching him swing from the rope ladder, but Caleb stood ready below. Always watching, always protecting. That's what this town did - looked after its own.

"Careful up there, sport!" Jake called back, but his smile said everything. He'd helped build that treehouse, every nail and board a promise to our kid.

Nina worked the drinks table like it was her bar, keeping everyone's glasses full. Sarah and Mrs. Henderson had taken over the food spread, arguing about potato salad recipes like it was life or death. Pure small town magic.

"He looks happy." Cassidy appeared beside me, pride clear in her voice. "They both do."

Followed her gaze to where Jake was now demonstrating proper rope ladder technique to an audience of fascinated kids. My sheriff, always teaching, always protecting.

"Still can't believe we're here." The words came quiet, meant just for her. "A month ago I was losing everything."

"And now?" Her smile went knowing.

"Now I've got everything that matters."

Tommy's friend Michael joined him in the treehouse, their excited plans for sleepovers and video game tournaments carrying across the yard. Real friendship, not the carefully scheduled playdates Vanessa used to arrange.

"Jimmy's doing better." Liam's voice carried hope as he joined our little group. "Doctor says brain activity is increasing."

"He'll wake up." Jake's certainty as he walked up wrapped around us like armor. "Too stubborn not to."

His arm slid around my waist, natural as breathing. No hesitation, no looking around to see who might notice. Just us, being us.

"You know," Nina called from her drink station, "when you first blew through town in that fancy car, didn't expect this ending."

"Neither did I." But watching Tommy show his friends the telescope we'd installed up top, his face pure joy, couldn't imagine any other path.

The garden lights clicked on as dusk deepened - Jake's project last weekend. String lights dancing between trees like fallen stars. Everything soft and warm and real.

The party flowed around us, everyone we loved in one place. Caleb and Liam sharing quiet moments between keeping kid-watch. Cassidy and Sarah plotting something that probably meant trouble. Even Riley, taking photos for the local paper instead of national news.

"Dad!" Tommy again, breathless from climbing. "Can Michael stay over? His mom said it's okay if you say yes."

Caught Michael's mom's nod from across the yard. Angela, who worked at the diner and always slipped Tommy extra bacon.

"Sure, buddy." The words came easy now. No checking schedules or social calendars. Just life, happening as it should.

"Yes!" Both boys punched the air, racing back to their castle in the clouds.

"You're good at this." Jake's words carried weight. "Being a dad. Being you."

"We're good at this." Corrected him gentle. "Being a family."

Because that's what we'd built here. Not just a house or a home, but something bigger. Something real.

The moon rose over our little gathering, full and bright like a spotlight on everything we'd fought for. Everything we'd won.

"Happy?" Jake asked, though he knew the answer.

"More than." Turned into him, breathed in that coffee-and-safety smell that meant home now. "This is everything I never knew to want."

Tommy's laugh carried across the yard again, pure and free. Our son, finally just allowed to be a kid. To be himself.

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