Page 71 of Dying to Meet You

Tears threaten to spill as I clear my throat. “Dr. Gregory Wallen was more than an outstanding psychologist, humanitarian, mentor, and advocate. He was a friend…”

Epilogue

Six months later…

Eden

Tomorrowmarksanewbeginning of sorts.

If I’d been asked after meeting her if I thought I’d ever work for Dr. Almari or see her as a mentor in the future, I would’ve been stunned speechless. It started with a heartfelt apology on her part and a degree of understanding on mine. Once she’d met the whole family, told me about her traumatic experience of losing her longtime partner, and I saw how much she was helping Zin, I couldn’t resist warming to her. Taking her job offer scared and excited me. The opportunity to change lives on a greater scale. But here I am, the night before I get in front of an audience as a speaker on trauma and embark on a new career path. The Horizon Wellness Center is now closed; there was no moving on without Greg.

“The kids are settled in with their cousins. I’m not sure my sister thought this sleepover through,” Matt says in passing.

Even so, I’m thankful to have all my husbands home…alone. That hasn’t happened for so long.

Hutton has stopped traveling, preferring to do his work from home. He is no longer doing any work for government agencies. Instead, he builds programs designed to keep children safe on the internet. To honor Greg, he also manages a global whistleblower network to report crimes against humanity. He’s still anonymously hacking bank accounts and leaving money behind.

Matt retired from his position with the FBI once he ensured that Halcyon was exposed and eradicated, starting a private security company for high-profile clients. He picks and chooses whom he works with, not wanting to get involved in scandals or with dangerous people.

Keir took a promotion in the FBI, and now he’s the head of a task force looking for missing children. He is sometimes gone a few days at a time, but his main office is close by. Since taking the position, he’s wrapped up a cold case from twenty-three years ago, finding answers for the family, and his team found a kidnapped three-year-old from Connecticut.

Blaine is working on his sobriety daily. His relapse scared him more than we could’ve. He goes to meetings three times a week. He’s still a guidance counselor at the alternative learning center, and he’s been voted “most loved” by the senior class, which is a stroke to his ego he didn’t need.

Then there’s my Caleb. We have work to do, but he finally told me his feelings about being neglected by me. We’re intentional now in our routines: a walk in the morning and winddown time at the end of the day watching a podcast he enjoys. His “glue” keeps all of us and the kids running smoothly. He’s given up the Church of the Good News, realizing he felt further from God while attending instead of closer. Now, he says he gets answers from Him while tending to the animals.

The Abbott children are officially Bradford children now. The adoption was finalized two months ago. Zach is getting more talkative. He loves going along with Wes’s play suggestions, but is expressing more interests of his own, like baseball. Zinnea didn’t set the Realists’ house on fire, which I was worried about, but the house fire caused her to fixate on burning. Well, we continue to work on it…

Waverly dances, draws, and tries desperately to get Zinnea out of the house to do things with the animals or other kids. Zin, however, prefers adults and reading.

Weston is in his police officer, specifically SWAT team, phase. When he isn’t in karate or taking care of his animals, he fights crime in a pair of cowboy boots with a ninja sword on his belt next to his plastic gun.

Our youngest two, Warner and Zeb, are growing up happy, healthy, and loved dearly. May they never have memories of anything else.

In so many ways, we’re blessed. I remind myself of this when the dark thoughts press from the back of my mind. Images of Greg’s body, Harrison’s bloody chest, the man Zinnea set on fire in the woods…

The person I was had to be reinvented to keep myself from going mad.

“Hey, earth to Eden,” Matt whispers seductively. He sets his toothbrush back in the sanitizer before kissing my neck. “What are your plans tonight?”

I cock a smile at him. “You have to ask?”

Dinner was a mood all its own. Yes, the food was delectable, but it was the teasing that got me hot.

The exchanged looks, the innuendo, all of us in one room. There’s powerful chemistry then, there's explosive heat.

My light laugh trails behind me as I leave the bathroom for the main bedroom where we’re all staying tonight. Even if nothing sexual comes of it, I wanted to keep them all close. Despite not expecting anything, I dressed for the occasion. Under my robe is a matching set of lacy red underwear and bra, though I normally sleep naked or in one of my husbands’ T-shirts. Lingerie isn’t needed to entice any of them, but I thought switching things up might be fun.

Keir and Blaine are getting ready to lie down when Keir says he gets to sleep next to me. Blaine informs him he’s too late, since earlier they’d claimed positions; Hutton on one side and him on the other.

“Womp, womp,” Blaine jokes, balling his fists to wipe his eyes mockingly.

Caleb looks over from the high-back chair he’s sitting in, removing his socks. “And so it starts.”

Strains of music come through a speaker placed on the dresser, and Blaine sways to the music. The sexy rolling of his hips makes me feel needier, and I’m salivating watching him move. That man can dance. Keir whistles at him laughing as he walks past to the bathroom in nothing but his boxer briefs.

I keep my robe on, joining Blaine in a dance. Letting the music flow over me, I rest my head back against him, my ass grazing his hard cock inside those black boxer briefs.

Hutton uses his foot to push the door open, carrying an ice bucket with champagne and non-alcoholic sparkly in one arm and glasses by the stem in the other. “A toast? To your first, of many I’m sure, speaking engagements.”

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