Page 151 of Delicate Escape

My mouth curved. “I’ll take it.”

Shep’s thumb traced the swell of my bottom lip. “I don’t want to move into that rental.”

I stilled. I’d known that his lease had already started. I just hadn’t wanted to think about him possibly leaving my little cabin in the woods. “You don’t?”

“Can’t imagine sleeping without you. Or not having Moose scare the crap out of me with his nighttime crazies. Don’t want to wake up and not have the first thing I see be your face.”

“Shepard,” I whispered.

“That full-name biz had better be a fuckin’ yes,” he growled.

“Yes,” I breathed. “Stay.”

EPILOGUE

THEA

ONE YEAR LATER

“Finally,”Nikki said as she picked up my call. “I’ve only called you half a dozen times today.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as her voice rang out over my SUV’s speakers. An SUV that Shep had begged and pleaded to get me after the ordeal with Raina.

I’d given him the win. That, along with getting a cell phone and hooking up high-speed internet at the house. But I’d let Shep lay the cable for the latter. He was my roommate, after all.

A roommate I never wanted to be without. We’d made it through the worst and come out of it stronger and more bonded than ever. It didn’t hurt that we’d gotten to witness the fall of Brendan.

The press loved a golden superhero, but the only thing they loved more was tearing that superhero down. People had come out of the woodwork with stories of Brendan’s true nature. And those stories had set me free. Along with the fact that Brendan would be in jail for years to come.

Sadly, Raina wouldn’t be walking free for some time either. Thankfully, a judge had sentenced her to the psychiatric facility instead of jail. She was getting help, and through her healing, had finally opened up about her abuse.

Between her firsthand account, X-rays, and corroborating witnesses, Russ was serving five years in a state penitentiary and had to pay a fine that would wipe him out. In some ways, he was serving Raina’s sentence just as it always should’ve been. Because he was the one who’d warped her mind in the first place. And Russ’s father, Bob, had closed the doors to Castle Rock Construction and moved out of state in shame.

“Earth to Thea,” Nikki singsonged. She’d gotten used to calling me by my middle name over the past year. I liked going by Thea. Because, in so many ways, it marked my new beginning.

“Sorry, brain swirls. What did you say?”

She sighed. “I asked how your last day was.”

I smiled through the window at the gathering twilight. I loved this time of day, the way it cast the beautiful land in a magical purple hue. “It was good. Bittersweet. But Duncan brought cake, and Rho brought champagne.”

“Sounds perfect to me. And now you get to watch that hunk of a man up close and personal every single day.”

I laughed again. Nikki had been to visit three times, so she’d seen all the glory that was Shep. I’d started helping him out with landscape designs about nine months ago, and now he had enough jobs to bring me on full time.

The gig was a dream. Not only did I get to play in the dirt for a living, I got to create magic with the person I loved most in the world. And it didn’t hurt that I got to see him shirtless in the summer months. It was icing on the cake that I’d also begun volunteering with the local library’s literacy program.

“New job perks for sure,” I said, smiling through the words as I turned onto the long drive that led to the old farmhouse.

“You heading to the new place now?” Nikki asked.

“Almost there. Shep said they finished today.”

Shep and his crew had been working overtime on all the finish work for the past few weeks as I’d been hard at work in all the garden beds. The spaces around the farmhouse were a riot of color and texture. And the ridiculously over-the-top pool that Shep had gotten installed, complete with lazy river, had been the final jewel.

But he’d asked that I not come by this past week so he could get everything cleaned up for the final unveiling. He wanted that gasp moment from me.“You know I love the sounds you make, Thorn. Don’t rob me of that.”

Nikki let out a squeal. “Tell me everything tomorrow! I demand pictures.”

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