Page 147 of Resting Beach Face
If nothing else, I could finally make arrangements to get the rest of our stuff out of the house. Kat and I had both been avoiding it because we hadn’t been ready for another confrontation, but we couldn’t stand still, unmoving forever.
It was time to figure out what came next. Plus, it’d be nice to stop wearing the same damn clothes over and over. I was a colorful guy, and I needed to express it through more than a handful of outfits.
We said a stilted goodbye. It was going to take time for our relationship to heal. While I’d lived at home, I’d been so angry at my father that I’d never processed my mom’s role in our situation. She’d enabled Dad.
But then I had too, hadn’t I? By staying and supporting the family, I’d allowed it to continue as much as she had. We’d both done our best in a crappy situation, though. Maybe it was time to focus on the future.
“You okay?” Declan asked.
“Yeah, just a call from my mom. She’s sent my dad to rehab.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “If it works, it is. There’s no guarantee it will. Hell, I don’t know if I want to see him again, even if it does. Is that awful?”
“Not even a little,” Declan said. “You feel what you need to feel, love. No judgment here.”
“And if Kat doesn’t want to go back there, I sort of told my mom I’d let her stay with us…indefinitely. Is that okay?”
“Of course it is,” Declan said. “This is your home, which makes it her home, too. She always has a place here. If your parents fight it, we can get a lawyer. Whatever it takes.”
I pulled his face to mine for a soft kiss. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“I believe you harassed me into loving you.”
I laughed. “I can be very persistent.”
“Yes, you can, but I’m so glad you came crashing into my life. I can’t imagine a future without you in it now.”
Declan smiled at me, and this expression was so warm and full of love it was miles from the resting bitch face that he was known for. It was the real Declan, the one he’d kept tucked away, guarded behind walls of surly indifference.
This kind of smile was rare and only for me, but that only made it more precious.
“You know,” I teased, “with the B&B fully renovated, we can book a lot more guests.”
Declan grimaced. There was the grump I knew and loved.
“That’s…good,” he said, looking as if he’d bitten into something sour.
“Mm-hmm.” I slung my arms around his neck. “Maybe we should move out into The Roost? You know, it’s a lot closer to the greenhouse and my introvert can hide out away from other people until—mmph!”
Declan kissed me so hard he nearly knocked me off my feet. “You’re perfect, you know that? You have the best ideas.”
“I know. It was my idea for you to love me.”
He pinched my ass, making me yelp, then kissed me again.
I could get used to this life, this man. The rest of the world might see his resting bitch face, but all I saw was the love of my life.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Declan
“These tomatoes are just gorgeous,”Judy Nash said, picking up two bright-red romas from my table at the Outdoor Market near the marina.
“They’re delicious too,” Pearl put in from the vendor’s spot beside me, where she displayed her jams. “I bought a crateful to make my tomato jam. It’s never tasted so good.”
