Page 136 of Marvelous

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Tatum was curled into Garrick’s side.

Harlee was wrapped in Carter’s arms.

Dom had an arm around Talia’s shoulders.

Bronson had his arm around Lila.

The kids were off to the side, waving at the plane as it took off.

Then I looked at Everly.

I called out her name.

She looked over at me and wiped her cheeks, then I opened my other arm and said, “Get over here, girl.”

She smiled, then came over to me, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Cassie was standing there with Krispin at her side.

And none of us moved until the plane that Alec and the rest of his team were in was nothing but a spec in the night sky.

Misty

I stood there as I waited with bated breath.

Alec was coming back home today.

And it would be his final mission.

He was getting out.

He had put his twenty in.

And I couldn’t be prouder of him if I tried.

All those years ago, I only pushed him because I knew he could be a better person.

I just didn’t know that I had been wrong.

So wrong.

And from that point on, it’s the one thing in my life that I regret.

I walked over to Cassie, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and asked, “Are you happy, sweetheart?”

She shook her head.

I gasped, “Why not? He’s going to be home.”

“I’m afraid he’ll miss it.” She told me.

I could see that, so I nodded.

But then I said, “Trust him. If he wasn’t ready to get out, he would tell you.”

And that was the truth.

He may be my boy, but he was Cassie’s through and through.

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