Page 114 of Leading Conviction
“Is there any more cowboy caviar left?” Nora asked, breaking Hawk from his thoughts.
“Mmm, negative,” Devil answered guiltily around a mouthful of what looked like the last bite.
Nora’s painted lips morphed into a line before she sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Okay, then, what about dessert?”
“Here, you can have mine,” Draco offered and passed his plate of cookies to her.
“Ah!” she shouted. “Have I told you lately how much I love your sexy Viking butt?”
She danced in her chair and stuffed her mouth full of caramel chocolate chip cookie. A barely there smile ghosted Draco’s lips as he bent to whisper in her ear. Her alabaster skin blushed furiously before he kissed her cheek and drank his Icelandic alcohol from his red plastic cup.
Those two had been fun to watch. Now that the trial was over, Hawk was hoping they’d get a chance to travel the world like they’d wanted. Ever since Draco woke from his coma, he’d been living life to the fullest, and they’d planned so much together. Draco had already asked for days off.
Hawk only wished Phoenix and Callie would do the same. Instead, they’d become obsessed with work. Callie officially resigned from the FBI to join the team and since then, every job that required two or more people, they volunteered for. Solo jobs were a no-go, but those two were his first picks for nearly every two-person job.
From what Hawk could tell, Phoenix and Callie always needed to be on the move, doing something,anything, even each other in awkwardly public places around the facility, if necessary. They got a little antsy and surly if they went too long between jobs and every time they came back, they were always much more amiable.
One time over drinks, Phoenix had confirmed that work was their release, and he’d opened up to Hawk about therapy. Every successful mission was another “fuck you” to everyone who had ever hurt them. Making the world a better place was their way of fighting back against the pain they’d been through. And seeing them fight the world side by side was a wonderful thing.
“Dios mio, que hermoso,” Hannah whispered.
Hawk returned his focus to the sunset they’d lined their chairs up to watch and squeezed her hand before looking at her. “It’s beautiful. But I’ll always love the ones you paint more.”
They’d hung the painting from their favorite morning back in its rightful place above their bed. She’d cried tears of gratitude when Tommy had presented it to her from his duffel bag, showing her he’d kept it all that time. Now it hung next to the first one she’d finished at BlackStone. Thanks to their little painting adventure that one sunrise on the roof, the dark-blue-green streak had turned the landscape into a sunset. They were perfect together, side by side.
Her eyes sparkled as she rubbed up his bare tattooed arm. “My favorite will always be this one,mi cielo.”
Without Hannah, he’d been terrified of losing the memory of the best moment of his life. He’d had the painting tattooed on so he’d never forget, and he’d done everything in his power to keep the ink pristine. With Hannah around, he didn’t have to worry about forgetting. Instead, he could show off the tattoo of her artwork all he wanted.
It was perfect timing too, because he’d had to order new shirts since the guys were beginning to complain about the Henleys he always bought the team. It’d all worked out since they’d needed new logos anyway, ones with an eagle emblem that Nora and Hannah had helped design.
“This one is my favorite, too,” he agreed, placing his hand over hers.
She bit her lip in a way that made Hawk want to forego the sunset altogether and run with her down to his room, but Nora’s exclamation brought him back to the moment.
“Looks like the show’s about to begin!”
“Oh! Do you mind letting me borrow those for a minute?” Hannah asked, pointing to his pops’s old binoculars around Hawk’s neck. “I want to see the definition in the clouds.”
“Happy to, dove,” he answered and lifted the binoculars from his neck to give to her. They were one of the few possessions he still owned from his pops’s storage, but they’d come back in handy for the Braves games he and Hannah had been to with Tommy in the past year.
While Hannah peered through the binoculars in awe, Hawk glanced around at his team as they set aside their plates and drinks to watch the sun touch the peak of the mountains. When everyone had settled, Hawk sat back to “enjoy the show,” as Nora had put it.
The red, purple, and blue clouds in the sky mixed with the greenish-blue hue of the rolling Appalachian mountains, reminding him of the painting etched into his skin. His chest filled with emotion as they all watched in content silence until a bird soared through the air, wings outstretched to float effortlessly on a thermal wind current.
Hannah gasped and Hawk sat up slightly and looked at her. “Was that—”
“Yeah,” she answered and lowered the binoculars to meet his gaze with watery eyes. “It was an eagle.”
“I read online that those were making a comeback around here,” Wes murmured. “Maybe he’s one of the ones moving back in.”
Hannah squeezed Hawk’s hand. He smiled on as she spoke to his crew, “I don’t think he ever left. Not really.”
“I bet you’re right, Han.” His heart clenched at the thought.
“The best things in life never truly end,” she told him quietly. “They change you, imprinting on your soul, and they stay with you even when they’re gone.”
Hawk cleared the emotion clogging his throat and returned to watch the majestic bird soaring against the backdrop of the setting sun.
“Fly high, brother,” he whispered. “Your family’s happy.”
Hannah kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear.
“Happy ever after.”
