Page 78 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

‘I won’t torture you much longer,’ he assured me as we walked hand in hand into my parents’ house on Christmas morning. I had taken my presents over last night and we were just waiting on Deb to arrive from picking Breton up from the airport to have brunch.

It was lightly snowing, and while there was a light dusting of snow covering the ground, the grass was still peeking through. All the snow that had fallen only a few short weeks ago had all but melted.

‘I told you, you didn’t need to get me anything, you’re all I need,’ I said.

He leaned in and kissed me. ‘Technically I didn’t buy you anything, I made it,’ he smirked, which earned him a smile.

My mom looked like she was in her glory with a Christmas vest and matching slippers, puttering around setting the table for brunch while my dad was trying to find the Disney Christmas parade on TV. ‘This was something the kids always loved to watch on Christmas, I’m not sure why, Josh always hated parades.’

‘He hated the crowds, Dad,’ I said as I came in and hugged him from behind. ‘Merry Christmas, old man.’

‘Who you calling old?’

‘You,’ I kissed him. ‘Brett just texted, they’re just pulling off the highway.’

We had been unsure when Breton would be home, so we had agreed to play it by ear. When he got back to London last night and boarded a commercial flight early this morning, we arranged that we would have a nice brunch today with presents after and save our turkey dinner for tomorrow, and invite my grandparents over to tell them the big news-I was still alive.

‘I want to give Drew my present first,’ I beamed after brunch as we all made our way into the front room of the summer house which my mother did a decent job of decorating given the last-minute supplies she found through the picked-over stores.

‘It’s from both of us,’ Breton reminded me and rolled two large mismatched suitcases into the living room, which everyone eyed suspiciously. Only Breton and I knew exactly what they were. All of my belongings from London.

Breton opened his backpack that had been sitting on top of one of the bags and pulled out a large white binder.

‘Papers?’ Drew asked with a confused smirk on his face.

Breton nodded, rolling the suitcases towards him one by one. ‘And these,’ Brett beamed. ‘Don’t forget these.’

‘Luggage?’ Drew looked more confused than ever at the two mismatched bags and one binder full of papers and folders. He picked up the binder and flipped through it, taking in the words, pictures and touching the USB keys that were in clear zippered folders. ‘Is this…?’

‘The completed evidence,’ I answered for him, placing my hand on one of the bags. ‘And these are all my belongings from London.’

‘You’re not going back?’ he questioned rolling the words over, not so sure that he understood the words he just said. But that was the gist of it.

It was a good thing that I didn’t have much in the way of material possessions in London and that I kept things neat and tidy, because Breton only had a few hours last night to pack it all up before catching his flight this morning.

Breton had finished up with all the evidence and had one of his team members review for anything we may have missed and checked there were no holes in my backstory. When he got them back the other day, I knew that there really was no need for me to head back to London, but that it also wasn’t the safest bet for me to stay on the Cape either. As it was, I had likely already been here too long.

He stood up and engulfed me into a huge hug. ‘Really?’ he questioned, not fully able to believe it was real, that it was all finally over.

I nodded, kissing him. ‘Really.’

‘You’re staying,’ he stated it, rather than asked it.

‘Well, I’m heading to Vegas for a bit, just until we get all the PR and legal stuff sorted and a plan to turn myself in. Everything hinges on me not having left America.’

‘But why wait?’ Deb asked the question that I knew was on Drew’s lips.

It was my father who spoke up. ‘Zoe has worlds coming up soon, and we don’t want to interfere with that, and we will need her to do all the PR stuff. As it’s going to be a lot, I want her on it and we are willing to wait.’ Breton, Abby and I had sought his advice the other day when everything was starting to come together and this was his suggestion, and I felt it was the best one.

‘We’re going to Vegas?’ Drew beamed.

I tapped his chest, clarifying, ‘I’m going to Vegas with my mom, you are staying here.’

His face dropped, ‘For how long?’

I shrugged and looked to Breton then back to Drew. ‘About a month, as soon as Zoe is back from worlds and Breton has a break in missions.’

Drew looked to Breton and nodded, understanding that I couldn’t turn myself in alone, that we were a package deal.

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