“It’s safe now?” I choked out. “But how do you know? Matthew found us.” I wasn’t worried about more guys finding us, but I wasn’t ready to leave.
“Out of the five men who had the possibility of getting out, two of them were denied parole, one is dead, and the other two are already back in jail—as of a couple days ago. There was only one other man helping Juarez’s crew, the guy funding that Matthew kid, and he was caught when we looked up the bank card Matthew had been given. He was one of the gang members’ sons, and he didn’t make it three days in jail before a couple members from a rival gang had him taken out. The three members who had been released retaliated, and it obviously didn’t go well. One was killed, the other two killed a man and were caught.”
“That’s a nice bedtime story,” Kira said sarcastically, but her face still showed how excited she was to be going home.
I finally turned to face Liam, and my chest constricted at the terrified look in his eyes. It looked like he wasn’t even breathing as he waited for my reaction. Cupping my hand against his cheek, I said, “It’s time for me to go back to Florida . . .”
He exhaled heavily as if someone had hit him, and his gaze dropped to my lap.
“ . . . so that I can pack all my things and move to California for good.”
Arctic-blue eyes shot back up to mine and widened. “Are you serious? You hate it here.”
“It’s not so bad.” I shrugged. “But I do need to get everything from back home. I mean, after all, I have to get my cow.”
Liam’s lips twitched up before spreading into a wide smile. “Hell yeah, Bessie.” He grabbed my face in his hands and pulled me closer to kiss me thoroughly—never once caring that my parents were sitting a few feet away.
“Hell. No. You’re not staying!” Dad yelled.
“Kash, stop. I moved to Florida for you,” Mom reminded him, and he scoffed.
“It’s official. I don’t like him again.”
I leaned back an inch to look into Liam’s eyes and laughed softly. “You really thought I would leave? I’m yours,” I whispered.
“You are,” he agreed, his voice equally soft. “And I’m so fucking glad you’re staying, Moon.”
Epilogue
December 23 . . . One year later
Liam
I OPENED UP the door to our new house and called out for Kennedy as I stepped inside. There were still random boxes scattered throughout the place that I knew I needed to unpack since Kennedy couldn’t, but right now I needed to do something that was more important.
“Moon?” I yelled.
“In here!” she called back.
“Where is here?” I mumbled to myself as I walked through the house trying to find my wife.
Although our parents had tried to stop us, we had our wedding in Vegas at the beginning of July. We didn’t have the cliché Vegas wedding, that had never been the plan. We just wanted to get married in the city where we’d met. Thanks to Kennedy devoting all her time to planning since we’d set a date that was only two months after we’d decided to get married, the night ended up being amazing.
Once our parents understood that we would be having an actual wedding, and that everyone was invited, they stopped trying to push for a wedding that was in California or Florida, and just tried to get us to wait. We didn’t see the point in waiting. We were already living together, we knew that we would eventually get married anyway, and as we revealed to our families at the reception, we’d found out that Kennedy was pregnant in May.
We’d bought a house and moved in just a couple weeks ago; and thank God we were finally in here, because Kennedy was already a few days past her due date.
I turned the corner into the nursery and found her folding clothes and putting them away.
“Hi! How was work?”
“Long. How are you feeling? How’s Chase?” I asked as I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her.
Kennedy placed her hands on her swollen stomach and sighed. “He’s good. I’m just ready for him to be here.”
“Do you think it’ll be tonight?”
“We’ll see. But the doctor said if it’s not within the next few days, she’s going to induce me on the twenty-sixth.”
“Good,” I whispered against her neck, and placed a kiss there. “I have a Christmas present for you.” I brought the small, wrapped gift around her and held it up for her to take.
“It’s not Christmas yet!”
“It’s for you and Chase. Just open it.” I let my hands rest where hers had been, and waited as she tried to find a spot to start opening the wrapping paper. “It’s small, and kind of more for us than for him . . .” I trailed off when she opened the present and inhaled sharply.
“Oh my God,” she breathed, and I knew those pregnancy hormones were about to kick in at any second. “It’s perfect,” she choked out, and held up a copy of Goodnight Moon before turning in my arms to look at me. “Thank you. I love it and I love you.”
“I love you too.” I smiled and wiped away the tear that had fallen down her cheek. “Merry Christmas, Moon.”
THE END