“Every bit of it.”
He scooped me up off the table and carried me to the lounge chairs, settling down with me draped over him. The ocean was quiet now, just the soft rhythm of waves against the hull. He grabbed a throw blanket from nearby and wrapped it around us, his arms locking me in place.
I rested my head over his heart, listening to it slow down, matching my breathing to his.
“You happy?” he asked after a while, fingers tracing lazy circles on my back.
“Beyond happy,” I said. “I didn't even know life could feel like this.”
“Me either.” His voice was soft, honest. “I spent so long chasing the next thing—next game, next contract, next win. But this?” He tightened his arms around me. “This is what I was working toward. I just didn't know it yet. They say the soaring comes after the stretching. It’s only up for me and you from here, baby.”
I tilted my head up to look at him. The moonlight caught his face, and I saw everything I needed to see: peace, certainty, love.
“I can't wait to see what we build,” I said quietly. “Whatever comes next, I’m here with you.”
“I know, and I love you for that,” he said, kissing my forehead.
“I love you too.”
We stayed like that, wrapped in each other under the stars, with the yacht gently rocking beneath us. In the distance, the lights of Santorini twinkled against the dark sky. The world felt both infinite and small, as if everything that mattered was right here in this moment. I didn’t know what the future held for us, but I knew it would be us standing side by side when it all came down to it.
Two Years Later
Halo
Halo arrived at the arena that used to make her heart pound for completely different reasons. Back then, she was just Lieutenant Grant with a crush she refused to name and DaVinci Bryns was the man who did not know how to back down. Now she walked in as his wife, carrying his twins, watching his jersey rise into the rafters.
Their love story was nothing she could have planned, and she wouldn’t change a thing about it. He came for her exactly how she needed to be pursued. She loved that about him. She loved him, and that made tonight hit even harder.
She adjusted the strap on her heels and smoothed her hands down the front of her dress, making sure everything sat right. The gown was a custom burnt-orange piece he had ordered months ago, structured and bold, made for a woman carrying twins without hiding it. The fabric hugged her shoulders in a clean off-the-shoulder cut, the oversized bow resting just under her breasts, framing her bump instead of squeezing it. It was adorable and dramatic at the same time, so of course he insisted she have it. He said she was the gift that kept on giving. The dress was wrapping paper.
The VIP section was already full when she walked in. Stacia sat perched on Stetson’s lap, whispering something in his ear that had him grinning. Halo loved them like they were her own parents now. They never hesitated to cover them in love and unsolicited advice. Sunday dinnersrotated between houses and sometimes ended up at Ignite. Somehow, without them even realizing when it happened, they had become one big family.
Omni saw her first and rushed over with her arms open.
“There she is,” Omni said, pulling Halo into a gentler hug than usual. She had treated Halo like she was made of glass ever since they announced the pregnancy. “I love this dress, sister. This bow is cute as hell.”
Halo laughed. “I fell in love with it. Tangie sent the concept to DaVinci and he fell in love too, so here we are.”
Retirement had been good to him and good to them. He had opened two more restaurants with his parents, started a year-round youth basketball camp, and spent his mornings in the gym training kids who reminded him of himself. The transition was not perfect. Some days he was quiet in a way that made her nervous, like he did not know who he was without a ball in his hand. She had been the one to remind him that basketball would always be part of him, but it did not define all of him. There was more waiting. He just had to walk into it.
She understood that feeling.
Halo had left the firehouse a year ago. Eight years on the job, climbing to Lieutenant, proving herself on every shift, made the decision feel like ripping off a piece of her identity. But Halo’s Remedy and the Ignite Foundation took off faster than either of them expected. What started as pain relief balms and butters in her kitchen had turned into an actual business. Natural remedies for people who needed real relief, created by a woman who understood that help did not always come from a prescription bottle. They had landed in three major retailers, the custom order list stayed full, and a storefront in downtown Silverrun was officially hers.
DaVinci had pushed her toward it. He told her she did not have to choose between being a firefighter and an entrepreneur, but if Halo’s Remedy was calling, she owed it to herself to answer. So she did. She hung up her gear, turned in her badge, and walked into something that scared her as much as running into a burning structure ever had. The difference was that this time, the fear meant growth.
Reconnecting with her father made her realize she had still been grieving her mother. She loved the job, but she could not keep living like the girl whose life stopped when her mom died in a house fire. She wanted to know who she could be if grief did not call the shots. She would never regret being a firefighter, but she refused to sacrifice her marriage and a future with a man who met her at the flame and refused to let go.
“How’s the business?” Omni asked, bringing her back to the present.
“Good. We’re launching the maternity line next month,” Halo said. “DaVinci doesn’t care about stretch marks, but I started tinkering again and it turned into a thing. Prenatal, postpartum, all of that. He keeps telling me I need more help, though, and I’m not ready to let go that much yet.”
“Girl, you sound just like him when he first retired,” Omni said. “Let people help you. Especially since you are about to pop.”
She was not wrong. Halo was still learning how to delegate, how to trust other people with something she had built from the ground up. But she was getting there. She had to get there. He had given her an ultimatum that wasn’t really an ultimatum at all. Hire help or hire help.
Her mind drifted back to the morning she found out she was pregnant, about eight months after the wedding. She took the test in their bathroom, hands shaking, staring at the two pink lines like they might disappear if she blinked too hard. Downstairs, DaVinci hummed in the kitchen while he made breakfast, completely unaware that everything was about to shift.
