Somewhere near the bar, I saw Carter and Sawyer watching intently. By the way they clenched their drinks, I knew they were on edge.
“You honor me, Marco,” I told the old man, finally. “I appreciate your friendship, and your help.”
“Friendship, no,” he corrected me, solemnly wagging a finger. “Family, yes.”
He extended one old, wrinkled hand. After a moment’s consideration, I reached out and took it.
“I told you you’d get paid, one way or the other,” Marco said with a wink.
EPILOGUE
HAYDEN
“Alright, everyone ready?”
I hopped onto the couch, just as Carter killed the lights. It was his turn tonight; his presentation to make, while the rest of us sat back and heard what he had to say.
Right now the room was beyond cozy; the embers from a killer fire still blazing white hot in the firebox. I snuggled back against Bodie’s hard chest, pulling his legs up on either side of me. Sawyer handed me a glass of wine and dropped down beside us.
Carter, on the loveseat nearby, had his laptop open. He punched a key, and a breathtaking sunset sprang up on the television. “What do we think about… Tennessee!?”
I listened intently to his pitch, while sipping my wine. Yesterday had been Colorado, brought to us by Sawyer. The night before that, Bodie had tried pitching us a gorgeous lake house in Maine. Neither was vetoed outright, but neither felt one-hundred percent like home, either. Then again, would any place really feel like home until we actually settled in there?
“Tennessee, huh?” mused Sawyer. “Outside of Nashville, let’s hear it.”
Carter nodded. “No state income tax,” he began solidly. “Low cost of living, low utilities, and—”
“How about something other than money?” Bodie interjected.
Carter pressed another button. The television blinked, and a beautiful mountain scene appeared.
“You’ve got the Smokey Mountains,” he went on. “Land is cheap, and plentiful, and we could spread out over acres and acres. Plus we’re not in a rush, so we could design and build the home we want.”
“Mild winters?” asked Sawyer.
“Very,” Carter confirmed. “Especially compared to here.”
Snuggled into his body, I felt Bodie heave a sigh. He’d wanted to go north, of course. He was also the only one who didn’t really mind the snow.
“Imagine unlimited hiking and fishing,” Carter continued. “And there are lakes everywhere, so we could even look at a plot that has one.”
Sawyer glanced at Bodie, then back at Carter. He frowned.
“The two of you are angling for a boat again, aren’t you?”
Bodie chuckled beneath me. Carter shrugged.
“I swear you’d go anywhere, as long as there’s fish!” cried Sawyer. “Maybe we should just take over a ferry crossing. Get you a couple of captains hats.”
“Hey, it’s Carter’s turn,” I teased, throwing a pillow Sawyer’s way. “Let him talk. We listened to you drone on and on about the Rocky Mountains. And you’ve never even been there.”
“I’ve been to enough mountains to know I like em’,” Sawyer said defensively.
He threw the pillow back and I let it bounce harmlessly off my shoulder, keeping my wine glass high to save the spill. It was another amazing night. The lights were dim, and the Christmas tree glowed with dozens of slowly twinkling lights. There were already presents under the tree. Some of them I’d even shaken a few times, to see what they were.
“If we went to Maine we could ski all the time,” Bodie voiced.
“And we’d freeze our asses off each winter,” Sawyer shot back.
