I smile, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Yeah.”
He lifts me up and spins me around. When he sets me down, his smile is so bright it makes my heart skip a beat.
Merry Christmas to me.
“What about our stuff?” I ask, suddenly practical again.
Dread shrugs. “I’ll send a prospect over there to box it all up and haul it over here.”
“Mom!” Tommy’s voice calls from upstairs. “Jackson’s trying to change the game!”
I sigh, leaning my forehead against Dread’s chest. “You sure this is what you want?”
He lifts my face, his eyes serious. “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
“Okay.” I smile.
When I start to turn away, he catches my hand and pulls me back for one more quick kiss. “Honey?”
“Hmm?”
“Welcome home, baby.”
EPILOGUE
DREAD
Christmas Eve
Taking a pull from my beer,I watch Honey and the boys put the finishing touches on our Christmas tree. It’s the same one we picked out the day the boys were taken.
After everything went down with Eddie, I didn’t think Honey would want to go back to Hank’s, but she surprised me. Said she wasn’t going to let that motherfucker ruin Christmas for the boys.
So, three days ago, we drove back there and got it. The old man who owned the place recognized us immediately. Said he’d kept our tree aside, hoping we’d come back for it. Didn’t even charge us for it, just handed it over with an apology in his eyes.
Honey still doesn’t know what happened to Eddie.
Nobody does except my brothers. As far as the world will ever know, Eddie skipped town after his failed kidnapping attempt.
The cops didn’t put much effort into finding him once they learned he was the boys’ father. They chalked it up to adomestic situationand filed it away.
Which is perfectly fine by me.
“Dread, can you hand me that box of candy canes?” Tommy asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
I reach for the small cardboard box on the end table and pass it to him. His little hand brushes against mine, and I feel that same tug in my chest that I get every time these boys look at me with trust in their eyes.
“Thanks!” he chirps, turning back to hang the candy canes on the lower branches of the tree.
Honey and her boys moved in for real three days ago. It didn’t take long for the prospects to box up all their things from next door and haul them over.
There wasn’t much to move, honestly. It was mostly clothes, a few household items that should have been tossed a long time ago, and the boys’ toys.
That first night, after we’d tucked the boys into their new beds in their new rooms, Honey cried.
It damn near gutted me when she told me how she couldn’t believe how lucky she was. My baby had been through so much, and she was having a hard time trusting that this was real.
“How does it look?” Honey asks, stepping back from the tree to admire their handiwork.
