“Hey, I was in no way involved with Mitchell Security. Don’t put that on me.”
“I can’t believe Jaxon would trust us—okay, me—like that,” he says, using his palm to shove the strand of hair back. “I figured we’d have no chance of getting his contract, and you got it on the first try. Damn, you’ve got a way with people.”
I cross my arms, fighting the grin threatening to take over my face. “What can I say? I’m persuasive. Plus, it helps when he’s secretly in love with love. And with my sister.”
“I think that last part might still be a secret to him,” Carter says.
An image of Izzy’s face as she watched Jaxon prepare for the concert flashes through my mind. “Somehow, I think the only people it’s a secret for are Jaxon and Izzy.”
Carter picks up the envelope again, jotting down a few quick notes. “I’ll start reaching out to the guys from the tour who might want to pick back up with Jaxon now that he’s at home. We can have two shifts of two men on a rotating four-days-on, four-days-off schedule, and then we’ll add more if Jaxon has any events.” Carter pauses, considering. “Can I use Lila to help me coordinate with his team?”
I nod in agreement, making a mental note to tell Lila.
Carter leans back in his chair, his fingers tapping against the back of the envelope. “All right. I’m in. This is going to be…amazing.”
A laugh tumbles out of me, wild and free, as I take in the joy on his face.
We both stand at the same time, the weight of what’s ahead settling in, but with the realization that this—whatever comes next—is exactly where we’re meant to be.
Chapter forty-three
Epilogue
Carter
“Whowould’vethought,ofall of us, Carter and Kelsey would be the first getting married,” JT says, sipping a glass of whiskey while we wait for the wedding coordinator to tell us it’s time to take our places.
JT and Jameson are both here, as well as Kelsey’s dad, Ken, and two of my Army buddies who flew in for the long weekend. We’re all dressed in our black suits, and we’ve been instructed to wait. So we’re doing that—talking, laughing, and drinking the finest whiskey two pro golfers could find.
The air in the room feels light, almost electric, with the nervous excitement that can only come before a wedding. I glance around at the guys, each of us fidgeting in our own way. Ken is smoothing downhis tie for the fourth time, and Jameson is stretching his neck like he’s about to go to war. JT, of course, is already on his second glass of whiskey, taking it like he’s preparing for some kind of emotional speech…which he might be.
We’re in the groom’s room in the back corner of a big red barn a few miles outside of Wild Bluffs. Calling it a wedding venue would be a bit insulting to places that host weddings every weekend, but it’s beautiful and rustic and was available at a month’s notice.
“It’d be romantic if they weren’t so practical about their shotgun wedding,” Jameson says.
I breathe in, stifling my eye roll. “It’s not a shotgun wedding. She isn’t pregnant.”
“So you both keep saying,” JT jokes.
I feel the weight of the words hanging in the air for a moment, the tone playful but edged with something deeper—something real. It’s been a whirlwind these last few months between moving in together and building out the personal security side of the business. Fast, yes. But it feels like everything is finally clicking into place.
Deciding to get married four months after we started dating wasn’t a decision Kelsey or I took lightly, but when my mom’s memory reached the place a month ago that I decided I needed to bring in someone to stay with her during the day, I just kept thinking that she might not remember my wedding.
That night, when we were lying next to each other in bed, I told Kelsey about it. Her response? “Let’s get married, then.”
I shrug, turning toward JT. “I know it’s fast, but it was important to me that my mom still be my mom at my wedding. She’s the only family I have.”
“Don’t let these assholes make you feel bad,” Ken says. “When you know, you know. Waiting months or years to figure it out doesn’t mean you’re any more likely to be happy together. It just means you’ve wasted more of your life not being with the woman you love.”
JT and Jameson share a look, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d guess Ken just won the local jewelry store a few new customers.
“Plus,” Ken continues, “Kelsey’s always known her mind. When she decided to share her home and her business with you, it was essentially the same thing as her proposing—she’s been in it this whole time.”
“So have I,” I say. Kelsey is the other half of my soul, the one I come back to again and again, no matter how long we’re apart—she’s my puffin. My mind may not have known it when we were in high school, but it turns out my heart sure as hell did.
“Did you know before the speeches that a baby puffin is called a puffling, Puff?” Wes, my buddy from my time in the Rangers, asks. “I almost shot my beer out my nose when Izzy included that in her speech yesterday. I sent it out in the WhatsApp group, and all the guys got a kick out of it.”
Damn Izzy and her fun facts. It’s a fucking adorable name for a baby animal, and now all I want to do is have a puffling of my own. Something I’ve never cared about before.
