EPILOGUE
One Month Later
Sean
“O’Harra!Irish!”
I’d been so focused on knocking down the wall, that I hadn’t heard my boss’s call. “Hmm?”
“End of the day. Get out of here.”
Already?I looked around. Yep, the construction site was clearing out and the boss and I were the last ones there. I got like that, sometimes, when I was wrapped up in my work. Nothing else existed. Now, though, I was starting to become aware of the pleasant ache in my shoulders from swinging the hammer.
Maybe Louise could rub oil into them, tonight. She was really good at that. And then afterwards, while we had the oil handy….
“What are you grinning at?” muttered my boss. “Go on, go home already!” But he was smiling. I’d survived my first week and people seemed happy with me—every site needed a big guy who could haul stuff around or move a heavy beam into place. But what I was reallygood at was smashing stuff. They just had to point me at a wall and, a few minutes later: no more wall.
There were plenty of people on the site to learn from, too, and I was learning as fast as I could. A little roofing here, a bit of plumbing there. It would take years to get good, but I was enjoying it.
I rode the metro home. Working a regular job was taking some getting used to. Getting up every morning, commuting.... Even seeing numbers on a payslip instead of cash pressed into my hand was weird.
But the upside was huge.
As I walked up the hill towards the mansion, I could see bright, warm light shining out from every window. The cardboard was gone, now, replaced by glass, and the holes in the roof were fixed. The tree was still there, though cut down to size a little. Louise wouldn’t hear of moving it, so we had the only house in the world with a tree growing through it.
Yeah, we bought the mansion. Mrs. Baker didn’t want much for it, we had cash in the bank and living there—even with only half the rooms habitable—made more sense than paying two sets of rent. I was using what I learned on the construction site to do it up. It might take a year or more but, when I’d finished, we’d have a place we could sell for much more than we paid for it. Or maybe we’d just carry on living there. That sounded pretty good, too.
Moving in with Louise and Kayley had been another huge life change. But when Louise and I were lying there at night in the four poster bed, the moonlight making her copper hair gleam on the pillow, and Kayley was asleep in the next room, it felt like...home. The sort of home I hadn’t known in a very long time. And that was worth changing for.
Louise
I’d gone back to college to complete my final year. I even managed to score a job with the campus groundsman, helping him look after the gardens. Between that and Sean’s construction job, we were doing okay.
I’d already taken two trips to Mexico, touring farms and explaining my system with the help of diagrams, charts and a very patient interpreter. It seemed to be working: I’d seen Isabella on one occasion and she’d seemed happy (or as happy as that coolly unreadable face ever got). She’d even mentioned something about a permanent job...but I’d told her no. Doing what I’d done to save Kayley...I could live with that. Doing it for profit would be different. I was going to get my degree and then go back to my original plan of getting ajob with a research company. I was back to being the good girl.
That didn’t mean I hadn’t changed, though. You can’t go through something like that and not be changed a little. I still waited at red lights, but now I only apologized when something was actually my fault. I waited patiently in line, but I’d tell you where to get off if you tried to cut in front of me. I hadattitude,now. Just a little bit.
Living in the mansion was crazy, ridiculous, and idyllic. One of those decisions I’d have been far too sensible to make on my own, but could stretch to with Sean by my side. The best part was the garden, something we’d barely explored while we’d been growing there. There was enough space to grow anything I wanted, and I’d already started with some fruit trees and flowers. We’d even paid a visit to the old grow house, in the dead of night, dug up the rose Sean had planted and moved it here. Like its owner, it seemed to be settling in fine. And Kayleylovedthe mansion, especially her huge bedroom...although she now wanted a four poster bed of her own. Sean had promised to make her one.
I heard the door bang downstairs as Sean arrived home and ran down the stairs two at a time to meet him. I launched myself into the air when I was still four steps from the bottom, hurling myself into his arms and trusting him to catch me. Which he did—magnificently. I wound my arms and legs around him as he tilted my head back andkissed me, deep and sensual and unhurried at first...then with slowly gathering pace. I ground my groin a little harder against his abs. He could never control himself, once we started kissing, and neither could I.
I didn’t want to break the kiss but I had a surprise planned. Coming up for air, I panted, “Can you go back out again? Just quickly? We need milk.” The refrigerator was actually full, but I needed the excuse.
He gave just a hint of a tired sigh, but then his expression softened. “Kiss me again,” he ordered, “and then I will.” I gladly complied, running my hands up and down his back and then over his ass for good measure.
When he eventually put me down, he asked, “Can I take your car?”
“Sure,” I told him, trying not to grin. “It’s in the garage.”
He strolled outside to get it and I followed behind him, wanting to see but trying not to look suspicious. I managed to contain myself until he hauled open the garage door.
Inside, parked in front of my car, was his Mustang.
“Took a while to track it down,” I said, slipping my arm around his waist. “It had been bought and sold a few times since Murray had it. But I got there in the end. We hadjustenough money.”
Sean ran his hand over the gleaming paintwork. “Thank you,” he said at last. His voice sounded just a little bit choked up.
“Want to take me for a drive?” I asked.
