He slips an arm around my waist, kisses me square and solid until I’m a little wet in the panties, and then pulls back with a self-satisfied grin. “Well. That felt good. Where’s the party room?”
Abby Nora’s dashing toward the bathroom.
Josh is angling away from the bar and in the direction of the door.
“We’re upstairs, you sexy beast,” Sheila says.
“Sheila,” Goldie says from the stairs beyond the bar. She’s in a holiday dress, andoh my god, is she going to die laughing when I recover from what just happened and tell her everything. “Whydo I have to keep telling them you’re the nice one and not the horny one?”
“No, no,” I manage, finally finding my voice. “He earnedthat. Everyone in the building should be calling him a sexy beast right now.”
The man’s smile just keeps growing. “That felt fucking amazing. You good?”
“Whatwasthat?” I whisper as my feet finally engage and we head toward the stairs. “Not that I’m not grateful, but it was very…bold. And confrontational.”
“My brother told me to do it.”
I blink at him.
Truly, when I think he can’t smile any broader, he keeps doing it. But his cheeks go a little pink. “In my head. I still…I still sometimes hear him like he’s here.”
I pause and throw my arms around him. “I love you so much more than I willeverbe able to tell or show you. And I have a feeling he would be exceptionally proud of you right now.”
“I definitely am,” Odette says.
“We all know I’m turned on,” Sheila adds.
Holt hugs me back hard. “He would’ve adored you.”
Is it weird to say I can feel how much that’s true? I’m not one to believe in ghosts, but I believe in Holt. “I would’ve adored him too.”
He kisses my forehead. “Let’s go have a party.”
“And live happily ever after.”
EPILOGUE
Holt
Babies are so small.
Sosmall.
And my little guy—my William Caden Barnes Webster—is barely as big as a rugby ball.
And he’s absolutely perfect.
So is his mama, who’s sleeping in our bed on our first afternoon home from the hospital.
I should put him down.
Let him nap in the little bassinet we have next to the bed.
But I just can’t.
He looks nothing like you, I hear my brother say.
I snort softly and flip him off, mentally of course because I’m holding a baby, and silently tell him to go fug himself.
