“Thank you, Hugh,” Sarah says with a smile. “You went all the way this time.”
Hugh raises his coffee mug. “Thankyou, Dr. Kirk.Took guts, comin’ back, speakin’ up. Don’t think I’m blind to that. We all see it, see your courage.”
“So…what now?” Sarah asks me.
“Now, I need a shower ‘cause I stink, and then Dodge and I need to get to work.”
“You haven’t slept all night,” Sarah murmurs. “But I get it. I have to go to Wilder Ranch. They’re getting some head ready for auction, and they need a checkup.”
“Everyone’s gotta work sunup to sundown around here,” Mav agrees.
“Welcome to ranch country.” Aria raises her cup of coffee, as do we all, in a toast.
“Except me,” Joy announces smugly. “I’m going to go back to bed with Evie. We both need a good cuddle.”
I look around in awe and gratitude. These people—Sarah, Evie, Mav, Joy, Aria, Dodge—they’re mine. They’re here, and they love me and mine.
AndI have my Dove.
This...is my family. Not the father who made me complicit in burying the truth of a crime against an innocent. Not my brother, the golden boy who turned out to be rotten to the core.
No—the ones around me now. The ones who stand by me when the storm hits, who call me out when I screw up, who push me to be better, they’re the ones who matter.
And I’m damn proud to be part of them.
CHAPTER 44
sarah
Wildflower Canyon’s never been this popular.
I mean, it was a little wild when Marnie’s story first broke, but now, with Landon dead and Violet in jail, reporters are clogging Main Street like tourists during leaf season in Aspen.
We have cameras flashing, voices shouting questions.
They want Cade, they want me, they want our story. I can barely step out of the clinic without a microphone being shoved in my face.
Cade finally had enough. “Pack a bag, Dove,” he told me last night, jaw set. “We’re takin’ a break. You, me, and Evie.”
I didn’t argue.
Which is why now we are miles down the highway, the Elk Mountains shrinking in the rearview, windows rolled down, sun-warmed sage drifting in. Evie’s in the backseat, Bandit sprawled across her lap, tongue lolling asshe sings off-key to whatever country-pop anthem is blasting. Chocolate smudges her cheek, and her fingers are sticky from gas-station candy Cade let her pick.
“Daddy said only one thing,” she reminds me solemnly, holding up a crinkled bag of gummy worms. “So I got the biggest one they had.”
I laugh, and Cade shoots me a mock-stern look. “She’s learnin’ loopholes too early.”
I reach over and brush his hand where it rests on the gearshift. “She’s learnin’ from the best.”
His thumb curls over mine, and Evie continues to chatter about how good her candy is.
Kids are resilient. Thank God!
Only four weeks have passed since that night Violet tried to shoot us, and Evie’s fine—even asking when we’ll go home.
We are keeping a diligent eye on her for any residual trauma, which we both know can take time to manifest and heal. But Evie seems to have put the past where it belongs. Like her, we’re ready to go home as we’re still at Mav’s while the living room is being fixed.
That’s when Cade and I had our first fight as a new couple.
