“Sounds about right,” I say with a nod. Roping an arm around Lexi’s neck, I hold her close to me.
“A fresh start,” Lexi muses, turning as much as she can under my arm to look at the office, empty of everything that used tobe here except for the chairs, a single desk, and the huge picture hanging over it.
Rory moves closer, stepping out of Wyatt’s hold where his ass rests against her desk along the far wall. “The last three years has been better than I could’ve ever imagined,” she says.
“If you make me cry today, I swear to God—” Lexi starts, holding a finger out accusingly at her sister.
Rory wraps a hand around the finger with a sad smile and pulls her sister in for a hug. My arm drops back as she goes, and I watch. After a few quiet words, sniffs and giggles, the sisters pull back, still holding one another, but facing the rest of the room.
“For everything we all had to lose to get to this place,” Rory starts, eyes meeting each of ours for a beat before continuing. Mine, Amelia’s, Weston’s, Wyatt’s, and then hovering on her sister’s the longest. “Where we are now is so much sweeter because of it.”
Lexi throws her head back and sniffs loudly, and I hear a peep come from Amelia, too, but my eyes are locked on the woman I love.
Rory kisses her fingers and holds them out to the giant picture on the wall. “Love you, Mom. Thanks for bringing me back home.”
Lexi drops her head on her sister’s shoulder, both still staring at the woman who raised them. “Mom might have brought you home, but you’re the one who brought our family together.”
Rory hums before saying, “We both did.”
She holds an arm out for Amelia to join their hug, and snaps at the Grady brothers when they don’t join in.
“You too, bodega man,” Wyatt insists, looking right at me. “Guess I need to figure out a new name for you now.”
Coming up behind Lexi, I join in for a moment before everybody takes a few steps back, wiping their eyes and taking a deep breath.
“What now?” Amelia asks.
“That’s the best part,” Rory says, a gleam in her eye. “Whatever the fuck we want.”
EPILOGUE
LEXI
Five years later
Happy laughter floats through the summer air, making the smell of ripening blooms that much sweeter.
My eyes lift instinctively, immediately landing on the source of the sound.
Blaise. Our son, now three, scoops sand with a toy bulldozer onto his cousin Axle’s legs where he sits next to him. At four and a half, Axle is the oldest of the male cousins, but still young enough to giggle at things like sand and dirt.
After decades of jokes that my heart was frozen over, it feels awfully damn warm these days as I watch them.
Setting my phone down on the only table out here big enough for adult asses like mine, I decide the vendor email I had been replying to can wait.
With Heights Bites having just passed the five-year mark, it’s busier than ever. We even had to put in a to-go window in the brick wall out on Main Street so we can meet the demand with grab ‘n’ go orders.
But tonight, business can take a backseat. It’s one of our twice-a-week family nights, on the land right between the border of Wyatt and Rory’s and Weston and Amelia’s properties.
Satisfied that Blaise and Axle are safe, if not a little dirty, I let my eyes roam around some more. Next to the sandbox is a wooden playground, built by the Grady brothers, with some help from Wilder along the way. It’s still small, low to the ground to suit the kids’ ages, but I’ve heard them talk about plans for the future play space and camp site like it’s going to be a castle by the time the dads are done with it.
Beyond that is a covered patio, where, beneath string lights softly glowing in the late afternoon light, sits little Laura Lee, who we usually call LL, or “Ella” as Axle dubbed her as soon as he could talk. The nickname has stuck.
Prim and proper in a spotless dress, Ella sits at a colorful kids' table, drawing with crayons. Across from her, crouched down into a seat smaller than one of his feet, is her dad, who she’s had wrapped around her little finger from the day she was born.
Wyatt leans forward over the tiny table, pointing to the drawing. From the way Ella is nodding and moving her lips, he must be asking her questions she’s answering about her artwork.
A smile spreads across my face, which isn’t unusual these days. I think my cheeks have had to grow new muscles these past few years, with how happy I’ve been.
