Three monthslater
Emma
“It’s a girl,”I announce to anyone within shouting distance. “Sandy is going to have a girl.”
“That makes two little princesses on the way to add more beauty to this world.” Cadby wanders into the kitchen of our beach house wearing his three-piece tan colored suit.
Sandy is as thrilled to learn that she’s having a girl as Bella was.
I text out a quick reply to Sandy asking if she’s still planning on meeting us in New York two weeks from now to celebrate Case’s thirtieth birthday.
That includes the entire Abbott, Owens, Easton, and Wilts crew.
I moved in with Case after he crossed New York off my contract and wrote in San Francisco. I signed the contract immediately and started working at Cabbott Mobile a few weeks later.
Delaney and Mickey were eager to come to California. Case has been taking Mickey out into the ocean with a life jacket and a tight grip on his hand.
The first day we were all here together, we had a remembrance service for Apollo.
There weren’t any tears. We played music and laughed, and Mickey tossed a baseball on the beach with his Papa.
Delaney enrolled Mickey in school for the fall semester, and it’s going well. I tutor him a couple of times a week when I stop by the condo that Case rented for them. It’s not on the beach, but it does have a view of the ocean.
Case held on to the Manhattan apartment. It’s where we stay whenever we head east. He bought the apartment for Apollo, so he said that it only seemed fitting that his brother’s son has a chance to stay there and experience Lester and the view. That will happen when Delaney takes her son back to see his family in Manhattan.
Case rejected the offer from Pam and Rod, but they didn’t seem to mind. They purchased another unit in the building.
We shared an elevator ride with them when we were in Manhattan a few weeks ago for the Letter Leap launch party. Once we got off on the twelfth floor, Case joked about how I thought he had slept with them right after we met.
We laughed until we fell into bed together. The laughter stopped when he crawled between my legs.
“How’s your brother?” Cadby asks with a wink. “I heard that he’s got a couple of babies on the way himself.”
Jane’s pregnant with twins and Drake is terrified.
Case and I have worked things out with him. Our relationship may never be the same, but it’s all out on the table now.
Drake has a life to live in London, and I have one next to the man I adore.
Speaking of him…
“Where’s Rush?” I ask his grandfather.
“He’s on the water.” He points to the beachfront that sits right outside our door. “Why don’t you go and find him?”
It’s near dusk now.
I put in a full day at the office, before I came home to a perfect dinner of pizza, a bottle of red wine and a box of cupcakes baked by Delaney.
She found a job at a bakery only a mile from here. Cadby watches over Mickey after school. It gives them time together that they both treasure. A Sweet Bluebells location in San Francisco is in the works, but it’ll take time to sort through everything to make that a reality.
I smooth my hands over the lapel of Cadby’s suit jacket. “You’re dressed to the nines tonight. Do you have a date?”
“You do.” He motions to the door. “Go see my grandson.”
“I’m on my way.” I reach over to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, sweet girl.” He tousles my hair. “I’m going to steal one of those Bright Bagels to toast for breakfast and then I’m going home. You go find that boy of yours.”
