“What did she say?” Zane asked. He leaned toward his daughter. “Hope?”
The girl waved chubby arms. “Tayen.”
Janie laughed and turned toward her father. “You taught her to say your name.”
Zane shook his head. “Her first word.Talen.”
Talen rubbed his whiskered chin. “Well, I . . . don’t know. I’ve been saying ‘Realm’ and ‘vampire’ to her. Not my name.”
Janie shrugged. “She is smart.”
Cara bustled up with a wet washrag and quickly went to work on the girl’s hands. “I’ve been trying to get her to say Grandma.”
“Tayen,” Hope said, clapping her now clean hands together.
Talen leaned down and kissed the girl’s frosting-covered hair. “Just perfect.”
Cara threw the rag at him and stood. “You’re buying me dinner.”
Talen grinned and grabbed her hand. “I happen to know a wonderful buffet—just across the room.” Sweeping her up, he barely kept her legs from hitting several people as he hauled her across the room.
Zane shook his head. “Your parents.”
“Your in-laws.” Janie finished with Hope just as Felicity showed up to take the girl.
“Good timing,” Zane said.
Felicity patted Hope’s dark hair. “Your mother is no dummy.” Then she smiled at Janie. “Take a moment and have some fun. I’ve got our girl.”
Janie grinned and stood. “There’s frosting in your hair, Felicity.”
Zane’s mother laughed as she took her granddaughter toward the buffet.
Janie slipped her hand in Zane’s. “We’re so fortunate to all be here.”
Zane nodded and opened a door to the deck, nudging her outside into peace. With a wisp of sound, he lifted her and maneuvered around deck furniture to drop onto a wide chair facing the sparkling lake. The late afternoon sun glimmered on the soft waves, and a rather warm fall breeze stirred the colorful leaves surrounding them. “Ah. Quiet.”
Janie fingered his thick hair, settling in to home. “Remember the first time we met?”
“In a dream world. You were so small and brave.” He ran a large-boned hand down her back. “Even then, I knew we’d end up like this.”
“Like what?”
“Happy.” He turned the most beautiful green eyes toward her. The virus had lightened the inner part of his iris, leaving a darker green ring around it. Very sexy, actually. “You and me.”
Janie inhaled his rugged scent. “I always hoped we’d find and keep each other.”
“Keep?” He kissed her, pouring so much passion and love into her she forgot where he ended and she began. She could barely breathe when he lifted his head. “We belong with each other. In each and every world. My Janie Belle.”
Epilogue
Six years later
Hope Kayrs Kyllwood snapped her fingers and turned the sky a light blue. She wrinkled her nose and then changed the hue to a darker blue that made the yellow sun seem brighter. Yeah. That was better.
A bubbling stream wound next to a grassy bank, so she added a bunch of flat rocks around.
The forest behind her remained green and quiet, so she took a moment to sit on a rock and wait. A few pink birds hopped by her feet, and she waved at them.
