For raising the person he loved most in this world.
For welcoming him into the best family he could possibly belong to.
“Let’s get these people fed, son. TJ is turning into a goblin.” Ian held the door open. “I’m serious about that. He’s got this crap coming out of his face.”
His future father-in-law was a trip. “I think he hasn’t had a chance to shave. I don’t think he’s turning into a mythical creature.”
“Then you haven’t had to smell the kid,” Ian said as he walked out into the hallway.
Ben turned back and Kenzie was smiling at him.
He winked her way and followed her dad.
For the first time in years, he had a future.
Epilogue
Dallas TX
Many years later
Charlotte Taggart loved that the kids club was full again. She couldn’t help but smile, watching her grandkids run around and swing from places they shouldn’t swing from and remembering how they were all the products of the amazing love her kids had managed to find.
Well, Colton had been the product of a spectacularly awful relationship, but it all worked out in the end and now Colton had the best mom and a couple of adorable younger siblings.
They were all happy.
“She’s talking about redecorating my office,” a familiar, deeply grumpy voice said behind her right before she felt big hands on her hips and a kiss to her ear.
Oh, how she loved this man. “It’s not your office anymore. It’s hers, and you know she’s going to have opinions.”
“Tasha’s not changing yours,” Ian pointed out.
She turned and put her hands on his broad shoulders. “She’ll be sneaky about it. She’ll keep it the same for a couple of months and then you just watch. She’ll have it painted that sky blue she loves so muchand she’ll get a bigger desk, and I’m so happy to give it to her.”
His lips curled up slightly. “Kala will probably paint the whole thing black.”
“Which is why Tash and Cooper handle the clients. You sure you want to do this?”
“Retire?” her husband asked. “Are you asking me if I want to stop working so I can spend my golden years playing with my dogs, napping, letting my grandkids treat me like a jungle gym, and seeing the world with my gorgeous wife and our best friends? You bet I do.”
McKay-Taggart was under new management. Which was a bit like the old management as there was a McKay and a Taggart in the manager’s offices. It was a family company in a way it hadn’t been when they started it. Oh, they were found family, and that had been everything. They’d been people out in the world looking for something to believe in, and they found it not truly in a business. They found it in each other.
Tasha was taking over Charlotte’s role dealing with the office and handling most of the client relationships. Cooper and Kala were taking over the company. Dare had been in charge of sales for years. Seth was happily making his music with his family, and Travis was settled.
Kenzie wouldn’t ever truly settle down. Not when she could roam the world having adventures with her gorgeous husband.
“Hey, we have cake.” Speak of the devil and she appeared. Kenzie shook her head. “Please tell me you’re not planning some intimate time before you go. If you are, I suggest Kala’s office. She’s already had it mystically cleansed. She’ll be super pissed if she has to call Lucy again because she doesn’t know any shaman who can cleanse a space of what she calls geriatric sex magic. Her words, not mine.”
Her husband’s hand was suddenly in hers. “Oh, we’re doing something truly nasty on her desk.”
She chuckled but held her place. “Babe, we need to leave in about twenty minutes. Did you forget the flight to Miami? Alex and Eve will be surprised to go on our ridiculously expensive cruise all alone.”
Her bags were packed, and they had two weeks of sun and sand and all the lemon tarts her hubby could eat. They had a suite with a private balcony and no reports or responsibilities at all.
It was going to be glorious.
Her husband frowned.
