“If you’ll have me,” he adds. “I’m unemployed. Banned from trading. I’m not exactly a safe bet anymore.”
Something in his voice—raw, stripped bare—splits me open.
“But you love me,” I say, both a question and not.
His eyes widen.
“Always,” he says without hesitation. “God, Ash. I never stopped.”
I lift my hand and cradle his jaw. “Then you’re still the best bet I’ve ever made.”
He exhales like he’s been holding his breath for a year, the tension finally draining from his shoulders, his arms locked around me.
“No more secrets?” I whisper.
“None,” he says, pressing a kiss into my hair. “Never again.”
I look up at him, exhausted and steady all at once. “Let’s go home.” And then, “Beckett?
“I never stopped loving you, either.”
SECRET AGENT DAD
BECKETT
Blakey launches himself at me with no warning.
I catch him mid-air with a grunt, staggering back half a step before I can recover. His arms hook around my neck like he’s part monkey, and I just hold him.
Max skids in behind him, socks sliding on the hardwood. “Did you go to jail?” he demands. “Uncle Noah said you were helping the FBI like a secret agent.”
I open my mouth. I close it again, and then catch Ashley’s eyes.
Because, for all our sakes, we need to keep this… locked down.
Ashley’s eyes flick to her mom and her mom’s friend Babs, both planted in the living room, where they’ve paused the movie they’ve apparently been watching.
Renee lifts her glass in a half-shrug. “I refuse to tell my grandsons anything but the truth.”
I look down at my boys—wide-eyed, curious,safe—and feel the familiar punch of love and guilt twist together in my chest.
Ashley’s the one to save me.
“Dad had topretendhe was going to jail,” she says, her hand on my back. “Like when Nick Fury faked his death so he could stop the bad guys.”
I set Blakey down, and glance at my wife. “I thought you were reading your book while we watched that.”
“You should know by now that I’m a great multi-tasker,” she says. And, for the first time all day, she just… smiles.
I’m never losing that smile again.
“Those cops were just pretending to arrest you, Dad?” Max asks.
I nod. “Yup. I had to disappear for a while. Fake like I was in trouble, even though I wasn’t.”
The boys’ eyes go wide. “So… you reallyarea spy!” Blakey whispers, awestruck.
“Not quite. But I was helping the good guys.”
