“Maybe they should have another overnight,” she said. She tugged at his lapels, wanting to nestle underneath right up against the heat of him where she knew she’d be safe forever. “I see dozens of them in their future.”
“That would make coparenting easier.”
Expressing her true feelings to him had seemed so scary this morning. After everything that had happened on the bridge, it felt right. “We can make this work, can’t we?”
“You and me, Colton,” he said warmly, “we can make anything work.”
“We’ve taken care of each other for twenty years, prioritized each other… You’ve never failed me. I don’t ever want to fail you.”
“We won’t fail,” he promised. “I’ve fallen in love with you a hundred times, and I’m going to keep falling in love with you for all the time we have left.”
She did nestle up against him. Lifting her mouth, she sought the sanctity of his and melted into the righteousness of his kiss. When they both came up for air, she lifted her pinkie between their tight-knit bodies. “Swear?”
His lips curved against her cheek. He linked his pinkie with hers. “I’m yours, Sassy. Always. I swear.”
Epilogue
“Are you slicing that cheese or eating it?”
“Both,” Sassy answered handily. She ducked to avoid her mother’s swipe. Stuffing another pinch of shredded cheddar into her mouth, she backed away from the prep counter where she and Bly had been working for some time. “Come on. I’m starving.”
Bly shook her head, raising the mixing spoon gripped tight in her fist. “You never learn, Haseya.”
Perhaps not. But she loved the sight of her mother in her kitchen. Her smile faded swiftly as her mother’s eyes warmed in understanding.
There had been talk amongst her parents for weeks about her selling the house after the break-in. However, Sassy had finally made the two worrywarts see her side of things.
She’d had dreams for this house—dreams she hadn’t made happen at that point, and she wanted them to come true.
In the weeks after the flood, she had convinced Nick and Riot to move in with her. On the outside, the transition seemed speedy. Anyone who knew the two of them, though, had no trouble understanding why they’d done it. Their bond was ironclad, they’d already built a solid footing on top of which they were now actively constructing a lasting relationship, and after everything that had happened between Ryder and the storm, Sassy found sleep difficult to achieve without burrowing into the safety of Nick’s arms every night.
They’d recently moved back into her bedroom now that the carpet had been replaced by warm-toned hardwood floors and the mattress even had been hauled off to make room for its new memory foam replacement.
They’d picked out sheets together. It wasn’t china patterns, but they’d taken the task seriously regardless.
Then they’d spent the next few days christening each new set of linens properly.
The idea of having her family over at the end of what had been the house’s extensive reno period had come after she and Nick put the last coat of paint on the living room walls. It had been part of her dream, after all, to have all the Coltons under one roof.
Nick had agreed the house was ready for company. After they’d cleaned up the paint supplies, they’d collapsed on the couch, fought over the remote, playfully switching between the cooking show she’d started watching to glean culinary inspiration (they couldn’t very well eat takeout for the rest of their lives) and old sci-fi series reruns he enjoyed winding down to.
After spilling beer and popcorn, Sassy and Nick had spent the rest of the night…well, not fighting.
The memory brought her smile back in full force. She glanced over her mother’s shoulder to the woman stirring a pot of mashed potatoes on the stovetop. “How’s it coming, Aunt Sherry?”
Sherry held up her large stirring spoon with a cheery grin. “If it sticks to the spoon, it’ll stick to your ribs.”
“Just the way I like it,” Sassy said.
Ava came into the room, Gracie snug against her shoulder. She set a bottle on the edge of the counter and began gently patting the baby’s back. “Fed and changed,” she announced. Touching a kiss just above Gracie’s tiny ear, she rocked side to side. “Chay set up the pack-and-play in your room for naptime. I hope that’s okay.”
“That’s perfect,” Sassy murmured, leaning in to get a better look at Gracie’s heavy eyelids and contented expression. “Are you sleepy, baby girl?”
Gracie mimicked Sassy’s smile and cooed.
Ava laughed quietly. “She likes you. Maybe you and Uncle Nick can babysit soon.”
Sassy loved the sound ofUncle Nick. She enjoyed the fact that her family had accepted him into the fold. Not one of them had questioned their leap into cohabitation. None of them had seemed surprised, either. Her parents in particular were thrilled, and Ryan had been claiming credit for the whole affair.
