She smiled. “Maybe. But I mean it.”
I lifted her hand and kissed it. When I put it back down, I looked at her and said, “You made it possible.”
Her brows pulled together. “No.Youdid that.”
“I did it because of you.”
She shook her head, but she was smiling again, and I knew she was taking it in even though she wanted to share the credit.
That was fine. She had earned it.
I sat there for one second longer and let myself understand what had changed in me. I used to think I was a man built to survive, make money, and keep moving. Now I knew I was also a man built to come home to love.
Now I had something clear to protect. Something I would burn the world down over if I had to. Love had not ruined me. It had given me somewhere real to exist. And once I knew what life felt like with Ava in it, there was no version of mine I wanted that did not end with me finding my way back to her.
EPILOGUE
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
“Iknow you’re tired of me and these houses,” Ava said as she reached for the passenger door handle, “I just needed to see this one again because we’ve seen so many that I forgot how this one looked.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Ava, you’ve been looking at this house every day online since we saw it.”
“But it’s different when you see it in person.”
I laughed and got out on my side. “That’s because you keep looking at houses you don’t really want. You know you love this one.”
She came around the truck in a fitted little birthday dress that made me want to cancel the whole rest of the day and take her back home.
She frowned up at me, having to squint because of the sun. “I just want to be sure.”
I shut the door and fell into step beside her. “You’ve been sure. You’re lucky it’s not sold yet.”
Me and Ava had continued looking at houses, but for her, nothing compared to the one we saw the day of Sincere and Rhythm’s wedding. No matter how many places we saw, shekept circling back to this one. This was the house. Even when she acted like she still needed more time, I knew it.
We were leaving for Thailand that evening because that was where she wanted to go for her birthday. She had loved Thailand so much that she wanted to revisit. Plus, she wanted me to experience the country.
The realtor unlocked the front door and stepped back. Ava walked in ahead of me and got quiet right away. That was how I knew. It happened every time she liked something for real. She got quieter and started looking around like she was already placing pieces of her life there.
Ava walked slowly through the main floor like she was trying to re-feel every detail.
By the time she got to the primary bedroom, she turned and looked at me with a huge grin. “This is it.”
I leaned against the doorframe. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” She smiled, and it was one of those real smiles that took over her whole face. “This is the house. I don’t care what else we look at. Nothing has felt like this one.”
I nodded once like this was new information.
She laughed a little. “You knew I was going to say that.”
“I had a feeling.”
She went back toward the windows. “I kept trying to be practical. I kept thinking maybe I should look at more just to make sure. But I compared every other house to this one.”
“That’s because this one’s yours.”
She turned back toward me as I stood in front of her and reached into my back pocket.
