Epilogue
Two weeks later…
“Surprises make me nervous,” Flora protested, but she kept her hands pressed over her eyes as Finn pulled his car to a halt.
“Quit being such a fraidy-cat,” Krystle said from the back seat.
“Be nice, now,” Jose said. “Oh wait, sorry, forgot who I was talking to. Ouch! You’ll pay for that later, woman.”
“Promises, promises,” Krystle said happily.
“What kind of surprise are we talking here?” Flora demanded. “Most of my life, the kind of surprises I’ve had have been like… Surprise! You’re going to live with a new family! Surprise! There’s this guy named Loren Haig, and he’s going to be your new mate! Surprise! You can set things on fire with your mind, so we’re going to steal your babies!”
The car door opened, and Finn said, “You can look now.”
Flora opened her eyes. As far as she could tell, they were on the south side of town. They were parked in front of a row of small but adorable bungalow cottages. It looked as if they were freshly painted, in tones of cream and olive green, with shingled roofs.
“What’s this?” Flora asked as she climbed out. “Ooh, look at those flowers out front. Who lives here?”
“You do, dumb-face,” Krystle said. “That’s the surprise!”
Finn grabbed her hand and led her up the driveway. “You like?” he said.
“I love,” Flora said, staring around in wonder.
“I’m going to be living next door,” Krystle added. “With Jose.” She patted the small rounded bump on her stomach; she was starting to show now.
“So you don’t want to move to Cottonwood after all?” Flora asked.
“With all the changes that are happening in Darwin, I think it’s going to start being a better place for families. Besides, like you told that council beeyotch, we made a promise. It would be harder to protect the women here if we were on the other side of the state.”
The front door opened onto a hallway with gleaming wooden floors. As they walked into the house, Madison, Sarah and Sam jumped out from a hallway door to the left and shouted, “Surprise!” Flora let out a squeal of alarm and stumbled into Finn before she recovered.
“You should have warned me!” she cried out to Finn.
“What part of ‘surprise’ are you having a hard time understanding?” he said with a smirk.
“You’re late,” Sam added in a severe tone, but he was stifling a smile. He hugged Flora. He was still so skinny that it hurt Flora’s heart to feel his bones pressing against her. “Finn said we could live next door to you guys, if it’s all right with you.”
“Of course it’s all right,” Flora said, hugging him back. “I’m going to be baking you guys lots and lots of Danishes. And I’ll make burgers and steaks. And salads. No more rats, ever.”
“I did a grocery run,” Krystle said to Madison, Sarah and Sam. “There’s a picnic table and a grill out back. Let’s go start frying up some burgers and give these guys a few minutes to tour their new home.”
They headed outside, leaving a misty-eyed Flora struggling not to cry with happiness.
Finn led her into the living room, which had a wood-burning fireplace with a mantel, and was furnished with a leather sofa and loveseat.
This room felt different from his apartment. Warmer. He’d hung up landscape pictures, and the bookcase had some old high school football trophies that he must have unpacked from somewhere. He’d put fresh flowers in several coffee cans throughout the room – on the coffee table, on an end table, on the mantel.
“Look,” he said. “I put the flowers in Maxwell House cans. Fancy, huh?”
He’d remembered her favorite brand of coffee.
“Better than fancy,” she said, blinking back a sudden rush of tears. “Homey.”
On the mantelpiece, next to the picture of his squadron, was a framed picture of him standing next to Liam, and, to her surprise, she saw a picture of her.
“I took that when you weren’t looking,” Finn said. “We need a picture of the two of us, of course. And there’s plenty of room on there for more pictures. You know, for our cubs,” he said.
