More Than Enough (Pelican Bay 4)

My own past had been put to rest in some ways after Marcus had died in a prison hospital. He hadn’t lied about the tumor that had ultimately taken his life. I’d made peace with the things Marcus had done to me though I knew that not all of his behavior had been because of the mass in his brain. That had only made certain facets of his personality all the more dangerous. I’d had a chance to say goodbye to Marcus at the end, but he hadn’t recognized me. He’d thought I was Jeremy. When he’d grabbed my hand and told me how sorry he was and how much he loved me, I’d held his hand until he’d slipped into the coma that he’d stayed in until he’d taken his last breath.

“Ghosts?” I asked. “The Casper kind or the Conjuring kind?”

“Who’s Casper?” Jessie asked in confusion.

I glanced at Jett. “When did I get that old?”

He laughed and said, “About five minutes after I did.”

Jessie left us to find Riley as Ava reached us. She’d already lost Owen to the object of his hero worship, Newt. The toddler had even started wearing his bike helmet every time he saw Newt. Ford was already hard at work making Owen an exact replica of Newt’s protective racing themed helmet so the toddler could match the older boy in every way.

“You made it,” I said as I embraced Ava.

“Barely,” she acknowledged. “That one,” she said with a shake of her head as she watched her son trying to pick up a puppy.

As if on cue, Walter called, “Ava, how many you takin’?”

“How many what?” she asked.

“Based on your son’s reaction, I’m guessing at least one,” Jett answered.

Poor Ava looked confused but when Nolan called out to her, she gave us both a quick squeeze and hurried toward him. Nolan’s mother and Isaac and Newt’s grandfather were already seated at one of the picnic tables. They looked to be deep in discussion about something.

I felt Jett put his arms around me from behind. “Come with me,” he whispered into my ear.

I didn’t even hesitate to put my hand in his when he held it out. I was fully expecting him to lead us to our room for a quickie, probably against the wall like he loved, but he surprised me when he led me down the driveway and away from our family. The sun was just starting to sink.

When we came to a stop in the open field across from the sanctuary, I looked at him in confusion.

“What do you think?” he asked as he turned me so we could watch the sunset.

“About what?”

“This view? Every day from our back porch. And the sunrises every morning from our bedroom.”

I turned around so fast I smacked Jett in the chin in the process. His prosthetics made it so he was a little taller than me, so I had to look up at him. “What? Are you serious?”

“Dallas and Maddox sold me the lot. I figure you can set your practice up over there,” Jett said as he pointed somewhere off to my side. “And once I complete my training, I can set something up too. We’ll be close to our family, but we’ll have our own space for… whatever the future brings.”

I felt like a thousand suns were lighting up inside of me. I wrapped my arms around Jett’s neck. “Whatever?” I asked knowingly.

He smiled and then kissed my nose. “Or whoever,” he murmured.

“Whoever,” I repeated. “I like the sound of that.”

Jett sealed his mouth over mine. Maddox’s voice from the other side of the road had us breaking apart.

“Come on, you two! Dinner’s on the table!”

“We’re coming,” I called with a sigh. I pressed a quick kiss to Jett’s lips and then followed him back across the road. As we got closer, I saw that all the puppies were now in people’s arms as they began sitting down at the table. Walter was waiting for us, a puppy under each arm.

“Well, we doin’ this?” the old man asked grouchily.

Jett and I looked at each other, then each reached for a puppy.

“Oh yeah, we’re doing this,” Jett said as he sent me a smile.